Can Giraffes Talk?
Oct. 10 -- Everything about giraffes is a revelation: When they run, they seem to float. When they come down to earth — to take a drink, or for a bit of food — they defy gravity.
Their bodies are preposterous: More than a ton and a half perched on four spindly legs, crowned by a neck with the same number of vertebrae as humans, seven.
And yet, these outrageous animals are infinitely sweet and sociable. I know, because I've broken bread with them at a sanctuary called Giraffe Manor outside Nairobi, Kenya.
Each morning, the "tall blondes," as I call them, would show up outside the breakfast room. Suddenly a huge spotted head would drift through the window and hover sweetly over my shoulder. Irresistible. It was, to say the least, a fabulous way to eat breakfast.
But now it turns out these amazing creatures have yet another secret. Astonishing new evidence indicates that these mammals we have always considered mute may actually be "talking" to each other.
"We believe that giraffes are forcing large columns of air out their long, long trachea, and out of a small opening, which is actually their larynx," says bioacoustical researcher Liz von Muggenthaler, president of the Fauna Communications Research Institute in North Carolina. "And that is creating a sound."
What Does ‘PSSH’ Mean in Giraffese?
Von Muggenthaler has made a startling discovery. She says giraffes are communicating in a range far beneath our own hearing, called infrasound. And she says it's produced when the giraffes throw back their heads.
"What this is doing is opening up the larynx so that air can pass freely through," she says. "If you could hear it, it would sound like a great burst of air: PSSH."
Von Muggenthaler demonstrated the phenomenon by separating the herd at Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, S.C. She says that giraffes are more likely to communicate with those they can't see, so this was a way to see if they would toss back their heads and try to contact their colleagues. Von Muggenthaler stayed inside, while her assistant stood by, outside, with a walkie-talkie to watch the giraffes and relay their movements back to Von Muggenthaler.
