What Sound Does a Giraffe Make? Hums, Snorts and Silence

Are giraffes silent?

For a long time many people, including some biologists, believed giraffes were mute. One idea was that the long neck and windpipe made it impossible to push enough air past the vocal folds to make a proper sound. That turned out to be wrong. Giraffes have a normal, working larynx (voice box) and can produce a range of sounds.

The myth survived because giraffes really are quiet most of the time. They rarely call during the day, many of their sounds are soft, and they do much of their communicating by sight. With eyes high above the savanna, a giraffe can watch other giraffes hundreds of meters away, so it may not need to call often.

What sounds do giraffes make?

Researchers and keepers have recorded a surprising variety of giraffe sounds:

The snort is the sound you are most likely to hear on safari. It is a sharp burst of air through the nostrils, often given when a giraffe spots a lion or a vehicle coming too close, and other giraffes usually look up when they hear it.

The mystery of giraffe humming

The most surprising discovery came from a study published in 2015. Researchers recorded giraffes at three European zoos, Berlin Tierpark in Germany, Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark and Vienna Zoo in Austria, collecting about 947 hours of sound over day and night. Besides the known snorts, grunts and bursts of air, they found a deep, sustained humming sound, made mainly at night. In total they captured 65 hums.

The hums were low-pitched but well within human hearing, harmonic like a musical note, and often rose and fell in pitch. Their structure suggests they could carry information about the caller, such as its size or mood. Why giraffes hum is still unknown. It could help them stay in touch in darkness, when they cannot see each other, or it might be connected to sleep, which giraffes take in short bouts at night. See How do giraffes sleep? Studies of wild giraffes are needed to find out whether they hum on the savanna too.

Do giraffes use infrasound?

Infrasound is sound too low for humans to hear, below about 20 hertz. Elephants use it to call to each other across kilometers, and because giraffes are also very large and have long airways, many people assumed they did the same. Some earlier reports claimed to have recorded infrasonic sounds from giraffes.

The evidence is weak. The 2015 zoo study looked carefully for infrasound and found none: every recorded giraffe sound was within the normal range of human hearing. That does not prove giraffes never make infrasonic sounds, but it means the idea should be treated with caution until better recordings are made. For comparison, read How do elephants communicate?

Why are giraffes so quiet?

Staying quiet may simply be safer. Noise could draw the attention of lions and hyenas, and a calf hidden in long grass is probably better off silent. Giraffes also live in loose groups whose members can see each other across open country, so visual signals often do the job that calls do in forest animals. Finally, many giraffe sounds are soft or made at night, when few people are listening, which helped the silent-giraffe myth last so long.

How do giraffe mothers and calves communicate?

Sound seems most important between mothers and calves. A calf separated from its mother may bleat, moo or mew, and a mother searching for her calf can bellow loudly. In the first weeks of life, calves spend much of their time lying hidden while the mother feeds nearby, and calls help them find each other again.

Mothers also leave calves together in “nursery groups” watched by one female. Some observers have reported mothers whistling to their calves, though these softer sounds are hard to record in the wild.

How else do giraffes communicate?

Much of giraffe communication is silent. Body language matters a lot: a dominant male walks stiffly with his head and chin held high and turns sideways to show his size, while a lower-ranking male drops his head and ears or moves away. Males also test whether females are ready to mate by tasting their urine, a behavior called flehmen.

Giraffes also have a strong, musky smell that comes from chemicals in their fur, and males smell stronger than females. Scent may help giraffes recognize each other or signal their condition. Learn more about giraffe social life in our giraffe profile.