# Do Reptiles Like Music????? :-O



## toximac (Jan 23, 2010)

I was wondering, if reptiles really can hear Music, in sound vibrations or prefer a style of music?

What do you think they'd listen to and can some reptiles dance to music like geckos ?

Some info I got from Reptile Hearing

Amphisbaenians
Amphisbaenia manni, like many amphisbaenians, is responsive to low frequencies, below 2,000 Hz, with sensitivity of 50 dB at 1,000Hz. When the extrastapes was severed in amphisbaenians, the airborne sensitivity dropped to 30 dB, but that made no difference on the amphisbaenians ability to detect and respond to groundborne (somatic) vibrations, transmitted though the tissues of the lower jaw. The front tip of the lower jaw is most sensitive. Amphisbaenians, not surprisingly, share some other features of hearing - detecting groundborne vibrations - with snakes. See the section on Snakes below for more information.

Chelonians
In those species studied, they respond to low frequency sounds in the 50-1,500 Hz range, similar to that of crocodilians. Aquatic species studied show some difference from terrestrial species. For example, Clemmys guttata (spotted turtle) shows a peak sensitivity of 4 dB at 80 Hz, while Geochelone carbonaria (red-footed tortoise) exhibits a much lower sensitivity, with a peak of 50 dB at 300 Hz.

Crocodilians
As with chelonians, they respond to low frequency sounds in the 50-1,500 Hz range. They are not restricted to sound vibrations picked up by their ears or even their jaw bone. In addition to this sensory equipment, crocodilians have apical pits on the scales of their face and bodies which are sensitive to vibrations traveling through water. For more information on this, see Adam Britton's Crocodilian Biology Database > Integumentary Sense Organs.

Lizards
Most of the lizards for whom data has been collected show that most hear in the same range as does the green iguana (Iguana iguana), whose picks up sounds in the 500-4,000Hz range, with a peak sensitivity at 700 Hz, equal to about 24 dB. With fossorial forms (such as Holbrookia maculata) (lesser [Northern] earless lizard) and others lacking a tympanic membrane, hearing is limited to lower frequencies and requires louder sounds (stimulation) to be detected. Other eared species, such as Gerrhonotus (alligator lizards) have both high sensitivity over a wider range, while others, such as the Lepidophyma sylvaticum (Madrean tropical night lizard), has the high sensitivity but over a smaller range in the lower frequencies. Gekkonids who vocalize have both high sensitivity and high frequency, up into the 10,000Hz range.

Snakes
When mechanical vibrations are applied to the body, they result activation of the inner ear just as do airborne vibrations detected by the tympanic membrane and extrastapes do in eared reptiles. Responses to groundborne vibrations are low in sensitivity and frequency, in the 50-1,000Hz range; their peak sensitivity is at 200-300 Hz range, superior to cats. Like the crocodilians, and other reptiles with linkages of their inner ear structures to their jaw and other structures in the head and throat, snakes have another way to conduct sound to their ear. Vibrations picked up by mechanoreceptors in the skin of their bellies (and bodies?), and possibly their venter, are transmitted to the quadrate via the spinal nerves and from there into their inner ear structures. In other words, most snakes can hear a person speaking in a normal tone of voice in a quiet room at a distance of about 10 feet (3 m). So, if you think your snakes recognize their names, you are probably right. Researchers debate whether the snake's receptors cannot tell the difference between airborne or groundborne (somatic) stimuli, but that higher level processing could enable the snake to tell if the stimulus was airborne or groundborne.

Tuatara
These earless reptiles show a frequency response from 100-800 Hz, with peak sensitivity at 40 dB at 200Hz.

And this means...?
In comparison, human hearing is in the range of 20-20,000 Hz, with intensity at roughly 120 dB. The approximate threshold of pain is 130 dB, with a rock concert coming in at 130 dB, and hearing damage occurs at >90 dB Normal conversation is between 60-70 dB The typical background noise in a classroom is 20-30 dB A motorcycle going 5 mph is about 100 dB, busy traffic 70 dB, rustling leaves 20 dB, and a human breathing normally is 10 dB.

Groundborne vibration sensitivity has not been well studied in terrestrial or arboreal lizards and chelonians. It would not be surprising to learn that they, too, have some mechanism by which vibrations detected when they are are recumbent on a branch or, in the case of chelonians, on the ground.

They may listen to aqua..? :-o





The i-turtle - would look good with enclosure...





Dancing to snake charmer In Nepal









Snake bean Charmer


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## Jay84 (Jan 23, 2010)

Mine like nothing but House music and pop !


