# What living thing can produce the widest range of sound? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 21, 2004, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-living-thing-can-produce-the-widest-range-of-sound/270321 "2004-10-21T01:31:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-living-thing-can-produce-the-widest-range-of-sound/270321/1 "2004-10-21T01:31:36Z")
From highest to lowest - wherever on the spectrum that is. Is there anything living which can produce a wider range than humans? How about frequencies that we are incapable of hearing? (spawned from [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=3)) ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-living-thing-can-produce-the-widest-range-of-sound/270321/2 "2004-10-21T01:50:09Z")
I think elephants produces sounds at frequencies lower than humans can hear. Can’t say what range they have, but they might be a contender. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-living-thing-can-produce-the-widest-range-of-sound/270321/3 "2004-10-21T01:54:47Z")
I don’t know the factual answer, but I recall an NPR special about a researcher in Africa experimenting with infra-sound as a means of warning elephants away from crops and such. My best guess would be a whale, perhaps. Knowing how weird the world is, it might be a mosquito, though. ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-living-thing-can-produce-the-widest-range-of-sound/270321/4 "2004-10-21T02:41:09Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > Knowing how weird the world is, it might be a mosquito, though. Actually, mosquitoes, bees, flies, etc. probably make a sound with their wings which is at times higher than we can hear. But then, they probably don’t make any lower sounds. So I guess elephant is the current winner until someone more knowledgeable sets us straight. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-living-thing-can-produce-the-widest-range-of-sound/270321/5 "2004-10-21T03:40:27Z")
**Hearing Ranges** Human…8 to 20,000 Hz Elephant…1 to 20,000 Hz Mice…1000 to 100,000 Hz Pigeon…low .01 Hz Cat…100 to 60,000 Hz Grasshopper…high 50,000 Hz Bat…radar 100,000 Hz Noctural Moth…1000 to 240,000 Hz [sup][**source**](http://hypertextbook.com/physics/waves/sound/index.shtml)[/sup] ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-living-thing-can-produce-the-widest-range-of-sound/270321/6 "2004-10-21T03:47:18Z")
The question is what **produces** the widest range, not what can hear the widest range. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-living-thing-can-produce-the-widest-range-of-sound/270321/7 "2004-10-21T03:54:01Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > My best guess would be a whale, perhaps. I am thinking humpback whales – or perhaps another species. No time to search for hard data, but whales can produce both very low and very high sounds. ---
**Author:** ![quothz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/da6949/32.png) [@quothz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quothz)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-living-thing-can-produce-the-widest-range-of-sound/270321/8 "2004-10-21T04:19:52Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > I don’t know the factual answer, but I recall an NPR special about a researcher in Africa experimenting with infra-sound as a means of warning elephants away from crops and such. > > My best guess would be a whale, perhaps. Knowing how weird the world is, it might be a mosquito, though. No good cite, I’m afraid, and a bit of googling shows a good deal of debate. Dolphins or bats, probably, followed by some whales. Depending on who you ask, and depending on species, bats have a vocal range somewhere between 120 KHz to 200 KHz wide, with the low end beginning around 100 Hz to 1 KHz. Dolphins, again with some argument and variation, can make noises between 70 Hz and 150 KHz (or 75 Hz and 120 KHz, or maybe 70 Hz and 135 KHz, or possibly something else). Rodents have quite the sense of hearing, but appear to be a bit on the quiet side. Pigeons hear the lowest frequencies of any animal, as low as a tenth of a hertz, and the noctoid moth can hear sounds as high-pitched as 240 KHz. This is purely from glances around online, mind you, but it appears that the issue is far from settled among biologist-types. I’d go with the dolphins, myself; but then, I like dolphins. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-living-thing-can-produce-the-widest-range-of-sound/270321/9 "2004-10-21T18:54:39Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > No time to search for hard data, but whales can produce both very low and very high sounds. If you go to the source I listed above you will find that whales and dolphins are listed with a _question mark_. I assume that means there is no hard data on either. I know that the question is about _producing sound_ but could find nothing on that. I believe that the hearing range of an animal still gives relivant information, a human would not make sounds out of the 8 to 20,000 Hz range. A bat makes much higher sounds at 100,000 Hz but maybe nothing lower. And those damn moths, what are they listening to at up to 240,000 Hz? But the best infro that the “source” gives is that we don’t know the ranges for whales and dolphins and one or both most likely is the correct answer to the question. ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-living-thing-can-produce-the-widest-range-of-sound/270321/10 "2004-10-21T19:40:56Z")
It would be interesting to see a chart comparing the sounds that living things are capable of hearing and producing. Can moth’s hear anything out of the 240,000 Khz range? ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-living-thing-can-produce-the-widest-range-of-sound/270321/11 "2004-10-21T19:55:22Z")
Whoops, I mean make sounds. ---
**Author:** ![quothz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/da6949/32.png) [@quothz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quothz)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-living-thing-can-produce-the-widest-range-of-sound/270321/12 "2004-10-21T20:42:44Z")
> [@alterego](#): > > Whoops, I mean make sounds. Moths don’t have any vocal ability AFAIK. Their intensely high-pitched hearing ranges are a survival trait for avoiding echolocation. As to why their hearing ranges well above the highest-pitched known bat call, I dunno, but it’s likely that it aids their survival in some way.