We ran across this video about how dolphins express emotion through the whistles and clicks they make and thought would be interesting to compare their hearing to ours.
Both dolphins and humans have a well-developed acute sense of hearing and a highly developed "auditory cortex" - the portion of the brain that decodes the information from the nerves in the ears.
Auditory cortex: the size of the Dolphins auditory cortex is roughly 10 times that of an adult human.
Frequency range: Dolphins definitely win as human hearing ranges from 0.02 to 20 kHz - versus - a dolphins 20 to 160 kHz.
Estimate direction of sounds underwater: sure enough, the only mammal that can do that as a dolphin. This is due to the unique structure and location of the Dolphins "ears" that have a wide separation and are not attached their skull.
So it appears that dolphins have some amazing hearing, not to mention echolocation, that exceeds ours in many ways. But, if it's any consolation we win out in the ability to smell as their brains don't have olfactory lobes!
Please feel free to call us with any questions you have about your hearing. Whether it's hearing protection or hearing testing, will be happy to help.
Polo Park Hearing Centre (204) 783-1083.
