Who is the best of them all?

You will be surprised, actually shocked at what heads this list; the moth – yes that small nondescript insect that flies around the light, especially in dark places, has superlative hearing ability; in fact, it can hear 150 times better than a human being with decent hearing.  What can beat that?

 This interesting list cuts across land and sea. There are huge animals such as elephants, giraffes and horses and medium sized ones like rats, cats and dogs. In the sea, the dolphins come at the top with their hearing ability. Similar to bats, they do not hear, instead they wait for the sound to echo back to them and then they work it out.  Imagine, they hear sound that has already happened and they are still able to hear more distinctly then humans! In the bird category, the owls are the ultimate hearers followed by pigeons that can hear at extremely low frequencies. Now you know one reason why pigeons are able to carry messages over long distances and still come back to the same exact point!

But what is the secret behind all these record breaking listening feats? Animals have flexible ears that they can move around. This is very apparent if you keenly observe a cat or dog, when they hear a sound, they will turn their ears to the direction from which it is coming. Doing this helps them perceive sounds better although they may not be understood the same way we understand them. This flexibility is achieved by numerous small bones in the ears of animals such as dogs.

Ear shape is another crucial factor that enhances hearing majorly.  Some creatures like birds have funnelled (cone-like) shaped ears so as to focus on the sound. Other animals, like some type of dogs, have upright ears that are turned down at the top to make the sounds even louder. Placement or location of the ears also enables hearing to occur successfully. 

The size of the ears also determines how well an animal can hear. Elephants, particularly the African ones, take the trophy in the size of ears.  For example, an elephant in Kimironko can hear another elephant in Nyabugogo quite well!  Mice also have big ones, if you compare their ears to their bodies.

So, humans should take off their hats for these hearing masters!

Lois Nakibuuka is an educator and counsellor

lnakibuuka@yahoo.com