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## -Matt- (Jan 23, 2010)

Are you high? :lol:


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## Colin (Jan 23, 2010)

my snakes tap their tails to rob zombie


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## AMY22 (Jan 23, 2010)

It’s no secret that both animals AND plants benefit from music. Classical music seems to be the type that has the greatest effect, but in a lot of animal shelters and boarding kennels will have the radio playing as it gives the animals some comfort and noise.


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## whcasual79 (Jan 23, 2010)

mine flicks it's tongue out and sways left to right to the tunes of social distortion .....


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## Rainbow-Serpent (Jan 23, 2010)

My snakes love music I think, once I had loud rock music on and my bredli went up to the speaker and flickered his tongue, then backed away and tried again. 

Jungle tried to bite the speakers...I take it he prefers classical music. Odd. :lol:


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## azn4114 (Jan 23, 2010)

my bhp hates music,i bought a very expensive stereo which i do not use because she totally freaks out on the vibrations,stimmies dont seem to bother


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## Gecko75 (Jan 23, 2010)

bloody love it, put on acdc and the beardies start bobbing there heads.......


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## grannieannie (Jan 23, 2010)

I have a hearing problem myself and so don't have music playing in my house, however, when I approach my Barries viv and start talking to him, even if he's asleep, he will at least raise his head as if he knows I'm there. If he's awake, he'll quite often come to the glass doors and check me out. I'm sure he knows the tone of my voice.....familiar vibrations I guess, as I'm the only one who talks to him or picks him up.


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## toximac (Jan 23, 2010)

acdc and social distortion..good god..what kinda snakes are they, costal? lol
Mine listen to Bubblegum pop, miss papaya, bambee, ddr, aqua, toybox, atc...hot music lol
and some dance remix's ...maybe i need to put the speakers up to the tank
so it virbrates so they dance like you said or head mosh hahaha


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## slim6y (Jan 23, 2010)

AMY22 said:


> It’s no secret that both animals AND plants benefit from music. Classical music seems to be the type that has the greatest effect, but in a lot of animal shelters and boarding kennels will have the radio playing as it gives the animals some comfort and noise.



Sorry to break this news to you - but Amy, it's a fallacy and there's absolutely no proof that will suggest music or talking to a plant will help it grow - I know it's a cool idea - but it really doesn't help and many experiments have shown this - even on Mythbusters. 

As for animals - my aunt did an experiment with chickens and the radio to see if ones with the radio laid more - again it was inconclusive.

Would be cool to do a full on experiment with sound proof glass houses and 1000s of tomato plants - one with classical, one with rock, one with dance and a control with nothing.

Would have to do it over several seasons to be sure though and swap glass houses each time.

But my guess is - they'll all be identical


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## GSXR_Boy (Jan 23, 2010)

slim6y said:


> Sorry to break this news to you - but Amy, it's a fallacy and there's absolutely no proof that will suggest music or talking to a plant will help it grow -


 
I take it you don't watch Mythbusters lol


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## Guest (Jan 23, 2010)

Colin said:


> my snakes tap their tails to rob zombie


 
Colin your snakes are the coolest!!!


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## Hooglabah (Jan 23, 2010)

frogs love metalica, mudvayne devil driver really anything with growly bass/vocals


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## AMY22 (Jan 23, 2010)

*Harmful effects of rock music on neuronal branching patterns in mice*

Physicist Harvey Bird and neurobiologist Gervasia Schreckenberg subjected different groups of mice to the sound of traditional voodoo drumming, to Strauss waltzes, and to silence, and then tested each group's ability to navigate through a maze to get food. [5a, 5b] All music was played continuously at low volumes to eliminate possible behavioral effects from loud sounds generally. The groups that were subjected to either silence or Strauss waltzes had no problem learning the maze, with the Strauss waltz group having a slight edge in performance. However, the voodoo group performed progressively worse over the period of time they were exposed to the music and eventually became so disoriented that they became unable to complete the maze at all. These mice were also hyperactive and aggressive, often engaging in cannibalistic behavior. 
On dissection of the brains of these mice, highly abnormal neuronal growth patterns were found in the hippocampus region, with excessive dendritic branches growing out in all directions yet making few connections to other neurons; the hippocampus region is known to be important in learning and memory formation. Significant increases in messenger RNA, which is involved in memory formation, were also found. This latter effect probably corresponds to the increase in dendritic branching, as if the brains were persistently attempting to make sense out the sound stimulus, but could not. 
A number of commentators have interpreted these findings to condemn all forms of rock music; while this does not necessarily follow logically from the Bird and Schreckenberg results, the Retallack experiments (see section 2.5, below) on plants at least suggests that many types of rock music may be harmful to human health. Some researchers and health professionals have suggested that the electronic distortion used by many rock bands might be a factor, in addition to the common use of anapestic rhythms (persistently syncopated, with two short beats, a long beat, then a pause). 

