# can tarantulas hear?



## xBurntBytheSunx (Jul 12, 2003)

i was wondering if my t enjoys listening to my music

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Bob the thief (Jul 12, 2003)

It is probably bothered by it. Tarantulas are very sensitive to any vibration. All mines turn very agitated when people stop cars on my block blasting music.


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## vulpina (Jul 12, 2003)

I would agree with Bob, since they are sensitive to vibrations, I would think that if music were played too loud the vibrations would disturbe them.

Andy


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## Code Monkey (Jul 12, 2003)

I'd think you both think wrong as I've seen many posts from people who listen to extremely loud music in the presence of their Ts and get no reaction.

They do appear to be able to pseudo-hear with their ability to pick up atmospheric vibrations (some have reported them learning to react to their caretaker's voice versus other human voices), but they also seem quite capable of adapting to tune out any non-important vibrations.


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## vulpina (Jul 12, 2003)

Ok Code, I was just guessing at that, but assumed since they pick up vibrations that the vibrations from loud music would also confuse the T's.  I know that when I walk into my T room if my Cobalt or Indian Violet are out the vibrations from walking cause them to rush down their burrows.  And I understand that walking is not a constant vibration like music, so maybe they can tune out the consant vibrations.

Andy


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## deifiler (Jul 12, 2003)

My P.Regalis used to come out of it's nest when I played cannibal corpse. Even though it was due to the vibrations scaring/luring it out it still was pretty nifty seeing it come out to certain tunes...

Anyway I've moved my speakers now and it's stopped.

Oh one thing I did notice that was interesting... even witht he music on loud ebough to provoke movement from the spider... It could still distinguish the movement of prey and succesffully catch it

Reactions: Funny 1


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## xBurntBytheSunx (Jul 12, 2003)

hahaha does your tarantula prefer cannibal corpse better with chris barnes or george corpsegrinder?

Reactions: Agree 1 | Funny 1


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## SpiderFood (Jul 12, 2003)

I would hope Barnes definitly. LMAO


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## Code Monkey (Jul 12, 2003)

I would say that science has only begun to delve into how sensitive Ts and other spiders are to sound/vibrations. The simplistic version of conventional wisdom says they're deaf because no dedicated and centralized hearing organ is present, but I'm willing to bet we're going to find their whole body is a "hearing" organ. They're probably far more discrimination in picking up and distinguishing important from non-important sounds/vibrations than any sentient hairless ape can manage.


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## jesses (Jul 12, 2003)

> _Originally posted by deifiler _
> *My P.Regalis used to come out of it's nest when I played cannibal corpse. Even though it was due to the vibrations scaring/luring it out it still was pretty nifty seeing it come out to certain tunes...
> 
> *


My Tarantulas don't care about music, but if I play anything by Basement Jaxx, all of my Avicularia (Avic, Versicolor, Metallica) will come out of their webs and start making circles around their enclosure. I have 8 genus of Tarantula and only the Avicularia respond to Basement Jaxx.


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## skinheaddave (Jul 12, 2003)

Do you have any arboreals other than Avicularia?

*WARNING: The following is pure speculation*

I have no idea about Ts, but for scorpions, vibrations can be broken into two catagories.  Vibrations coming through the ground are picked up by slit sensilae in the legs, wheras airborne vibrations are picked up by structures such as the trichborthria on the chela -- basicaly "hairs."  This is an oversimplification, but that is the basics.  So, if tarantulas also have structures specialized for airborne and ground-based vibrations it would make sense that arboreal tarantulas would be adapted to detect airborne vibrations moreso than terrestrial Ts.  Avicularia DO have incredibly long setae (one of the reasons I don't like them) which should be particularily attuned to airborne vibrations.  So perhaps your avics are "hearing" the music moreso than your other Ts.  As for speculations on their musical taste, I'm not going to touch that one. 

Cheers,
Dave


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## crash769 (Jul 12, 2003)

My A. Avic comes out of her web when I play music or have my T.V. lould.  She seems to be the only one to respond to it.


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## deifiler (Jul 12, 2003)

Well, if you consider that 'hearing' is merely soundwaves, airbourne vibrations caused by different pressures, then vibrating against our ear drum, then the rest of the ear, where the vibrations are transfered into actual 'sounds' in the cochlea (Sorry if that's incorrect but I havn't studied this for years!)

