You'll Never Guess How the World Sounds to Animals

Bright Side

The world sounds totally wild to animals, like on a whole 'nother level. I mean, elephants? They can straight-up hear clouds! How insane is that? It's like they're tuned in to a whole symphony of sounds that we can't even imagine. So next time you're chilling with your pet, just remember—they're picking up on stuff you probably don't even notice. It's like living in a whole different universe of sound!  #brightside   Animation is created by Bright Side.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Listen to Bright Side on:  Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/idhttps-podcasts-apple-com-podcast-bright-side/id1554898078 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/brightside/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official/ Tik Tok - https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Snapchat - https://www.snapchat.com/p/c6a1e38a-bff1-4a40-9731-2c8234ccb19f/1866144599336960  Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me

Transcript

00:00Chances are you have a dog wagging its precious tail around the house or

00:04sniffing at your feet. Ever marveled at how keen your dog's hearing is? I mean it

00:10can hear you opening a bag of chips even if you're on a different floor in the

00:14house. Even with this amazing ability most household dogs don't have the best

00:19hearing in the animal kingdom. Actually they're not even in the top five. On that

00:25note let's venture into the world of animal hearing and try to imagine what

00:29life sounds like for other creatures. Look we humans are pretty great. We've

00:36got all kinds of talents but when it comes to the auditory Olympics we're not

00:40even in the running. Put us next to a cat or a bat and our ears look kind of basic.

00:45Take elephants for instance. They are big animals and so are their ears. Their

00:51auditory organs are capable of capturing infrasound waves. Now these are not your

00:57run-of-the-mill sound waves. They're low frequency rumbling whispers that we

01:01humans can't hear. This means elephants can pick up on things like rain clouds

01:06on the move. Not only that but these massive mammals have a pretty clever way

01:11of communicating too. They stomp the ground creating vibrations barely

01:16noticeable to us. But to elephants these vibrations are the equivalent of a

01:21long-distance phone call. The messages are received through their feet and

01:25ear bones even when they're miles apart. Talk about having a good reception.

01:34Moving on to bats. They are the masters of night navigation thanks to their use

01:40of echolocation. These animals emit high-frequency sounds which bounce back

01:46after hitting objects. This echo helps bats create a mental map allowing them

01:52to sway flawlessly in the dark. Just when we thought bats couldn't get any

01:56cooler scientists discovered their hearing capabilities extend to their

02:01wings. Special hairs called Merkel hairs sense air movements helping the bats

02:06detect upcoming objects. It's not the traditional hearing we're used to but

02:10it's a fantastic adaptation to their environment. Dolphins on the other hand

02:18are masters of watery acoustics. For starters you might think that being

02:23underwater would put a damper on hearing but dolphins have turned this challenge

02:27into an advantage. They've got their own version of echolocation emitting sonic

02:33pulses from their foreheads. These sounds bounce off objects and are picked up by

02:37the dolphins jaw before being sent to the brain via highly developed auditory

02:42nerves. Their ears though present don't play a central role in hearing like

02:48ours do. Instead dolphins have found innovative ways to listen proving yet

02:53again how awesome animals are. Don't let their domestic status fool you. Your pet

03:00cats and dogs are auditory champs. Cats ears are designed to catch high

03:04frequency sounds from up to 160 feet away. Handy for catching mice don't you

03:10think? Dogs on the other hand are pros at localizing sounds thanks to the muscles

03:16around their ears. Ever seen your pooch perk up their ears when they hear

03:20something suspicious? That's their sharp hearing at work.

03:27Even the tiniest critters buzzing around us like insects can actually listen to

03:33the world. In fact some insects have something akin to our human eardrums.

03:38It's a delicate little membrane given the name tympani. Our eardrums jiggle

03:44with the sound waves. That shaking is then turned into a signal our brain

03:48would understand. Now you've surely heard the nightly serenade of crickets or the

03:54rhythmic song of cicadas in the summer. These little symphony masters use exactly

03:59this kind of setup to listen to their world. That's not all though. Some bugs

04:05take a different approach to eavesdropping on their surroundings.

