Page 67 - World of Animals - Issue #28 Magazine

LL
A
ALL EARS

Did you hear that? Chances are you didn’t –
D i d y o u he a r t ? C h a n c e s a r e y o u d i d n ’ t –
h
a
t
but your dog did. Many creatures in the animal
kingdom put us to shame with their highly
adapted hearing skills

Words Sanne de Boer
An animal’s senses are crucial to its way of life, It’s not exactly a hidden talent, considering
and ultimately, to its survival. A heightened the size of its ears, but a fennec fox’s sense
sense of smell means the shark can track of hearing is incredible in the way it is put to
down its prey based on a single drop of blood, use. They are the smallest foxes in the world,
a hawk’s incredibly sharp eyesight means it but have the biggest ears relative to body size.
can spot a tiny dormouse from high up in the Their extremely sensitive hearing apparatus is
sky, and a rabbit knows it’s time to run when used to listen for small prey scurrying in the
it senses the vibrations of its group stomping sand. The ears stand to attention at all times,
the ground with their hind legs. A creature’s reaching 15 centimetres (six inches) in length.
hearing is just as vital to its survival, and The auditory bullae, the hollow structure of the
plays a large part in both hunting prey and middle ear, is enlarged in fennec foxes, allowing
escaping predators, but also aids unique ways them to rely mostly on their bat-like ears for
of communicating with its companions and hunting and locating prey, communicating with
creates awareness of its environment. each other, and evading predation.

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