We could do with better information on the process of human and other animal hearing..

With that in mind though, could tarantulas simply feeling the soundwaves be classed as hearing? 

Oh and its George they like! I mainly play the live cannibalism CD


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## skinheaddave (Jul 12, 2003)

I don't think you can count feeling of the sound-waves as hearing unless the nervous system is set up in such a way as to interpret the vibration as sound.  The cochlea basically has different parts attuned to different frequencies and this is what allows us to hear the different frequencies.  I know that Ts can feel the vibrations, but I don't imagine they interpret it as sound at all.

Cheers,
Dave


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## deifiler (Jul 12, 2003)

> _Originally posted by skinheaddave _
> *I don't think you can count feeling of the sound-waves as hearing unless the nervous system is set up in such a way as to interpret the vibration as sound.  The cochlea basically has different parts attuned to different frequencies and this is what allows us to hear the different frequencies.  I know that Ts can feel the vibrations, but I don't imagine they interpret it as sound at all.
> 
> Cheers,
> Dave *


Ahh that's good enough for the hypothesis of "tarantulas can't hear" to be formed for me.


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## pelo (Jul 12, 2003)

I imagine Code Monkey's T's know his presence...all those bad vibrations he gives off...;P ....lol....peace...


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## Code Monkey (Jul 12, 2003)

> _Originally posted by skinheaddave _
> *I don't think you can count feeling of the sound-waves as hearing unless the nervous system is set up in such a way as to interpret the vibration as sound.  The cochlea basically has different parts attuned to different frequencies and this is what allows us to hear the different frequencies.  I know that Ts can feel the vibrations, but I don't imagine they interpret it as sound at all.*


That's a mighty subjective definition of hearing you got, Dave.

Sure, it's probably a safe bet to say that because of how different the T CNS is that they don't hear vibrations the same way we do, but it's also so different that they don't probably sense ANY vibration the same way we do.

They sense the same vibrations that we do as sound, but how its interpreted is pure speculation. I find it safe to say they "sense/hear" vibrations because there's no way to know what their perception of it is as all. That they're picking up on auditory (to us) vibrations means that in so far as you can make comparisons they are sensing and/or hearing sound (which is nothing more than a particular set of wavelengths of airborne vibration that our organs are sensitive to picking up an our CNS wired to create a thought that we perceive as sounds).


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## xBurntBytheSunx (Jul 12, 2003)

"Oh and its George they like! I mainly play the live cannibalism CD" 

good deal, i was at the show where they recorded half of that album.  george pointed right at my friend and said "I WILL KILL YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU "   one of the more memorable shows i've been to.


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## Tamara (Jul 12, 2003)

Nice thread!
I think that the end justifies the means, in this case. Sound is vibration, and being able to perceive and react to that vibration is, loosely speaking, hearing. 
It could just be a discussion of semantics--does hearing necessitate having an ear? If so, then T's don't hear. But we know they're listening.:? 
Tamara


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## arcane (Jul 12, 2003)

*random drunken philosophical rant*

There's this article by this guy named Nagel, something like "What It's Like to Be a Bat"... how we can never really fully comprehend the sensory world of something like a bat, because we have nothing to compare to, nothing equivilant.  We think "bat sonar" and we think of some predator like vision system, but it is closer to hearing. 

Anyway.. they can detect sound waves, I'd say that qualifies as hearing in my book.  Sure, it may not be like ours, but their vision is along different spectrums they still "see".  

Here's a link to the Nagel article for the academic types with too much time on their hands: 

nagel link


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## Code Monkey (Jul 13, 2003)

> _Originally posted by skinheaddave _
> *Avicularia DO have incredibly long setae (one of the reasons I don't like them)... *


_delayed reaction - it took me 24 hours for this to bounce around the subconscious enough..._

Is this some sort of skinhead bias, Dave, you got something against the Ts with long hair?


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## skinheaddave (Jul 13, 2003)

Chip,

Yes, actualy.  I tend to like the less fuzzy Ts.  Of course I like scorps, so go figure.  But truly, I like short haired Ts, short haired dogs, non-poofy birds, I hate short-haired cats less etc. etc.  It is an aesthetic. 

