Scientists figure out how elephants make their low, low rumble

By Stephen Ornes

Web edition: August 21, 2012

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Elephants sometimes communicate with sounds below the range of human ears. Scientists now know how they do it.

Credit: Angela S. Stoeger

Elephants are well known for their trumpetlike sounds, but they can “sing” superlow songs, too. You’ll never hear these tunes in full, though. That’s because elephant songs include notes too low for the human ear to hear.

Some scientists had suggested that elephants make these low sounds in the same way that cats purr — by squeezing muscles near the voice box, or larynx. But elephants don’t need to use throat muscles to go low, say scientists in a newly published study.

Visit the new Science News for Kids website and read the full story: Elephant songs