What does the Giraffe say?

Day 195 / 365

There was a viral song a few years back on YouTube called “What does the fox say?”, which really made me think as I haven’t heard the sound a fox makes anywhere before. Today I came across an even more interesting fact, do you know what sound a giraffe makes?

For a long time, we didn’t know the answer to that question.

Zoologists used to think that giraffes couldn’t make noises through their throats like other animals, because of their long necks. The airflow from their lungs would not be enough to generate strong vibrations in the neck that can then translate to sounds.

A team of researchers from Austria wanted to find a definite answer. So they spent 8 years recording giraffes at three zoos. They got over 1000 hours of recording. And they found out that giraffes do actually made sounds, we just weren’t hearing carefully.

Giraffes produce a low-frequency humming sound, almost like tantric chanting. And they produce this only around midnight. This sound is just above the infrasonic level, which is the level below which humans can’t hear.

You can listen to the humming in the video below

This post is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog — The Assembly Line