Animal Ears 🧑 How animals hear
Human hearing range in hertz
Homo sapiens
Your starting point: from the rumble of thunder to the finest squeal you can catch.
In short
A Human hears from about 20 Hz up to 20 kHz, and the pitch it catches best is near 3.1 kHz. Animal Ears lets you take any sound of yours and hear it exactly as it would.
You are this app's measuring stick. Your hearing runs from 20 Hz — the deep rumble of thunder, felt in the chest more than heard — up to about 20,000 Hz, that razor-thin whine some devices give off and that you stop catching past a certain age. You hear best around 3,000 Hz: exactly the pitch of a baby's cry and of the consonants that let you make out a word in a noisy room. Excellent ears... until you compare them with a cat's.
Hertz (Hz)
Which pitches it hears
Hertz count how many times per second a sound vibrates. Few vibrations = low (the rumble of thunder, about 30 Hz). Many vibrations = high (a microwave beeping, about 3,000 Hz). And ‘1 kHz' is just shorthand for 1,000 Hz. You hear, roughly, from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz.
A low sound rumbles (think thunder); a high sound squeals (think a mosquito). These three numbers mark how far down this animal goes, how far up it goes, and which pitch it hears most clearly of all.
| Lowest it hears | 20 Hz |
|---|---|
| Highest it hears | 20 kHz |
| Hears most clearly | 3.1 kHz |
| What you hear | 20 Hz – 20 kHz |
Your ears vs a Human's
A Human hears roughly the same band of sound as you do (about 20 Hz to 20 kHz), though not with the same clarity at every pitch.
Audiogram
| Hertz (Hz) | Hearing threshold |
|---|---|
| 20 Hz | 78 dB |
| 32 Hz | 59 dB |
| 63 Hz | 37 dB |
| 125 Hz | 22 dB |
| 250 Hz | 11 dB |
| 500 Hz | 4.5 dB |
| 1 kHz | 2 dB |
| 2 kHz | 0 dB |
| 3.1 kHz | -2 dB |
| 4 kHz | -1 dB |
| 6.3 kHz | 6 dB |
| 8 kHz | 12 dB |
| 10 kHz | 15 dB |
| 12.5 kHz | 12 dB |
| 16 kHz | 20 dB |
| 20 kHz | 60 dB |
Reference minimum-audible-field curve for a young healthy adult in a free field; individual hearing varies.
Can a Human hear things you can't?
A Human picks up everything from 20 Hz (the deepest) to 20 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 3.1 kHz.
A Human hears roughly the same band of sound as you do (about 20 Hz to 20 kHz), though not with the same clarity at every pitch.
Frequently asked questions
What sounds can a Human hear?
A Human picks up everything from 20 Hz (the deepest) to 20 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 3.1 kHz.
Can a Human hear things you can't?
A Human hears roughly the same band of sound as you do (about 20 Hz to 20 kHz), though not with the same clarity at every pitch.
How does Animal Ears make a sound like a Human would hear it?
Scientists have measured, pitch by pitch, the quietest volume at which a Human starts to hear each sound. We take that curve and apply it to your recording like a giant equaliser: we turn up the pitches the animal hears beautifully and turn down or remove the ones that simply don't exist for it. The result gets close to what it would notice... but it still arrives through your ears.
Hertz (Hz)
Hertz count how many times per second a sound vibrates. Few vibrations = low (the rumble of thunder, about 30 Hz). Many vibrations = high (a microwave beeping, about 3,000 Hz). And ‘1 kHz' is just shorthand for 1,000 Hz. You hear, roughly, from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz.
Where these numbers come from
- ISO 226:2003 — Acoustics: Normal equal-loudness-level contours.
- Fastl, H. & Zwicker, E. (2007). Psychoacoustics: Facts and Models (3rd ed.). Springer. Minimum audible field (MAF) curve.
More animals
Seal
Two sets of ears in one: one tuned to air, the other to water.
Butterfly
It hears through an ear at the base of the wing, tuned to birdsong.
Horse
Ears that swivel 180° independently: it listens behind its back without moving.
Dog
It hears squeals so high they're silence to you: that's why ‘silent' whistles work.
Animal Ears
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