Why do goats sound like humans? A Cozy Critters Collaboration

Have you ever heard a fox scream at night and thought it was a human? And why, when goats bleat, do they sometimes sound like human babies? Animals can sometimes make similar noises but not because they’re feeling the same things. It often has more to do with how similar the sound-making structures in our bodies are! In this bonus episode, we learn about how animals make sounds and how their vocal folds work with Dougie Pickles, host of the sleepy adventure podcast Cozy Critters. 

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Episode Transcript

Jane (00:20):
This is But Why, A Podcast for Curious Kids from Vermont
Public. I'm Jane Lindholm. Onthis show, kids around the world
send us questions, and we findinteresting people to offer
answers. Today we have a littlebonus episode inspired by a
curious adult who sent us aquestion about doing something
together.

Dougie Pickles (00:39):
Hey, Howdy, I'm Dougie Pickles, your curious
animal-loving guide from theCozy Critters podcast. I'm a
grownup who never stoppedfinding amazement in the small,
wonderful things, like the sounda caterpillar makes when it
chews, or the determined littleshuffle of a penguin on a
mission. On Cozy Critters, Ihelp kids wind down at night by

(01:04):
visiting incredible animals allover the world.

Jane (01:08):
As he mentioned, Doug hosts a podcast called Cozy
Critters.

Dougie Pickles (01:13):
Cozy Critters is a sleepy adventure podcast for
kids who love animals and want alittle magic at bedtime. Each
episode, my sidekick Miss MeowMeow and I climb into our
magical hot air balloon andfloat off to visit real animals
somewhere on Earth. We learnabout their lives, the sounds

(01:35):
they make, and dive into tons ofamazing animal facts that you'll
want to share with your friends.

Jane (01:41):
The reason it's called Cozy Critters is not necessarily
because all the animals theytalk about are cozy, but because
the podcast itself is designedto be cozy. It's supposed to
help you wind down and get readyto drift off to sleep. If you
already listen to Cozy Critters,you might notice that Doug's
voice sounds pretty differentright now than what you're used

(02:04):
to.

Dougie Pickles (02:04):
You're right. On Cozy Critters, my voice is extra
soft and cozy because I'm tryingto help kids drift off to sleep.
But here on But Why, I get tobring out my daytime Dougie
Pickles voice, the one that'scurious, excited and ready to
talk about weird animal factswithout putting everyone

(02:26):
immediately to bed.

Jane (02:27):
Doug thought it would be really fun to have But Why and
Cozy Critters collaborate dosomething together. So I got to
be a guest on a really funepisode of that podcast, and
Doug is going to be a guest onthis episode. And he came to us
with something he specificallywanted to tell you about.

Dougie Pickles (02:46):
I wanted to talk about a wild fact that surprises
a lot of people. Some animalscan sound just like humans. They
growl, they giggle, scream orshout in ways that our ears can
recognize. Their voices can beloud, dramatic, and honestly,
pretty spooky sometimes, butbehind the sound is a whole lot

(03:09):
of biology, evolution, problemsolving, things like that. It's
like nature is running on itsown orchestra, and every
creature has an instrument itlearned to play long before
humans ever even existed.

Jane (03:25):
So other animals sometimes make sounds that are really
similar to human sounds, butthat doesn't mean they're making
those sounds for the samereasons we do take, for example,
a scream. Why do you scream?Sometimes we humans scream on
the playground or when we'rebeing tickled because we're
having fun, but often humansscream if we're scared or

(03:49):
surprised or alarmed. Doug says,sometimes animals that make
screaming sounds areexperiencing the same
thing--well, maybe not usuallybeing tickled--but not always.

Dougie Pickles (04:00):
Foxes make screams that can sound exactly
like humans, maybe shoutingacross a playground, but they're
usually saying, "This is myspace." Or "Hello, I'm over
here." Mountain lions producescreams that sound kind of like
a person yelling for help, butthey're actually calling to find
a mate. Goats and sheep canbleat in ways that sound

(04:23):
superhuman, because their vocalcords are shaped a lot like
ours. And there's even koalas,which make a deep bellowing
growl that sounds like someoneis trying to start a broken
motorcycle, and they'rebasically saying "I'm big and
tough," even though, you know,they're not that big. So

(04:44):
sometimes nature actually has apretty funny sense of humor.

Jane (04:48):
So why do other animals often sound so human like well,
a lot of it comes down to howthe parts of our bodies that
make sounds are built

Dougie Pickles (04:57):
Humans and many animals both have vocal cords, a
throat, lungs and a mouth, ormaybe a beak that helps shape
the sound. So when air pushesthrough those parts, the noises
end up sounding kind of similar,but again, the purpose is very
different. Animals use sound theway we use long distance phone

(05:20):
calls or text messages oralarms: they allow us to
communicate emotions, identity,danger, even location, and they
do this with whatever soundstheir bodies make. Sometimes
that ends up sounding like ahuman scream, even if the animal
isn't scared at all. So let'stalk about vocal cords for just

(05:42):
a second. In humans and manymammals, there are folds of soft
tissue in the throat calledvocal cords, or you may hear
them called vocal folds. When webreathe out from our lungs, the
air passes through a small gapbetween the vocal cords. If the
cords are close together, theair flow makes them vibrate,

(06:05):
kind of like two ribbonstrembling in the breeze. Those
vibrations produce sound waves,which is our voice. And the
pitch, that's how high or howlow the sound is, depends on how
long and tight those folds are.So if the folds are long and
loose, you get a deeper, lowervoice. If they're short and

(06:29):
tight, you get a higher voice.And some animals may have a
slightly different vocal system.For example, some marine mammals
don't have typical vocal cords.For example, dolphins have
phonic lips in their nasalpassage instead of vocal cords
in their throat.
So basically, lungs push airinto the vocal cords, which

(06:52):
vibrate and sound is produced.The animal then shapes that
sound with their cheeks, theirthroat, their mouth, their
tongue, maybe even a trunk or abeak, and all that helps make
their final noise.

Jane (07:07):
That's pretty cool, and it's neat that Doug could help
us think about this interestingfeature of the natural world and
how we fit into it, alongsideall the other animals that call
Earth home. Thanks to DougFraser-- Dougie Pickles, as he
calls himself--for bringing allthese neat animal facts to us.
You can check out the podcast hemakes, Cozy Critters, wherever

(07:29):
you listen to this podcast. Theepisode I got to make with Cozy
Critters is out now, and you canfind all the other calming
get-ready-for-relaxing episodestoo. Now, if this sparked any
questions for you, you know youcan always send questions on any
subject to us. Have an adulthelp you record yourself asking
your question. Tell us yourfirst name, where you live, and

(07:51):
how old you are, and then haveyour adult send the audio file
to [e-mail]. Wewish we could answer all the
questions you send us, but welisten to them all, and we love
hearing your voices. But Why isproduced at Vermont Public and
distributed by PRX. The show ismade by Melody Bodette, Sarah
Baik and me, Jane Lindholm. JoeyPalumbo is our video editor, and

(08:15):
Luke Reynolds wrote our thememusic. We'll be back in one week
with an all new episode untilthen, stay curious.