Imagine you are in a deep dense jungle and suddenly you hear the sound of a machine gun fire or a repid fire of the artillery!
You can then stop imagining! Then again it may not be the army!
It may just be a bird!
Still stop imagining!
That very typical loud and scary sound is produced by the Shoebill stork!
The primary sound of a shoebill stork is a loud, mechanical “bill-clattering” that mimics the rapid firing of a machine gun or an automatic weapon. Instead of vocalizing using their vocal cords, adult shoebills produce this intense sound by rapidly snapping the upper and lower mandibles of their massive, hollow, shoe-shaped bills together!
This is a loud sound! But then if you are like me you would wonder if that is the loudest sound made by an animal! Well, of course it isn’t!
Now to get an idea of the loudness understand that any sound over 85 decibels over a period of time can damage your ears while any sound over 120 decibels can do that damage instantly!
The loudest animal can create a sound more than 230 decibels while there is an animal which can create a sound energy which can produce the same heat as the sun!
The sperm whale is the loudest animal in the world, producing echolocation clicks reaching up to 230 decibels (dB). This is louder than a jet engine taking off (around 150 dB) and is powerful enough to rupture human eardrums at close range!
Luckily it is produced in the oceans so we are safe!
Now while the sperm whale creates the loudest individual sound, the blue whale’s low-frequency pulses can carry for hundreds of miles, making it the loudest sustained animal call!
Coming to land; size does matter! Here also it goes to the Africans!
The loudest land animal is the African Elephant with sounds up to 117 dB and their powerful trumpeting calls can be heard by other elephants up to 5 miles away!
The Howler Monkey is the loudest primate on land, reaching around 140 dB due to a specialized resonating throat chamber! Here also humans are not the first!
Among the insects you have the African Cicada which produces sounds up to 107 dB using vibrating membranes called tymbals to attract mates!
Then again for those who feel that the size does not matter you have the loudest Small Animal (Relative to Size) which is the Tiger Pistol Shrimp which produces the sound in the level of 200+ dB!
This tiny crustacean snaps its specialized claw so fast that it creates an imploding bubble. The resulting shockwave stuns prey and briefly reaches temperatures hotter than the sun! So this loud barking SHRIMP does bite and burn!
Of course that sound on land would have made you deaf or blind! That reminds me of the amazing movie Andhadhun by Sriram Raghavan!
Now stop imagining loud animals and sleep!
Shubh ratri…
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