If you think some people are too noisy then wait till you read about some of the loudest animals in the world. A normal human shout is around 70 decibels. Anything above 120 decibels and it becomes physically painful. There are many animals, birds and even insects that can make much louder sounds than that. Sometimes animals use these sounds as mating songs while at other times they use them to scare away rivals. Whatever be the reason, when it comes to making a racket, these animals top the list…
10. Lion: 110db
Lions can roar up to 110 db. Their roar can travel for 5 miles. They do so to establish their territory and scare away rival males. They are also thought to roar sometimes to communicate within a pride. A pride of lions can have a huge territory of up to 160 square miles so roaring helps maintain this territory without having to cover the whole distance.
9. Hyena: 112db
Hyenas are dogged little animals. They have been known to even kill lions. Their strength lies in numbers and perseverance. They just never quit. Hunting in packs needs a lot of communication and hyenas have a decent vocabulary of sounds. They can giggle when threatened and make whooping noises while hunting that are as loud as 112 db.
8. Grey Wolf: 115db
One of the most famous animals known for its howls is the grey wolf. Wolfs are pack animals and howl to communicate within the pack. Their howls can be anywhere from 90 db to 115 db and can over a phenomenal area of up to 50 square miles under the right conditions. They howl to assemble the pack, establish territory or to communicate with each other.
7. Elephant: 117db
Elephants are highly intelligent and use many sounds for communication. The most famous is the trumpeting sound that they make when excited, distressed or angry. They are also known to produce very loud infrasonic sounds that can travel up to 10 miles. The frequency of these rumbling sounds is below the audible range of humans but their loudness is around 117 db.
6. Howler Monkeys: 128db
As the name suggest howler monkeys howl. They are very social animals and live in large groups and have a variety of sounds to communicate with each other. They are also known as the loudest land animal as their howls can reach up to 128 db and cover an area of 3 miles. They make these guttural and high pitched noises with the help of an enlarged hyoid bone.
5. Kakapo: 132db
Kakapos belong to the parrot family and are the loudest birds. Their mating calls can reach up to 132 db and cover a distance of 4 miles. The booming sound is made by using the thoracic air sac. They also make high pitched metallic calls. They are flightless, nocturnal and the heaviest parrots weight 2-4 kg at maturity. They can live for up to 90 years.
4. Green Grocer Cicada: 135db
Cicadas are the loudest insects. They sing to attract mates and their noise can reach in excess of 135 db and travel for over a mile. They produce the sound from a musical drum called tymbals located in their abdomen. The hollow abdomen helps in amplifying the sound produced by contracting the internal muscles. They group together during singing their mating song so as to confuse birds and other predators.
3. Bulldog Bat: 140db
Bats use sound to navigate in what is known as echolocation. Bulldog bats produce the loudest sounds among bats and can reach the level of 140 db. They use echolocation to track the movement of fish in water and are also known as fisherman bats for this reason. Their sound is not audible to humans as it is in the ultrasonic range reaching from 20 KHz to 200 KHz.
2. Tiger Pistol Shrimp: 200db
Tiger pistol shrimp are a unique and interesting animal. Found in the Mediterranean, they have a claw that shoots jets of water at very high speeds. The speed is high that it creates an air bubble. When the bubble implodes it creates a shock wave that kills any fish in the range of 2 meters. It also creates a sound of about 200 db which is louder than a gunshot. The implosion of the bubble also creates temperatures at its center as high as that of the sun which cause a flash of light to appear each time this shrimp shoots his pistol.
1. Whales: 230db
Whales are known for their songs. The blue whale, the largest animal on earth, can produce loud whistling calls that reach up to 188 db. These calls can travel up to 500 miles underwater. But the loudest is the sperm whale. It makes a series of clicking noises that can reach as high as 230 db making it the loudest animal in the world. The click lasts for only 15 to 30 milliseconds and can stay audible to a sperm whale as much as 10 miles away.
What’s the loudest animal you have heard? Share your’s on social media along with this blog!
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