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The animals with the most developed hearing

Last update on Oct 12th, 2021

Which animals have better hearing than ours?

Many animals have so-called "hearing superpowers", or rather an extraordinary ability to hear sounds inaudible to the human ear. In this article, we will discuss hearing and the species that can hear much better than us.

Bats

Bats are the mammals with the best hearing. As nocturnal animals, their visual experience of the world is extremely poor as they live in almost pitch-black conditions. As a result, to navigate their surroundings and communicate, they emit sound waves, also known as ultrasounds.

Dolphins

Thanks to their particularly advanced auditory cortex, dolphins process sounds faster than humans and have a much wider sound frequency.

Elephants

The large ears of an elephant help them in long-distance communication, they serve to channel sound waves, even low frequency ones.

Pigeons

Pigeons are among the animals with the most sensitive hearing: they can hear thunderstorms and volcanic eruptions. Avian hearing is especially sensitive to low frequency infrasounds and can detect sounds starting from 0.5 Hz.

Moths

To try to escape bat attacks, moths have also developed a heightened sense of hearing.

Animals without hearing

Contrary to popular belief, there are also animals thought to be born without hearing, including squid, cuttlefish, octopus and spiders.

Which is the hearing range in cats and dogs?

As far as domestic animals go, cats and dogs have better hearing abilities than humans. As native hunters, dogs can hear sound waves up to 40,000 Hertz and cats can hear up to 70,000 Hertz.

Dog and cat breeds more predisposed to deafness

There are several dog and cat breeds predisposed to deafness. The breeds most affected are those genetically manipulated. Some of these breeds include: Cockers, Australian Shepherds, Setters, and Dalmatian - among dogs; and American and British Shortairs, Devon Rexes, Persians, Ragdolls, Siberians, and Norwegian - among cats.