Lions are the kings of the jungle. According to CBS News, these feline animals are number 15 of the world's most dangerous animals, causing over 100 fatalities every year.
Aside from its physique, one thing that makes lions scary is the infamous lion's roar. Study shows that the lion's roar can actually have an effect on humans, and its prey. What is it?
Why do lions roar?
A lion yawns on July 19, 2010 in the Edeni Game Reserve, South Africa. Edeni is a 21,000 acre wilderness area with an abundance of game and birdlife located near Kruger National Park in South Africa.
A lion's roar can be heard from five miles away. That is how these animals can make an impact in a quiet jungle.
Not only are they scary to be seen nearby, they are also born to hunt food. It's common knowledge never to run whenever finding a wild lion in the forest.
But, did you know that a simple lion's roar can paralyze preys or even humans?
Can it really paralyze us?
A lion looks out from its enclosure at Sydney Zoo on February 24, 2020 in Sydney, Australia. Sydney Zoo, located at Bungarribee Park in Western Sydney, is the first new zoo to be built in Sydney in more than 100 years. The Zoo opened to the public on 7 December 2019.
One study from North Carolina did a similar study with lions and tigers' roar. As explained, there's a possibility that a simple lion or tiger's roar could make a person paralyzed.
Elizabeth von Muggenthaler, a bioacoustician from the Fauna Communications Research Institute in North Carolina, discovered that when a lion or tiger gives a deep, loud roar, its prey could actually experience paralysis on the spot.
In animals, this technique was used by lions in order for them to give time to strike the prey. In human's hearing, the lion's roar produced "infrasound." This gives the chilling effect of hearing a deep roar that could send a shock to humans.
"Humans can only hear some of the sounds that tigers use to communicate," says von Muggenthaler. "Humans can hear frequencies from 20 hertz to 20,000 hertz, but whales, elephants, rhinos, and tigers can produce sounds below 20 hertz."
As added by her:
"When a tiger roars-the sound will rattle and paralyze you," says von Muggenthaler. "Although untested, we suspect that this is caused by the low frequencies and loudness of the sound."
Conclusion
Though researchers believe that a lion's roar could paralyze humans, there are still no cases that this happened.
Aside from that, no other researches are supporting this claim. It's safe to say it has a basis but not yet sufficient.
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