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FOR KIDS: Elephant songs
Scientists figure out how elephants make their low, low rumble
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.
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.
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Citations
S. Milius. How the elephant gets its infrasound. Science News Online, Aug. 2, 2012. [Go to]
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