Have you ever wondered what noise a shark would make if it could? Would they sing like whales? Croak like frogs? Well, as it turns out, they click.
In the first ever recording of sharks actively making a noise, scientists have found that New Zealand rig sharks make short, sharp clicks. Based on the click’s acoustic characteristics, it seems these noises are created by the sharks forcefully snapping the same flattened teeth they use to crush their prey.
This discovery was made when the researchers handled the sharks suggesting that the noises may be a form of distress signal. However, further research is needed to determine in what other scenarios the rigs might do this, what the biological significances are, and whether other sharks share this trait. That being said, do not try this experiment at home. If I see any TikToks of swimmers taking a mic to a great white, I will be disappointed. But probably not as much as the swimmer.
Tiny brown thornbills are not able to outrun their predators or challenge them physically, but can they outsmart them? New evidence shows that when predators try and raid their nest, these birds fake the “hawk!” alarm calls of other species to scare them away.
Scientists proved this by recording the Australian birds creating a chorus of mimicry, before playing them for the predatory pied currawongs and watching them flee. This is the first experiment studying deceptive alarm calls used to fool nest predators, but perhaps it represents the importance of not underestimating the little guy. And how scary hawks are, of course.
If you’re a frog and you think your mating calls are private, think again. Fringe-lipped bats from Central and South America have been found to use the secret communications of frogs and toads to determine which are tasty and which are poisonous.
When researchers played the recordings of these frogs and toads to the bats, they responded to the ones that were palatable with eager ear flicks or flying towards the speaker. They even managed to tell which mating calls came from frogs that were too big to handle.
Younger bats were less likely to distinguish which frogs were poisonous or too big, suggesting that this feature comes from experience and that even the teenagers of the animal kingdom suffer problems with toxic mates.