Despite having no ears, snakes have surprisingly sensitive hearing: study

They may not have ears, but a new study suggests snakes have surprising sensitive hearing and may even be able to hear human voices.

They may not have ears, but a new study suggests snakes might be able to hear better than you think.

Researchers from Australia's Queensland University looked into how various species of snakes responded to sound. Their study, published in the journal PLOS ONE last week, involved 19 snakes from five genetic subfamilies.

“Because snakes don’t have external ears, people typically think they’re deaf and can only feel vibrations through the ground and into their bodies,” lead author Christina Zdenek said in a news release. “But our research – the first of its kind using non-anesthetised, freely moving snakes – found they do react to soundwaves travelling through the air, and possibly human voices.”

The researchers conducted experiments with the snakes in a soundproof room and observed their body movement as well as any hissing, tongue-flicking and any head or jaw movements in responses to three different sounds.

Different types of frequencies were also tested, including a low frequency sound in the range of 1 to 150 Hz that would make the ground vibrate, a mid-frequency sound in the range of 150 to 300 Hz, and a high frequency sound between 300 and 450 Hz.

The reactions to the sounds varied depending on species. Woma pythons were the only snakes that increases their movement in respond to sound and actually tended to move toward it.

"Woma pythons are large nocturnal snakes with fewer predators than smaller species and probably don’t need to be as cautious, so they tended to approach sound,” Zdenek said.