Giraffes hum, but only at night

Giraffes don’t communicate, but they can hum a song. University of Vienna scientists listened to 1,000 hours of sound recording of giraffes in three European zoos. They found no evidence of infrasonic communication.

Scientists previously thought that giraffes could not make any ‘substantial’ sounds because of their long necks (New Scientist, September 17, 2015). They thought it was physically impossible for giraffes to generate sufficient air flow through their long necks to produce vocalisations. Other scientists thought that giraffes produce low frequency ‘infrasonic’ sounds – that humans cannot hear – to communicate to each other. Now scientists listening to the recorded sounds of giraffes in three zoos found that they don’t communicate but they emit a ‘weird humming at night.’

Angela Stoger of the University of Vienna in Austria said the humming sounds have a ‘complex acoustic structure.’ The low frequency sound of about 92 Hz is not infrasound because humans can hear it. The research team said they heard the giraffe sounds, which varies in duration and contains ‘a rich combination of notes.’

The humming, which occurs only at night, could be ‘passively produced’ – similar to snoring or produced during a dream-like state. Or it could be a method for communicating in the dark when vision is limited.

Residents in Paignton in southwest England complained last year of ‘humming or droning noises coming from the giraffe house’ at the nearby Paignton Zoo. However the zoo says the giraffes weren’t involved in the experiment. Researchers think the residents may not have heard the humming because the signals are not ‘intensive’ – giraffes hum quietly. However, if there are several giraffes, well maybe …

BMC Research Notes, DOI: 10.1186/s13104-015-1394-3

https://www.newscientist.com/article/giraffes-spend-their-evenings-humming-to-each-other/

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