Animal Ears 🦐 How animals hear
Mantis shrimp hearing range in hertz
Hemisquilla californiensis
It roars on the seabed in deep rumbles; how it hears them is still a mystery.
In short
A Mantis shrimp hears from about 20 Hz up to 1 kHz, and the pitch it catches best is near 40 Hz. Animal Ears lets you take any sound of yours and hear it exactly as it would.
The mantis shrimp gives off deep, rumbling growls underwater, mostly at dawn and dusk. If it produces them, it very likely senses them too, most probably feeling the water sway rather than the pressure, in a very low band from 20 to 1,000 Hz. But it's worth saying plainly: nobody has yet measured its hearing precisely, so this curve is inferred from the sounds it makes.
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 | 1 kHz |
| Hears most clearly | 40 Hz |
| What you hear | 20 Hz – 20 kHz |
Your ears vs a Mantis shrimp's
It does miss the highs you can hear, though: above about 1 kHz there is nothing left for it.
Audiogram
| Hertz (Hz) | Hearing threshold |
|---|---|
| 20 Hz | 8 dB |
| 40 Hz | 4 dB |
| 60 Hz | 5 dB |
| 100 Hz | 10 dB |
| 200 Hz | 18 dB |
| 400 Hz | 28 dB |
| 700 Hz | 38 dB |
| 1 kHz | 45 dB |
Underwater: produces low-frequency rumbles (~20–60 Hz) and likely detects the particle-motion component of sound. Detection organ unresolved; curve derived from the sound-production spectrum, relative units — not a measured audiogram.
Can a Mantis shrimp hear things you can't?
A Mantis shrimp picks up everything from 20 Hz (the deepest) to 1 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 40 Hz.
It does miss the highs you can hear, though: above about 1 kHz there is nothing left for it.
Frequently asked questions
What sounds can a Mantis shrimp hear?
A Mantis shrimp picks up everything from 20 Hz (the deepest) to 1 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 40 Hz.
Can a Mantis shrimp hear things you can't?
It does miss the highs you can hear, though: above about 1 kHz there is nothing left for it.
How does Animal Ears make a sound like a Mantis shrimp would hear it?
Scientists have measured, pitch by pitch, the quietest volume at which a Mantis shrimp 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
- Staaterman, E. et al. (2011). Rumbling in the benthos: acoustic ecology of the California mantis shrimp. Aquatic Biology, 13, 97–105. doi:10.3354/ab00361
- Dinh, J.P. & Radford, C. (2023). Sound detection and production… in decapod and stomatopod crustaceans. J. Exp. Biol., 226, jeb243537. doi:10.1242/jeb.243537
- Patek, S.N. & Caldwell, R.L. (2006). The stomatopod rumble: low-frequency sound production in Hemisquilla californiensis. Mar. Freshw. Behav. Physiol., 39(2), 99–111. doi:10.1080/10236240600563289
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