Giraffes are known to be quiet. What sounds can a giraffe produce? In this article, you’ll discover what they sound like and signify. (Spoilerthe giraffes have grunts, snorts, hisses, bellows, and moos, among others). Learn about the humming of giraffes and infrasound.
In a recent study published in BioMed, Central Researchers recorded over 940 hours of sounds recorded by Giraffes at three zoos over eight years. In addition to the occasional snort and grunt, they recorded humming sounds the Giraffes only made during the night. The humming was at 92Hz; the frequency, Wired reports, is still heard by humans but is relatively low.
“These results show that giraffes do produce vocalizations, which, based on their acoustic structure, might have the potential to function as communicative signals to convey information about the physical and motivational attributes of the caller,” the researchers conclude.
What Sounds do Giraffes Make?
Though they’re generally quiet, adult giraffes have also been seen making snorts, coughs or hisses, bursts of sound moans, groans, whistles, grunts, and bellowing noises. Young calves make noises like snorts, bleats, mew, and moo.
Since these sounds are scarce, most information about the sounds they make and what these sounds are is based on observations and the hypothesis (best estimate). There is undoubtedly a need for more study.
Here’s how one research team discusses the need for more studies: “The use of specific terms for giraffe vocalizations in earlier reports were based on the calls’ phonetic and authors’ subjective sound perception, respectively, and not due to comparative and quantitative methods to objectively describe district types of vocalizations.”
Adult Giraffes Whoosh
Adult giraffes aren’t able to make any sounds that can be heard by humans, although they have the vocal cords to create sound. The trachea of a giraffe measures thirteen inches (4 meters) long, which means that making noise will be more complicated for this species than for animals with shorter tracheas. It is a myth that adult giraffes remain quiet; however, this is not true. Recent research in bioacoustics has revealed that adult giraffes utilize infrasound, an audio signal that is too low for humans to discern. Elephants have an identical system of communication that is unheard by human ears.
The giraffe’s tape
Researchers obtained data from giraffes from three Berlin, Copenhagen, and Vienna zoos. These giraffes recorded a large number of minutes of recordings. They were typically recorded in the dark at night and included recordings taken outside during daylight. The researchers then examined the recordings for acoustic patterns that could be a sign of communication.
The majority of recordings didn’t show vocalization patterns. According to the research team in their report: “exploring giraffe vocal communication turned out to be time-consuming, tedious and very challenging.”
Tedious possibly; however, the results are worth it. In the countless recorded hours, researchers discovered a few instances of vocal patterns that could be a means of communication between Giraffes based on their acoustic design.
Their Sounds are Too Low for Humans to Hear
Another theory is that giraffes produce sounds, but we don’t hear them. Low-frequency noises are commonplace in a variety of species, including big cats.
Along with trumpets and orchestral horns, as well as their orchestral horns and trumpets, elephants produce info that is well away from human ears. They can travel as far as 10 kilometers across the Savannah.
Elephants are enormous, and so are giraffes. Two plus two is the common belief that giraffes can also communicate via infrasound. It is possible that giraffes may have massive vocal folds within their vocal cavity, similar to elephants. The air they push through them at a plodding speed causes the inaudible infrasound.