04:08They've got these sensory cells right in the middle of their antennae. This

04:13structure is called the Johnston's organ. Take mosquitoes for instance or bees or

04:18even fruit flies. They use their antennae not just to feel their way around but to

04:24listen in on the world too. It gets even wilder. Hawk moths, some dusky nocturnal

04:31creatures have this unique organ nestled right in their mouths. It's like a

04:35superpower that lets them hear ultrasonic sounds. With this they can

04:40dodge the dangerous dives of bats out on the hunt.

04:46When it comes to the ultimate hearing trophy, the animal kingdom has a

04:51completely unique winner. It's actually a moth. Not just any moth though. It's the

04:57greater wax moth discovered by the scientists based in Glasgow, Scotland.

05:02They've got some fascinating insights about these moths that make our ears

05:07want to stand up and listen. Just to give you some context, the greater wax moth

05:13does not stand out when it comes to its appearance. I mean it's brown. As for its

05:20daily activities, it loves nibbling on honeycomb. Despite blending in seamlessly

05:26in the animal kingdom, it's got a serious set of ears. How good is its hearing you

05:31ask? Well, it's been found that this tiny creature can pick up on sounds at

05:37frequencies up to 300 kilohertz. By comparison, our human ears can only detect

05:43sounds up to around 20 kilohertz. This already unimpressive ability drops to

05:48about 15 kilohertz as we grow older. I mean not even dolphins can compete. They

05:55can only hear sounds up to about 160 kilohertz. You're probably wondering why

06:04would a moth need such super hearing? Scientists explain that the reason

06:08behind this extraordinary hearing lies in a survival instinct. Predation to be

06:13precise. Bats use high-frequency echolocation calls to find their tasty

06:18moth meals amongst other insects. But these clever little moths have evolved

06:23to pick up frequencies even bats might not hit. Despite this reasoning, it was a

06:30bit of a mystery as to why these moths would even need to hear such high

06:34frequencies. During the research, specialists discovered that their

06:38recording at high-frequency ultrasound is tricky business. So there's a chance

06:43that bats might actually be capable of emitting calls at these super high

06:47frequencies that the moths can hear. To uncover all this, scientists used a

06:53specially designed ultrasonic device. It emitted these crazy high frequencies and

06:58they then looked at the moths reactions using electrodes to measure their neural

07:03responses. The practical implications of this research could be far-reaching.

07:11Understanding the inner workings of the greater wax moth's ear could have a big

07:15impact on the world of technology. This knowledge could help researchers build

07:20super tiny microphones, for example. We know that all sorts of critters, from the

07:27tiny creatures scuttling on the ground to the gigantic ones swimming in the

07:31ocean, can pick up on certain sound frequencies that our human ears just

07:35can't. However, scientists have made a fascinating discovery. They've shown for

07:42the first time that our ability to pick up on tiny differences in sound

07:46frequencies might just be superior to that of animals, thanks to our

07:50individual neurons. How did they prove this, you ask? Well, they took advantage

07:56of a unique technique that lets them record what single neurons are up to in

08:01the auditory cortex. That's the part of our brain that's a major player in

08:05processing sounds when we're exposed to various noises. You see, most of what we

08:12know about the auditory cortex was unearthed from past research that

08:16studied how animals' neural activity reacts to sound. Those studies were super

08:21useful in giving us a peek into how sounds are processed in our auditory

08:25system, but they didn't really let us know what sets us humans apart in the

08:30way we perceive sounds. When scientists tested how we respond to made-up sounds,

08:37they found out that our neurons in the auditory cortex responded with a

08:41surprising level of accuracy to specific frequencies. They could even pick up

08:46differences as tiny as a quarter of a tone just by looking at the reactions of

08:51individual neurons. That's a level of detail that you wouldn't typically find

08:57in the auditory cortex of other mammals. The one exception might be bats, who use

09:03their hearing in pretty unique ways. But this could explain why we humans can

09:08distinguish between frequencies better than animals. It seems like the way our

09:12brains process sound frequencies has some special features to it. When they

09:18played more natural sounds like conversations, music, and everyday noise,

09:22the neurons showed complex activity patterns. These patterns couldn't be

09:27fully explained just by the neurons' frequency selectivity. Animal studies

09:32have shown similar phenomena, but it's the first time we've seen this in humans.

09:37That's it for today! So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the

09:42video a like and share it with your friends. Or if you want more, just click

09:45on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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