Snakes are spectacular animals. Their body lacks limbs, they click with their tongues and, if that were not enough, they are capable of devouring entire prey. They also rely mostly on their sense of smell to hunt prey, although they also use sight and hearing. But have you ever wondered if snakes have ears?
The answer is yes and no, as stated by Sara Ruane, a herpetologist at Rutgers University (United States). Like many reptiles, snakes do not have an external ear structure. However, they do have ear bones in their heads. Thus, when we think of animals (such as cats, dogs or rabbits) they move their ears to better capture the direction of sound. Snakes, on the other hand, do not have external ears, but they do have small holes on both sides of the head.
Parts of the ear in snakes
The ear is made up of three parts: outer ear, middle ear, and inner ear. In the outer ear is the eardrum, which separates the outer ear from the middle. For its part, the middle ear contains three bones that transmit sound from the eardrum to the inner ear through vibrations. Finally, the inner ear converts these vibrations into nerve impulses that travel to the brain.
Snakes lack external and middle ears, such a recommendation includes a study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology. However, these reptiles do have a middle ear bone that connects the inner ear to the jaw. This allows them to hear vibrations, like those of a predator approaching the ground. However, they are not as good at hearing airborne sounds.
Also, snakes can hear low frequencies but not high frequencies, since these sounds are mainly transmitted through the air. For example, real pythons can only hear frequencies between 80 and 160 hertz, while humans have a frequency between 20 and 20,000 hertz.
This reduced hearing range is not a problem for snakes, as they do not use sound to communicate with each other. Also, the vocalizations they do have higher frequencies than they can hear. This, according to the researchers, indicates that the sound is intended for its prey, such as birds or mammals.
