Animal Ears 🐇 How animals hear
Rabbit hearing range in hertz
Oryctolagus cuniculus
Its ears are giant funnels: they gather danger long before it comes into view.
In short
A Rabbit hears from about 96 Hz up to 49 kHz, and the pitch it catches best is near 1 kHz. Animal Ears lets you take any sound of yours and hear it exactly as it would.
A rabbit is prey, and its hearing is built for it: it reaches 49,000 Hz, more than double your ceiling, and stays very sensitive right across 1,000 to 16,000 Hz. Those enormous ears aren't decoration: they work as funnels that gather sound and concentrate it inwards, and each one swivels separately to sweep the ground. In its world, a blade of grass rustling ten metres away is reason enough to bolt.
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 | 96 Hz |
|---|---|
| Highest it hears | 49 kHz |
| Hears most clearly | 1 kHz |
| What you hear | 20 Hz – 20 kHz |
Your ears vs a Rabbit's
Yes: it picks up pitches so high they are pure silence to you, up to about 49 kHz. Your ceiling is 20 kHz.
Audiogram
| Hertz (Hz) | Hearing threshold |
|---|---|
| 96 Hz | 60 dB |
| 250 Hz | 30 dB |
| 500 Hz | 15 dB |
| 1 kHz | 3 dB |
| 2 kHz | 5 dB |
| 4 kHz | 8 dB |
| 8 kHz | 5 dB |
| 16 kHz | 10 dB |
| 32 kHz | 25 dB |
| 49 kHz | 60 dB |
Behavioural audiogram; 60 dB SPL criterion, best near 1 kHz with a broad sensitive region to 16 kHz.
Can a Rabbit hear things you can't?
A Rabbit picks up everything from 96 Hz (the deepest) to 49 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 1 kHz.
Yes: it picks up pitches so high they are pure silence to you, up to about 49 kHz. Your ceiling is 20 kHz.
Frequently asked questions
What sounds can a Rabbit hear?
A Rabbit picks up everything from 96 Hz (the deepest) to 49 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 1 kHz.
Can a Rabbit hear things you can't?
Yes: it picks up pitches so high they are pure silence to you, up to about 49 kHz. Your ceiling is 20 kHz.
How does Animal Ears make a sound like a Rabbit would hear it?
Scientists have measured, pitch by pitch, the quietest volume at which a Rabbit 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.
Ultrasound
Sounds so high your ears no longer register them: above about 20,000 Hz. To you they are total silence, but a dog, a cat or a bat hears them perfectly. That's exactly where a ‘silent' dog whistle lives.
Where these numbers come from
- Heffner, H.E. & Masterton, B. (1980). Hearing in glires. J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 68, 1584–1599. doi:10.1121/1.385213
- Fay, R.R. (1988). Hearing in Vertebrates: A Psychophysics Databook. Hill-Fay Associates.
More animals
Raccoon
Its broad in-air range reaches 40,000 Hz, while its most sensitive measured point sits near 1,000 Hz.
Goat
It hears ultrasound, yet it's sharpest exactly where a kid's bleat sits.
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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