Shout it Out!

What do you think is the loudest animal on the planet? Is it a lion roaring?

An elephant trumpeting a charge? On land, the loudest animal is the howler monkey. Found in the rainforests of Central and South America, these monkeys howl to let others know that their territory is occupied. These calls can be heard up to three miles away!

But to find the loudest animal on the planet, you have to look deep beneath the ocean.

Blue whales are the largest animal on earth. They’re found in every ocean on the planet, and are often very far apart, which means they have to be able to communicate over loud distances. When they call, they can make sounds as loud as 188 decibels. That’s louder than a jet engine!

If you’ve ever been to an airport, you might have seen workers around the planes wearing large ear protectors. That’s because permanent damage to human hearing starts at 140 decibels – the same volume as the engines on airplanes. That means if you stood next to a singing blue whale without ear protection, it would make you deaf!

For many years, blue whales were considered the loudest animal in the world. But recently, scientists have discovered that isn’t true. The loudest animal in the world is actually only 2 cm long! It’s the pistol shrimp, which lives in tropical oceans. When it’s hunting, it snaps its claws together to form a bubble to stun its prey. When that bubble collapses, it makes a sound that’s a whopping 218 decibels! It’s so loud that submarines can use colonies of these shrimp to hide from sonar!