As for my subjective definition of hearing, that it is.  It is all about how I imagine things to be perceived.  Do we "hear" the wind in our hair?  You see, I don't expect my hesitancy to call it hearing stand up to your standards or anyone else's.  I just don't feel comfortable calling it hearing beyond in a sort of loose fashion (like my previous post).

Cheers,
Dave


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## Diao (Jul 13, 2003)

My old Emporer became incredibly aggressive when I played Venetian Snares.  Understandable, but my rosie pays no attention to the music I'm listening to, be it harsh and abrasive or mellow and ambient.


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## Mad Scientist (Jul 14, 2003)

I believe that I read somewhere to determine whether or not a T can detect airborne vibrations, is to shout something in their direction from a distance. ("distance" being the operative word as to not actually startle them by a blast of air; making them run becuase you breathed on them) 

If the soundwaves from the shout causes them to run. You know they sense vibrations.

But in all honesty who wants to look like an idot shouting at a T? ;P


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## Ultimate Instar (Jul 14, 2003)

I gave two of my Ts a hearing test.  Since I do hearing tests on my husband's patients, I tried out my C. cyaneopubescens and B. pallidum on the audiology equipment.  I put them in the audiology booth (sound-proof room)and put the headphones on top of the cage.  (No, it wasn't possible to put the headphones on the T. )  I tested them out at on tones between 125 Hertz to 10,000 Hz and at up to 100 decibels.  The Ts were at 2 inches and 5 inches away from the headphones.  That means that they weren't getting tested with the full 100 decibels but that is still fairly loud.  I didn't see any reactions from them when I turned on the tones.  This either means that they don't care or they don't hear the sound.  125 Hz is pretty low-pitched so I suspect that they sensed vibrations from that.  I should try this out on a more nervous specimen, but I suspect that even if they can hear it, loud noises don't bother them very much.  A better experiment would be to try to condition them with food to respond to different sounds.

Karen N.


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## MizM (Jul 14, 2003)

> _Originally posted by skinheaddave _
> *Chip,
> 
> Yes, actualy.  I tend to like the less fuzzy Ts.  Of course I like scorps, so go figure.  But truly, I like short haired Ts, short haired dogs, non-poofy birds, I hate short-haired cats less etc. etc.  It is an aesthetic.
> ...


Hey now, my husband's a long haired hippie! We just cut off 16" and sent it to "Locks of Love" and it's STILL long... so no slams!!=D 

Great idea Karen!!!

My neighbor is completely deaf (from birth) and he's kinda more sensitive to the bass portions when we play music. He can feel them very clearly..... but is he "hearing?""If a tree falls in the forests, and no ne is there to hear it, does it make a noise?"


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## xBurntBytheSunx (Jul 15, 2003)

my t doesn't seem to mind hearing extol near full volume so i guess it must not bother him much.


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## Richier89 (Jun 26, 2018)

Code Monkey said:


> I'd think you both think wrong as I've seen many posts from people who listen to extremely loud music in the presence of their Ts and get no reaction.
> 
> They do appear to be able to pseudo-hear with their ability to pick up atmospheric vibrations (some have reported them learning to react to their caretaker's voice versus other human voices), but they also seem quite capable of adapting to tune out any non-important vibrations.


 I can second this, my T's are in a diy built unit with sliding perspex doors (which dont run too smoothly sadly).at first they all would bolt into their hides, but now none of them budge at all


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## Ultum4Spiderz (Jun 26, 2018)

jesses said:


> My Tarantulas don't care about music, but if I play anything by Basement Jaxx, all of my Avicularia (Avic, Versicolor, Metallica) will come out of their webs and start making circles around their enclosure. I have 8 genus of Tarantula and only the Avicularia respond to Basement Jaxx.


Mine did this prior to removing them from my theater room/ bedroom. Explore during loud noise, bass.


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## Feel Camile (Sep 5, 2019)

xBurntBytheSunx said:


> i was wondering if my t enjoys listening to my music


Im like 13 years late on this thread lol but its really strange that people say tarantulas can't hear, because I play rainforest sounds like birds and monkeys lightly, about 10 or 15 away from my pink toe and every time I turn on the bird sounds, which is not loud at all, she starts walking all around her cage. I just wish I knew whether she was liking it or if she was scared. I actually play it for my plants and it seems that my other Little Critters like it.


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