Animal Ears 🦭 How animals hear
Seal hearing range in hertz
Phoca vitulina
Two sets of ears in one: one tuned to air, the other to water.
In short
A Seal hears from about 50 Hz up to 30 kHz, and the pitch it catches best is near 3.2 kHz. Animal Ears lets you take any sound of yours and hear it exactly as it would.
The harbour seal straddles two worlds and hears well in both, which is genuinely rare. In air it covers 50 to 30,000 Hz — it gets into ultrasound too — and is extremely sharp near 3,200 Hz, roughly where you are sharpest. Underwater its ears work on an entirely different scale. What you see here is its airborne hearing, the one that's comparable to yours.
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 | 30 kHz |
| Hears most clearly | 3.2 kHz |
| What you hear | 20 Hz – 20 kHz |
Your ears vs a Seal's
Yes: it picks up pitches so high they are pure silence to you, up to about 30 kHz. Your ceiling is 20 kHz.
Audiogram
| Hertz (Hz) | Hearing threshold |
|---|---|
| 100 Hz | 34 dB |
| 250 Hz | 22 dB |
| 500 Hz | 12 dB |
| 1 kHz | 2 dB |
| 2 kHz | -6 dB |
| 3.2 kHz | -13 dB |
| 6.4 kHz | -8 dB |
| 12.8 kHz | 4 dB |
| 16 kHz | 16 dB |
| 22 kHz | 32 dB |
| 30 kHz | 55 dB |
IN-AIR behavioural audiogram (dB re 20 µPa) — distinct from the seal's underwater audiogram (re 1 µPa). Best ~-13 dB near 3.2 kHz; 60 dB SPL criterion.
Can a Seal hear things you can't?
A Seal picks up everything from 50 Hz (the deepest) to 30 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 3.2 kHz.
Yes: it picks up pitches so high they are pure silence to you, up to about 30 kHz. Your ceiling is 20 kHz.
Frequently asked questions
What sounds can a Seal hear?
A Seal picks up everything from 50 Hz (the deepest) to 30 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 3.2 kHz.
Can a Seal hear things you can't?
Yes: it picks up pitches so high they are pure silence to you, up to about 30 kHz. Your ceiling is 20 kHz.
How does Animal Ears make a sound like a Seal would hear it?
Scientists have measured, pitch by pitch, the quietest volume at which a Seal 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
- Reichmuth, C. et al. (2013). Comparative assessment of amphibious hearing in pinnipeds. J. Comp. Physiol. A, 199, 491–507. doi:10.1007/s00359-013-0813-y
- Kastak, D. & Schusterman, R.J. (1998). Low-frequency amphibious hearing in pinnipeds. J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 103(4), 2216–2228. doi:10.1121/1.421367
More animals
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.
Goat
It hears ultrasound, yet it's sharpest exactly where a kid's bleat sits.
Sheep
A wide range into ultrasound and a fine ear for telling who is bleating.
Animal Ears
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