Over what ranges of frequencies do elephants hear and communicate?
Based on the results of tests performed on a 7-year-old, captive Asian elephant, it is thought that elephants can hear sounds ranging from at least 16-12,000 Hz (lower frequencies were not tested). Elephants are capable of producing sounds ranging over more than 10 octaves from 5 Hz to over 9,000 Hz. Indeed, within a single call an elephant may slide over a range of 6 octaves! The lowest calls, the rumbles, often have fundamental frequencies in the infrasonic range (fundamental range from 5 to around 30 Hz with harmonics sometimes extending to 600 Hz). A typical male rumble fluctuates around an average minimum of 12 Hz, a female’s rumble around 13 Hz and a calf’s around 22 Hz. In contrast, humans can hear from about 30 (anything below our threshold of hearing is considered infrasonic) to around 14,000 Hz, depending on the power of the sound and a person’s age, since our hearing steadily declines after childhood. Typical frequencies used in speech range around 110 Hz for males (more tha
