Animal Ears 🐢 How animals hear
Sea turtle hearing range in hertz
Caretta caretta
It hears underwater and only lows: the highs go straight past it.
In short
A Sea turtle hears from about 50 Hz up to 1 kHz, and the pitch it catches best is near 300 Hz. Animal Ears lets you take any sound of yours and hear it exactly as it would.
The loggerhead turtle hears underwater and only in the low band: 50 to 1,000 Hz, with its best point at 300 Hz. Anything above that goes straight past it. That range coincides with swell, currents and, sadly, a boat engine. One note: these measurements are underwater and can't be compared directly with a land animal's, so what matters here is the shape of the curve, not the volume.
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 | 50 Hz |
|---|---|
| Highest it hears | 1 kHz |
| Hears most clearly | 300 Hz |
| What you hear | 20 Hz – 20 kHz |
Your ears vs a Sea turtle'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 |
|---|---|
| 50 Hz | 118 dB |
| 100 Hz | 110 dB |
| 200 Hz | 104 dB |
| 300 Hz | 102 dB |
| 400 Hz | 105 dB |
| 500 Hz | 110 dB |
| 700 Hz | 122 dB |
| 800 Hz | 129 dB |
| 1 kHz | 136 dB |
UNDERWATER thresholds in dB re 1 µPa (not in-air), low-frequency, best ~100–400 Hz; not directly comparable to the in-air audiograms.
Can a Sea turtle hear things you can't?
A Sea turtle picks up everything from 50 Hz (the deepest) to 1 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 300 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 Sea turtle hear?
A Sea turtle picks up everything from 50 Hz (the deepest) to 1 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 300 Hz.
Can a Sea turtle 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 Sea turtle would hear it?
Scientists have measured, pitch by pitch, the quietest volume at which a Sea turtle 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
- Martin, K.J. et al. (2012). Underwater hearing in the loggerhead turtle. J. Exp. Biol., 215, 3001–3009. doi:10.1242/jeb.066324
- Bartol, S.M., Musick, J.A. & Lenhardt, M.L. (1999). Auditory evoked potentials of the juvenile loggerhead. Copeia, 1999(3), 836–840. doi:10.2307/1447625
More animals
Chameleon
No eardrum: faint hearing, limited to low pitches.
Snake
No eardrum, no ears: it listens to your footsteps by resting its jaw on the ground.
Crocodile
A mother who digs out the nest the moment she hears her young peeping.
Gecko
The best ears among lizards, tuned precisely to its own shout.
Animal Ears
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