Most of the animals at the zoo make some sort of noise.
Lions roar, zebras bray, elephants trumpet, and monkeys express themselves with
a wide range of sounds. Giraffes are nearly silent – in the daytime, at least.
That makes sense, doesn’t it? I mean, if you were a large and tasty animal
without fangs, tusks or claws, wouldn’t you try very hard to be as inconspicuous as
possible? As it happens, though, they’re not so quiet at night. A team from the
University of Vienna in Austria reviewed over a thousand hours of nighttime recordings
from three European zoos and learned the long-necked animals spend the whole
night softly humming to each other. The sounds are very low – around 92 Hz – like the second lowest F# on a piano. No one knows if it’s a form of deliberate
communication, or if humming is their equivalent of talking in your sleep. Maybe
it’s just a giraffine lullaby.
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