{"id":548178,"date":"2026-03-20T03:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T03:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/548178\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T03:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T03:41:11","slug":"you-probably-agree-with-the-animals-on-which-bird-calls-frog-noises-and-cricket-chirps-are-most-attractive-new-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/548178\/","title":{"rendered":"You probably agree with the animals on which bird calls, frog noises and cricket chirps are most attractive \u2013 new research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Animals do all sorts of things to attract each other as potential mates. Many birds, for example, produce feathers with elaborate color patterns \u2013 from the iridescent plumage of many hummingbirds to the famously brilliant tail of a peacock. Charles Darwin<\/a>, an early pioneer in the theory of evolution, saw these colors and concluded that they exist because other birds find them attractive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But this raised a peculiar question: Why did Darwin himself find these colors beautiful too?<\/p>\n

Indeed, he noted that some animals have \u201cnearly the same taste for the beautiful<\/a> as we have,\u201d a simple observation with radical implications. Our sense of beauty might be something we humans share with other animals, rooted in biology.<\/p>\n

Over a century after Darwin made his observations, my colleagues and I decided to actually test this idea.<\/p>\n

I am an expert in animal communication<\/a>, with a focus on sound production and perception. I have worked with species such as zebra finches<\/a>, fringe-lipped bats<\/a> and t\u00fangara frogs<\/a>. For example, late at night in Panama, I have watched remote video feeds of female t\u00fangara frogs as they listened to calls that I played from different speakers. Eventually a female will hop toward one speaker, revealing which of the calls she preferred. <\/p>\n

\"frog<\/a><\/p>\n

T\u00fangara frog calls are a distinct part of the nocturnal jungle soundscape in Panama.
\n Kim Hunter<\/p>\n

Could it really be possible that this tiny frog and I are attracted to some of the same sounds? What might shared preferences say about what animals and people have in common? We needed data to find out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A global experiment<\/p>\n

To test Darwin\u2019s idea properly, we needed two things: a large collection of animal sounds that had already been tested on animals, and a large number of human listeners willing to give their opinions.<\/p>\n

For the sounds, we drew on decades of published research, including some of our own as well as studies from generous colleagues who let us use their recordings. We ended up with 110 pairs of sounds from 16 different species, including frogs, insects, birds and mammals. In each pair, the sounds are used to attract potential mates; scientists had already found which of the two versions that animals tended to prefer.<\/p>\n

\"screenshot<\/a><\/p>\n

Human volunteers played a game that asked them which animal sound they preferred.
\n Logan S. James<\/p>\n

For the human listeners, we built a gamified online experiment<\/a> played by over 4,000 participants from around the world. The task was quite simple: We played each pair of sounds in random order, and then asked which one the human participant liked more. <\/p>\n

What we found<\/p>\n

The results were striking. Across our dataset, including animals separated from human beings by hundreds of millions of years of evolution, people tended to agree with the animals<\/a> about which sound was more pleasant.<\/p>\n

Amazingly, the stronger the animal\u2019s preference, the more likely humans were to agree. We also found that people were measurably faster to click or tap on the sound that animals found more attractive, suggesting a subconscious aspect of these preferences.<\/p>\n

Song sparrows and humans tend to prefer this song.
\n Stephen Nowicki and Susan Peters27 KB (download)<\/a><\/p>\n

Song sparrows and humans tend not to prefer this song.
\n Stephen Nowicki and Susan Peters41.8 KB (download)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Bird<\/a><\/p>\n

Song sparrow.
\n Raina Fan<\/p>\n

People particularly agreed with animals when it came to what researchers call \u201cadornments\u201d: the extra trills, chucks, clicks and flourishes that animals can add to their calls. These sounds were more appealing to both animal and human listeners alike.<\/p>\n

Why do we share these preferences?<\/p>\n

This is a key question, and it will take many more studies to piece together. Our current work suggests that the architecture of the nervous system may help drive shared preferences. Despite the enormous diversity of life on Earth, many basic structures of sensory systems are similar across species<\/a>. Shared mechanisms of sound perception may lead to shared biases<\/a> in sound preference. <\/p>\n

We also found a lot of factors that didn\u2019t predict agreement. Participants with expertise in animal sounds or highly trained musicians were no different than other human judges. Intriguingly, those who reported spending more time listening to music on a daily basis agreed with animals more, a surprising finding worth investigating.<\/p>\n

Hourglass treefrogs and humans tend to prefer this call.
\n Martin J Fouquette Jr10.3 KB (download)<\/a><\/p>\n

Hourglass treefrogs and humans tend not to prefer this call.
\n Martin J Fouquette Jr5.22 KB (download)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/a><\/p>\n

Male hourglass treefrog.
\n Dylan DiCicco<\/p>\n

More to investigate<\/p>\n

We focused on sound, while Darwin\u2019s original observation was about color and visual beauty. Do humans share visual preferences with animals too? What about smell? And what\u2019s happening in our brains when we make these snap aesthetic judgments? Are the same neural circuits at work when a human and a frog both choose the same call?<\/p>\n

Preferences in animals are often subtle and variable across individuals and populations. I would love to ask birds what they think of different frog calls and vice versa, but it\u2019s only humans that we can directly ask such questions.<\/p>\n

We also found cases where humans disagreed with animals. Our results show a tendency, not a rule, and understanding where this variation comes from will be fascinating to discover.<\/p>\n

\"blue,<\/a><\/p>\n

What you may find beautiful about a butterfly or flower evolved to attract a nonhuman species.
\n Through the beauty of Kerala\/Moment via Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

My favorite takeaway from this research is a simple reminder.<\/p>\n

People find so much beauty in nature, from the dazzling colors of butterflies to the melodious songs of birds and the aromas of flowers. Yet all of these evolved to attract other species, not us. Perhaps it\u2019s because we humans share something fundamental with other animals that we too find these to be beautiful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Animals do all sorts of things to attract each other as potential mates. Many birds, for example, produce…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,66],"class_list":["post-548178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}