Dolphins, cicadas, and toadfish all sing! Well, they make sounds that one could interpret as singing. My article “6 Surprising Animal Singers” came out in the September 2013 issue of Odyssey.
The trickiest part of writing this article was choosing which animals to include. As you can probably guess, way more than 6 species of animal make interesting sounds. To qualify as “surprising,” I wanted to find animals that kids wouldn’t expect to sing, or animals that sing in unusual or fascinating ways. Also, I wanted to include at least one each of an insect, mammal, bird, and fish. I wound up with: the cicada, the toadfish, the clear-winged woolly bat, the dolphin, the mockingbird, and the humpback whale. (I regret not choosing any frogs… frogs sing some fantastic songs!)
Anyway, since this is an article about music, the best part is listening to each singing critter. Here are the links from the article — since you can’t click on a printed magazine page!
Cicadas Buzz Every 17 Years
Listen to cicadas buzzing
Toadfish Hum, Grunt, and Hoot
Listen to the toadfish
Bats Hit the High Notes
(no link here, because humans can’t hear the bat’s ultrasonic calls!)
Mockingbirds Sing Almost Anything
Listen to a mockingbird
Dolphins Keep the Beat
Listen to a bottlenose dolphin
Humpback Whales Change Their Tune
Listen to a humpback whale