Where are Dolphins and Whales’ Ears?

Did you know whales and dolphins don’t have external ears like us?

Instead, they hear through special structures in their jawbones! Using clicks and whistles called echolocation, they send out sound waves and interpret the echoes to navigate, hunt, and communicate underwater.

#258STEMFacts #STEMinASL #MarineScience #Echolocation

ID: Brandon is wearing a bandana and a black short sleeve shirt standing in front of a light blue background. He signs as captions appear. Visuals show throughout, like dolphins and whales underwater and echolocation graphics. The closing video shows white background with blue text: Enjoyed this video? Black text: Please consider donating; your support will help keep our content & resources FREE! Green button with black text: atomichands.com/donate. Image of an iPhone with Atomic Hands’ menu webpage shows with menu options: ASL STEM Storybooks, ASL STEM Videos, ASL STEM Resources, ASL STEM Dictionaries, ASL STEM News, ASL STEM Events, and Deaf STEMist Network.

Transcript: Whales and dolphins don’t have external sticky out ears like ours to funnel sound as they need to be streamlined for life in the water. Their ear canals are not open to the outside. Instead, they generally hear sounds through special structures in their jawbones. Dolphins and whales communicate with each other using a series of clicks and whistles, called echolocation, that emit sound waves and detect and interpret the echoes that bounce back off other creatures and objects in the water around them. Very interesting!

Explore

Success!

Thank you for subscribing to our email notification list. Next time we publish a new piece of content you will be updated via your email!

Subscribe to Updates

Subscribe to receive emails when we add new content to the site!

Monthly Newsletter Sign Up