When emergency sirens pass by, all the dogs in my neighbourhood yowl. The reason, I鈥檝e read, is that the sound of the siren hurts their sensitive ears. Yet my cat, whose hearing seems to be more sensitive than my dog鈥檚, pays no attention. Why would the sound hurt a dog鈥檚 ears and not those of a cat?
鈥� The reason dogs yowl when emergency services go by may be because, to the dogs, the siren sounds like other dogs howling and they respond by howling back. This goes back to the time when they hunted in packs and signalled to one another when searching for prey. Even if the siren does not mimic exactly the sound of another dog, they can probably pick out a component part of the screaming siren that does. Cats, on the other hand, hunt alone, are not pack animals and so do not respond to the sirens.
Anne Bloomberg, London, UK
Advertisement
鈥� Your correspondent might like to read the excellent Dogwatching: Why dogs bark and other canine mysteries explained. In it, anthropologist Desmond Morris answers 46 FAQs. He mentions that families who attempt to sing music together are sometimes helped, or hindered, by their dog, which joins in when its human family breaks into a group howl.
Dogs, wolves and humans evolved as cooperative hunters, and more recently, sheep guardians, with a need to keep in touch with their partners on the next ridge. Hence howling, yodelling and such devices as the Israeli challil, or shepherd鈥檚 flute. Sirens are artificial, amplified howling. Their rise and fall is calculated to alarm and stir us and to my ear, and my dogs鈥� ears, they succeed splendidly.
Ann Bradford Drummond, Micanopy, Florida, US