Have you ever seen a frog with human ears? I haven’t and think it would look quite weird. But this does not mean that frogs don’t hear anything around them.
Frogs do hear but their ears are sort of “hidden” so you can’t see them. Want to know exactly how frogs hear and where the ears are located? Keep reading this article!
So, do frogs have ears? Frogs do have ears, although they are not located externally. Frog ears are located internally and can be seen as a hole on each side of its head. You find the ears just behind the eyes. The ears are protected by tympanic membranes (also called eardrums). to protect the inner ear cavity and help transmit the sound vibrations.
How Do Frogs Hear
Now that you know that frogs have ears, I want to explain a little bit about how frogs hear. The hearing of a frog is very similar to that of a human. Just like you and me, a frog has an eardrum and inner ear.
But, as I said earlier, he doesn’t have earlobes or actual ears hanging on the side of their head just like us. This is because it would not be helpful to them (Think about hydrodynamics when swimming).
Instead of having the eardrum in the ear, as we do, frogs have the eardrum directly on the side of the frog’s head. This way the eardrum works like a shield for the inner ear.
This is called the tympanic membrane (also called tympanum) more on that later in this article (scroll down if you want to know more about it now)
Can Frogs Hear With Their Lungs?
Not exactly. But the truth is that the tympanum of frogs is actually connected to their lungs. Now I know this sounds crazy for now, but I hope it makes sense after this paragraph.
Ever wondered how frogs can make such loud noises without hurting their own eardrum? That is where the connection comes in.
The lungs vibrate and are almost as sensitive to hearing as their eardrums. This means that this allows the frog to make really loud noises without hurting their own ears!
How does this work you ask? The lungs have the special capability to equalize pressure differences between the outer surface of the eardrum and the inner surface of the eardrum. In this way, they can make really loud noises without hurting themselves.
