If you’ve spent any time around roosters, you know that their “morning” crowing can be… loud. That distinctive cock-a-doodle-doo is piercing: if you happen to be standing near a rooster sounding off, you’re hit with a sound wave that’s about 100 decibels. That’s unpleasantly loud, like the whir of chainsaw. If one cock-a-doodled right in your ear, the sound is even louder—over 140 decibels. Sounds that loud can cause damage in less than a second, and are just shy of shattering your eardrum.
In fact, roosters are so loud that it’s surprising they aren’t deaf from their own calls. So Belgian researchers looked into it, and found that they have special ears which allow them to crow to their hearts’ content without losing their hearing.
