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progressoid

(50,773 posts)
Fri Mar 15, 2024, 12:48 PM Mar 2024

The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice

Hearing people talk can terrify even top predators such as mountain lions, with consequences that ripple through entire ecosystems.
By Ed Yong


In the summer of 2017, the mountain lions, bobcats, and other residents of the Santa Cruz Mountains were treated to the dulcet tones of the ecologist Justin Suraci and his friends, reading poetry. Some of the animals became jittery. Others stopped eating. A few fled in fear.

Suraci, who’s based at the University of California at Santa Cruz, wasn’t there to see their reactions. He and his colleagues had strung up a set of speakers that would regularly play recordings of human speech in an area where people seldom venture. And they found that, the quality of the poetry aside, even the gentlest of human speech can make wild animals—even top predators—unnerved and watchful, in ways that shake entire food webs. It’s the clearest demonstration yet that we are among the scariest of animals—a super-predator that terrifies even the carnivores that themselves incite terror.

...

His team has shown that they certainly do. In an English forest, the researchers played the sounds of various carnivores to local badgers. The badgers ignored the sounds of wolves entirely and were mildly concerned by the growls of wolves and bears. But they were profoundly disturbed by human speech, even the genteel tones of some BBC documentaries and a reading of The Wind in the Willows.

Next, the team wanted to see whether a larger carnivore would behave similarly. In the Santa Cruz Mountains, they placed speakers at sites where mountain lions had killed large prey and were regularly returning to feed. When the cats approached, the team played either talking humans or croaking frogs. The frogs didn’t faze them. The human voices—including those of Rachel Maddow and Rush Limbaugh—made them flee more than 80 percent of the time. “We thought it would be funny to play political commentators,” says Suraci. “But when we had to score the videos, and listen to Rush Limbaugh all the time, it wasn’t very enjoyable.”

...https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/humans-predators-mountain-lions-landscape-of-fear/594187/?lctg=65a5cf6750d57dd73f085735
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The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice (Original Post) progressoid Mar 2024 OP
Rush Limbaugh's voice had the same effect on me! lastlib Mar 2024 #1
A pretty convincing demonstration that animals are intelligent. Jim__ Mar 2024 #2
That's why we tell people... 2naSalit Mar 2024 #3
A knowledge of the wildlife of the area is paramount. markodochartaigh Mar 2024 #6
Ha! Elessar Zappa Mar 2024 #7
Yeah, that's what I always did when I used to run on trails here in NM. Elessar Zappa Mar 2024 #8
Any feedback on singing? efhmc Mar 2024 #4
It keeps humans away from me. n/t Harker Mar 2024 #9
100% in agreement with the animals. Dem2theMax Mar 2024 #5
I wonder if it works on woodpeckers nuxvomica Mar 2024 #10
Did they test different languages? Or just English? JoseBalow Mar 2024 #11
Wow Lulu KC Mar 2024 #12

lastlib

(24,964 posts)
1. Rush Limbaugh's voice had the same effect on me!
Fri Mar 15, 2024, 01:03 PM
Mar 2024

I had to plug my ears at the very sound! If I couldn't shut it off, I had to flee the space.

2naSalit

(93,132 posts)
3. That's why we tell people...
Fri Mar 15, 2024, 01:06 PM
Mar 2024

To talk while hiking so the bears can hear you and leave the area. Bells are not advised. Human sounds do it, along with some pepper spray just in case.

markodochartaigh

(2,221 posts)
6. A knowledge of the wildlife of the area is paramount.
Fri Mar 15, 2024, 03:28 PM
Mar 2024

In areas with both black and grizzly bears one should know the difference in their poop. Black bear poop has bits of squirrel fur and berries in it. Grizzly bear poop has little bells in it and smells like pepper spray.

Elessar Zappa

(16,044 posts)
8. Yeah, that's what I always did when I used to run on trails here in NM.
Fri Mar 15, 2024, 03:36 PM
Mar 2024

We had a ton of cougars and black bears so I’d just talk loudly as I ran.

Dem2theMax

(10,366 posts)
5. 100% in agreement with the animals.
Fri Mar 15, 2024, 03:25 PM
Mar 2024

Humans disturb me as well.
I would much rather spend my time with animals.
Especially dogs.

nuxvomica

(12,941 posts)
10. I wonder if it works on woodpeckers
Fri Mar 15, 2024, 03:46 PM
Mar 2024

I have set up owl and hawk decoys, foil pinwheels, and foil streamers on the side of my house to keep away a little downy woodpecker that has been attacking my siding since last summer but none of this stuff works. Maybe I should just put a wireless speaker out there and talk when I hear him pecking.

JoseBalow

(5,519 posts)
11. Did they test different languages? Or just English?
Fri Mar 15, 2024, 04:02 PM
Mar 2024

I'd be curious to see that comparison.

I couldn't get past the paywall

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