Our hearing is an integral part of our lives.

It affects our conversations professionally and socially, our enjoyment of recreational activities, and our safety and overall health.

It is worthwhile, then, to understand how our ears work.

Sounds enter the outer ear first and then travel through the narrow passageway of the ear canal towards the eardrum. The sound waves then cause the eardrum to vibrate and send the vibrations to the three small bones in the ear.

These bones are responsible for increasing the volume of the sounds and then sending them along to the fluid-filled cochlea, which is located in the inner ear. The vibrations create ripples in the cochlea’s fluid that form a wave along the hair cells of the inner ear. The first hair cells detect higher pitches, while those further in detect lower frequencies. The movement of the hair cells begins a process that creates an electrical signal. That signal is then carried by the auditory nerve to the brain, where it can be translated from a sound we hear into something we understand.

This complicated process is what we rely on to understand friends, family, coworkers, and various forms of entertainment. If there is a problem anywhere in the process, it can impact our hearing and understanding.

While a human’s hearing may seem remarkable, we can’t use our hearing to find our way in the dark, to show our emotions, to keep ourselves cool, or to predict a volcanic eruption.

There are animals, however, whose hearing is so advanced and unique that they do possess these features.

Our ability to hear is measured in Hertz, which are the units of frequency in cycles per second. The range of normal hearing is 20 Hz to 20 kHz, and higher frequencies are most commonly degraded with noise and age. Higher frequencies are more vital for speech understanding and are the most common range where people experience hearing loss.

Interestingly, the animal with the best hearing has some of the smallest ears around. The moth is ranked highest in hearing ability, which contributes to why they are so difficult to catch if they come into your home. Moths can hear at an incredibly high frequency, which protects them from another hearing powerhouse: the bat. A moth can hear frequencies up to 300 kHz, while bats hear between 15 to 90 kHz. In addition to hearing well, bats use their hearing to help them find their way around. This process, called echolocation, is used by other animals as well, such as dolphins.

Many animals have other unique features of their ears that humans don’t.

Owls’ ears, for example, are positioned asymmetrically which gives them a greater range of hearing in order to discover the location of their prey. Elephants, who can hear other elephants call up to two and a half miles away, use the immense size of their ears to keep them cool in desert climates.

Cats can rotate their ears 180 degrees to aid in their hearing ability, which is made possible by the many bones and muscles in their small ears, and they can hear up to 79 kHz. Horses can show their emotions through ear position — if they pull their ears back, flat against their head, you may want to back away! Pigeons are exceptional for their ability to hear long distances. They can tell if a storm is coming or if a volcano is going to erupt.

Hearing is a varied and complicated ability that greatly impacts the everyday lives of humans and animals alike. Each animal’s hearing is unique to its lifestyle, needs, and abilities, and humans are no exception.