How Do Rabbits Hear

Rabbit Hearing – How Do Rabbits Hear?

In this article we learn all about how a rabbit hears the world. We also cover the unique anatomy of the rabbit’s ears and how the rabbit uses it’s special ears in several ways to stay alive and prosper.

Rabbit Ears are a unique system of systems.   

A Sound Capture System – large ears efficiently catch and funnel sound.


An Early Warning System – keen hearing allows them to detect predators
.

A Temperature Control System – blood is cooled as it circulates through the ears.


A Body Balance System – In addition to the balance function of the inner ear, ears move to improve balance for high speed movements like evading predators.


A Communication System – ear position often indicates emotions such as fear, anger, curiosity, contentedness.

Rabbit Sitting Up and Using Senses - Ears, Nose, Eyes
This Beautiful Rabbit Just Looks Like He Is Trying to Hear All That He Can!

Do Rabbits Have a Good Sense of Hearing?

System of Systems: The Sound Capture System

Rabbits have big ears to help them catch and hear sound.

Rabbits can also independently move each of their ears towards a sound, which means they can determine the direction a sound is coming from very well and can track two sounds at once. This is why sometimes one ear is turned to you when you are talking to your rabbit and the other ear is cocked or turned away to hear and monitor a sound coming from a different direction.  

Moreover, there are three pieces of cartilage that work together to hold the rabbits ears upright. Their big ears literally catch more sound waves and funnel those sound waves to the rabbit’s middle ear.  In the inner ear, the sound waves are translated into signals that go to the rabbit’s brain and are interpreted as sound.

Rabbit Hearing Range Compared to Human Hearing Range

Sound is measured at the frequency in which it vibrates the air, or hertz (Hz).

A rabbit’s range of hearing is approximately 360 hertz to 42,000 hertz. The average human’s range of hearing is between 64 hertz and 23,000 hertz. Further, this Louisiana State University article provides the following table for approximate hearing ranges of various animals.

SpeciesApproximate Range (Hz)
Rabbit     360 – 42,000
Human       64 – 23,000
Dog       67 – 45,000
Cat       45 – 64,000
Chicken     125 –   2,000
Cow       23 – 35,000
Owl     200 – 12,000
Fox     Generally same as Dog
Coyote     Generally same as Dog

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Pink Little NewBorn Rabbit Kit

Can Baby Rabbits or Kits Hear?

No, new born kits cannot hear. They cannot hear or see and they have no fur.  During the first weeks of their life, they slowly mature and eventually their hearing and sight develops and they grow fur.

Can Rabbits Hear Ultrasonic Frequencies?

Yes, frequencies over 20,000Hz are ultrasonic. So, Rabbits, dogs, cats, and cows can hear ultrasonic. Some humans can hear in the low end of the ultrasonic range.

What Animals Make Ultrasonic Sounds?

This educational article states that bats, beetles, moths, mice, dogs, frogs, toads, and dolphins all can communicate using ultrasonic sounds.

Rabbit Bunny Ears on Cute Babies

Do Rabbits Hear Better Than Humans?

Although the typical human can hear sounds at lower frequency than the typical rabbit, the rabbit’s range of hearing is twice as large as a human’s range of hearing. 

The broader range that rabbits can hear is in frequencies higher than human hearing, meaning higher pitch sounds.

How is Rabbit Hearing Special?

It is said that with their independent ear movements, rabbits can follow two sounds at once.  This Journal of Comparative Physiology article finds that rabbits can localize or determine sound direction with about 28 degree accuracy.

The intensity or loudness of the noise is measured in decibels. While the pitch of the noise is measured in hertz. To help us understand what frequency translates to what sound, we offer this intriguing video. This video begins at a low frequency of about 10Hz and increases to a sound at about 20,000Hz. Note that the rabbit will not hear the sound until it is near 360Hz in the video read out, but most of us humans will hear the sound when the read out is showing 64Hz.

Try it out and find out the highest frequency you can hear.  The frequency tones in the video are amazing. It seems impossible to me that a rabbit would not hear the sound until near 360Hz. Once again, nature is amazing!

If you’re interested in learning more about “What is Sound”, to include more discussion of frequency, decibels and amplitude, you will enjoy this next video.

