Marine Birds Can Hear Under Water

For the first time, researchers have shown that a marine bird can hear under water. This offers new possibilities for the protection of marine birds in trafficked waters.

Marine bird can hear under water. Image credit: tasnimnews.com (CC BY 4.0)

Seals, whales and other marine animals can hear under water. The cormorant also has this ability, which new research from University of Southern Denmark (SDU) shows.

According to the biologists, it makes good sense, that cormorants can hear under water -- the environment where it finds most of its food.

About every tenth bird species -- ca. 800 species -- in the world hunts under water, and it may turn out that they too can also hear under water.

Researchers from the Department of Biology at University of Southern Denmark have tested the cormorant, Loke's, hearing. Loke lives at SDU's marine biology research station in the Danish town Kerteminde.

"Hearing under water must be a very useful sense for cormorants. They depend on being able to find food, even if the water is not clear, or if they live in the Arctic regions where it is dark for long periods at a time," said Kirstin Hansen, Ph.D.

Loke's hearing abilities are on a par with the hearing of the toothed whale and the seal.

He can hear sounds ranging between 1 and 4 kHz, and it is in this range that fish such as sculpin and herring produce sounds. Both sculpin and herring are on the cormorant's menu.

1-4 kHz is not only the range in which fish sounds are found. There are also various human-made sounds found in this range.

Human-made sounds can be everything from spinning wind turbines and ship traffic to water scooters and drilling platforms. (Tasnim News Agency)

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Simulations Show How Massive Collisions Delivered Metal to Early Earth

Planetary collisions are at the core of our solar system’s formation. Scientists have long believed that after the Moon’s formation, the early Earth experienced a long period of bombardment that diminished about 3.8 billion years ago.

Sound of Nature Helps Us Relax

The gentle burbling of a brook, or the sound of the wind in the trees can physically change our mind and bodily systems, helping us to relax. New research at Brighton and Sussex Medical School explains how, for the first time.

Paleontologists find fossil relative of Ginkgo biloba

A discovery of well-preserved fossil plants by paleontologists from the United States, China, Japan, Russia and Mongolia has allowed researchers to identify a distant relative of the living plant Ginkgo biloba.

Amazon trees are major source of methane emission

Trees growing in floodplains surrounding the Amazon river emit up to 20 million tonnes of methane gas (CH4) to the atmosphere every year.

Scientists describe potential antibody approach for treating multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae

Researchers are developing a promising alternative to antibiotic treatment for infections caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria resistant to carbapenem antibiotics.

Experiments recreate aromatic flavors of Titan

NASA scientists have created a new recipe that captures key flavors of the brownish-orange atmosphere around Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.