Why does the roar of a tiger seem to paralyze not only other animals but also some humans? Scientists from the Fauna Communications Research Institute in North Carolina, U.S.A., “have established that the tiger emits low-pitched ‘infrasound,’ a growl so deep that it is inaudible to humans,” reports The Sunday Telegraph of London. Humans can only hear sound frequencies above 20 hertz (Hz), but the tiger “mixes infrasound growls at 18 Hz and below with the roar that we can hear, and the result, according to Elizabeth von Muggenthaler, the president of the institute, is that humans can actually feel the tiger roar, a sensation that causes momentary paralysis,” explains the newspaper. Even longtime tiger trainers have experienced this phenomenon.
The Roar of a Tiger
Why does the roar of a tiger seem to paralyze not only other animals but also some humans? Scientists from the Fauna Communications Research Institute in North Carolina, U.S.A., “have established that the tiger emits low-pitched ‘infrasound,’ a growl so deep that it is inaudible to humans,” reports The Sunday Telegraph of London. Humans can only hear sound frequencies above 20 hertz (Hz), but the tiger “mixes infrasound growls at 18 Hz and below with the roar that we can hear, and the result, according to Elizabeth von Muggenthaler, the president of the institute, is that humans can actually feel the tiger roar, a sensation that causes momentary paralysis,” explains the newspaper. Even longtime tiger trainers have experienced this phenomenon.