Puzzle of Koalasâ Unusually Deep Voices Solved: A Very Special Organ
The scientists harvested body parts from wild koalas that had been humanely euthanized for other reasons. When scientists looked at the voice boxes of male koalas, they found their vocal cords werenât large enough to create the animalsâ extremely low-pitched mating bellows. But further examination revealed a second, much larger pair of vocal folds located outside of the larynx, where the oral and nasal cavities connect.
Charlton and his colleagues used a combination of physical, video, and acoustic analyses to demonstrate that the newly discovered vocal folds outside of the larynx are capable of producing extremely low-pitched sound as the koala inhales air through its nostrils. (Read more about koalas in National Geographic magazine.)
Itâs the first evidence in a land-dwelling mammal of an organ other than the larynx that is devoted to producing sound.
The only other example of a specialized sound-producing organ in mammals that is independent of the larynx is the phonic lips that toothed whales use to generate echolocationâor the natural sonar that helps them find prey, said Charlton, whose study is published in the journal Current Biology.
But Charlton and colleagues plan to keep looking to find other animals with such low voices.
here you can learn more and listen to a recording of the koalasÂ
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