System of Systems: The Early Warning System

With such big ears rabbits have a reputation for very good hearing. That reputation is not just fable, it is evolutionary biology.

Rabbits are a food source for many meat-eating animals across the plains, the woods, and the mountains of the world. As such, rabbits have evolved to have very sensitive and keen hearing which helps alert them to predators that may be approaching. The rabbit’s ears are an effective predator early warning system that allows rabbits to run and hide before a predator can attack.

System of Systems: The Temperature Control System

A rabbit’s ears are also useful in cooling the rabbit’s body temperature.  Rabbits do not sweat like humans, and they do not pant like dogs.

Instead, their large surface area ears have many blood vessels that are close to the surface of their ears.  As blood flows throughout the rabbit’s ears, it gives off heat like a radiator; the blood is cooled and then returns to the rabbit’s body.

In the summer when the rabbit needs to cool off, more blood is pumped through the ears.  Elephants use this same kind of ear-based radiator system to help cool their massive bodies. Conversely, in the winter less blood is pumped through the ears and rabbits indigenous to colder climates generally have smaller ears to conserve heat.

Sometimes there is so much blood flowing through the expanded blood vessels of the rabbit’s ear that the ear falls over or flops over for a while!

Body Balance

System of Systems: The Body Balance System

Similar to humans, the rabbit’s inner ear anatomy includes the vestibular system which sends signals to the brain to maintain the rabbit’s balance.  

Additionally, and especially for rabbits with larger ears, as the rabbit runs and zigzags away from predators, the rabbit moves its ears to help keep its balance and negotiate high speed, sharp turns.

System of Systems: The Communication System

What do rabbit ear positions mean?  Often, we can understand our rabbit’s emotions by observing how their ears are positioned.  This is somewhat analogous to understanding a human according to their facial expressions.

Here is a table that aligns typical rabbit emotion with ear position.  This info from PetKeen an informational website run by veterinarians.

Ear PositionEmotion
Ears up and pointing outwardHappy and safe
Ears up and rigid – turning to locate soundsOn alert, startled
Eats slanted forwardCurious and perhaps a bit cautious, investigating
Ears slanted backward (and chin forward ready to bite)Angry, Aggressive
Ears laying down together along the backResting, napping, relaxed, submissive
One Ear up and other ear downLocating and identifying different noises, perhaps coming from different directions
Shaking Ears, Moving from side to sidePossibly itchy ears, possibly excited, possibly want to be left along – more observation helps determine the emotion

How Does a Rabbit Hear?

Basically, rabbits hear sounds in the same way that humans hear sounds.  Rabbits and humans have the same basic ear anatomy or structures. Rabbits and humans both have three main sections to our ears: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear.

In rabbit hearing, sound waves are “caught” by the large outer ear and funneled to the ear canal.  At the middle ear the sound waves vibrate the eardrum, and those vibrations move to the inner ear where they are converted to nerve signals.  Those nerve signals reach the brain and are interpreted as various sounds.   It is the same general process for human hearing.

This House Rabbit Society article provides an in-depth discussion of the functions of the rabbit inner, middle and outer ear, along with a very helpful graphic.

Rabbit Ears or Elephant Ears

Do Lop Ear Rabbits Hear Well?

Lop eared rabbits are not common in the wild.  Their big floppy ears impede both their hearing and their field of vision, making them easier for predators to catch.

The floppy lop eared rabbits have been domestically bred as pet rabbits and as you might imagine, lop eared rabbits are prone to ear problems. We’ll provide more information on Lop eared rabbits in another post.

This post about rabbit sense of hearing is part of our larger guide to the 5 senses that rabbits use:
Hearing, Smelling, Seeing, Feeling or Touch, and Taste. 
Here is the link to What Senses Do Rabbits Use?
Please click and give it a read! It is full of great information, and I guarantee you will learn something valuable.

Final Thoughts

As we’ve discussed, rabbits have better hearing than humans! And structurally, the middle ear and inner ear of the rabbit are very similar to the human middle ear. Rabbits’ inner ear and the mechanics of how rabbits hear are also very similar to the mechanics of how humans hear.

Most importantly, rabbits’ ears are a system of systems that help them stay alive and prosper. Finally, lop eared rabbits are rare in the wild.  They do not see or hear as well with their floppy ears, which means they are easier for predators to catch and eat.

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