You might think elephants just rely on their big ears for hearing, but they actually use their feet too! Ross MacPhee, who takes care of the Secret World of Elephants at the American Museum of Natural History, explained that sound travels through air and surfaces as vibrations.
Elephants can sense these vibrations with their feet from up to 20 kilometers away! When vibrations reach the ground near an elephant’s foot, they travel through the elephant’s body, a process called bone conduction, MacPhee said. Elephants are particularly good at sensing low-frequency sounds, like waves and storms.
It’s not just about what these animals can do, it’s about how they use this special sense, MacPhee explained. The elephants “have many ways to talk with each other that you might not know about,” he said.
For instance, if an elephant feels a far-off earthquake, they might use this sense to find shelter and warn other elephants in their group.
If you’ve ever felt vibrations while putting a tuning fork on your head or when the music is incredibly loud at a concert, you’ve experienced what elephants do, although on a lesser scale, MacPhee said.
“It’s not something only elephants have,” he added. Other animals like whales, rhinos, and giraffes feel it too.
If you want to experience this yourself, you can at the AMNH in New York. There, you can touch a small round pad that mimics what elephants feel.
How Elephants Listen with Their Feet?
Elephants have a remarkable capacity to sense vibrations in the ground using their feet. When other elephants create noises, like as low-frequency rumbles, vibrations travel through the earth. Elephants detect these vibrations using unique sensors on their feet. It’s similar to feeling the rumbling of an incoming train on the tracks. This allows them to determine where the sound is originating from, how far away it is, and even what it implies. So, in a manner, they “listen” to the environment around them with their feet as well as their ears!
Facts and Myths
Myths
- Hearing With Their Feet: While elephants can clearly detect vibrations through their feet, this is not considered “hearing” in the same way that we do. They do not directly hear sound waves, but rather feel physical vibrations transferred via the earth.
- Only Hear Through Feet: Elephants still have good traditional hearing through their ears. They most likely utilize a combination of these strategies to get a thorough picture of their sonic surroundings.
Interesting Facts
- Super-sensitive Feet: Elephants’ feet are extremely sensitive, with a thick layer of fatty tissue on the soles termed the digital cushion. This cushion contains many sensory cells known as Pacinian corpuscles, which are similar to touch receptors in our fingertips.
- Feeling the Rumble: Low-frequency sounds, especially those below 20 Hertz (inaudible to humans), travel extremely well through the earth. Elephants can detect these vibrations with their sensitive feet, allowing them to “hear” noises from long distances.
- Direction and distance: Scientists believe elephants can sense low-frequency sounds and use the timing and intensity of vibrations in each foot to calculate the source’s location and distance.
- Communication Through the Ground: Elephants communicate by low-frequency rumbles, and their sensitive feet pick up vibrations from other elephants, allowing them to stay connected and informed within their herd.
Other Animals Who Can Hear Through Their Feet?
While elephants are well-known for their capacity to detect vibrations with their feet, they are not the only creatures that possess this unique talent. Other animals may likewise detect vibrations via their bodies or feet:
- Seismic Sensing Moles: Moles detect vibrations in the ground because their front legs are strong, and their bones are built in a certain way. This helps them find their way around and find food underground.
- Snakes: The “pit organs” near a snake’s mouth are a unique way for it to sense things. Not only can these organs pick up infrared rays, but they can also pick up on ground movements, which helps them hunt and find predators.
- Frogs: Some types of frogs, especially those that live in water, can feel vibrations through their skin. This helps them sense the approach of predators or potential mates.
- Spiders: Some types of spiders can feel vibrations in their webs, which let them know when food or possible mates are nearby.
- Ants: Ants can communicate through vibrations by tapping their bodies against the ground or the walls of their nests. This helps them coordinate activities such as foraging or defending their territory.