*Music and its effects on plant growth*

Plants have been shown to significantly increase their rate of growth when stimulated by specific sound frequencies. In the 1950's, Indian botanist T.C. Singh observed under a microscope the protoplasm streaming in an Asian aquatic plant, which normally increases at sunrise, and discovered that such streaming could be induced at other times of the day by activating an electrically driven tuning fork. He then experimented with recorded South Indian violin music played to a wide variety of plants, with frequencies of the fundamental tones in the 100 to 600 Hz range; significantly increased growth rates resulted. [7] About the same time, a Canadian named Eugene Canby began subjecting test plots of wheat to recordings of violin sonatas by J.S. Bach, and found that yields increased by 66%. Other tests in Russia, the U.S., and Canada with ultrasonic frequencies yielded similar increases in the growth rates of other plant species. 
Various researchers then determined that the range of frequencies around 5000 Hz were especially potent in stimulating plant growth. During the 1960's, researcher Dorothy Retallack determined that these frequencies were best administered in the form of classical music (compositions of J.S. Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, and other European 18th and 19th century composers; traditional North Indian music performed on sitar and tabla), played intermittently for several hours per day. [8a, 8b] A Minnesota plant breeder named Dan Carlson collaborated with a music teacher named Michael Holtz to create an audio tape with a combination of frequencies centered about the 5000 Hz range, which Holtz immediately recognized as being very similar to the sound of a bird chorus at dawn. Carlson then used this music to induce record-breaking growth rates in Purple Passion vine plants. [7] 
Retallack also experimented with various types of rock music to see what effects they would have on plant growth. Plants "listening" to selections from Led Zeppelin, Vanilla Fudge, and Jimi Hendrix became stunted or gangly, with long stems and sp**** leaf growth, some bending away from the sound source; after 16 days, most of these plants died. 
Retallack also found that the discordant music of 20th century composers Arnold Schönberg and Anton von Webern also caused plants to atrophy, but not to the degree of the rock music. Schönberg is considered to be the father of 12-tone music, characterized by a total "freedom" from harmonic contraints, wherein all 12 tones of the western musical scale are ideally considered to be of equal weight and value. Twelve-tone principles of composition were eagerly embraced by avant garde faculty at music schools during the early 20th century, and over the following decades began to appear in popular music, and in background music for television and radio programs. The 12-tone style is what gives music for horror and suspense films its particular capacity to shock and terrorize. 

Health benefits of music and sound - RMHI


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## slim6y (Jan 23, 2010)

GSXR_Boy said:


> I take it you don't watch Mythbusters lol



Mythbusters (which is talked about in my post) proved that there was NO correlation between music and growth - though it was also a fairly poor experiment set up - and a large scale set up is required.


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## slim6y (Jan 23, 2010)

Oh dear - Amy - it's hard to believe you'd put a lot of weight on those seemingly dedicated scientific releases.

We're all well aware of the audiology links to loud music and concentration - but it doesn't matter what music is played - if it is too loud then it becomes apparently detrimental to concentration. 

We're also well aware that rock music does stimulate other parts of the human brain and is considered less relaxing.

Plants, at present, have been shown not to have a brain or form of concentration. It's not apparent if a plant actually thinks - therefore it's ability to comprehend music and words would seem to be above a plants cognitive ability - so we know it's not the words that affect it.

Is it the frequencies?

Humans are unable to hear anything below 20 and above 20,000Hz (dependent on age normally).

Have we experimented in a variety of frequencies - yes - that has been done, but never on a large enough scale to really prove successful.

Anyway - it's probably better to put trees in a nutrient rich high carbon dioxide atmosphere - it's proved to grow plants much quicker - however the wood (in woody plants) is generally of a substandard quality.


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## GSXR_Boy (Jan 23, 2010)

slim6y said:


> Mythbusters (which is talked about in my post) proved that there was NO correlation between music and growth - though it was also a fairly poor experiment set up - and a large scale set up is required.


 

I'm pretty sure that the plants responded to heavy metal?


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## GSXR_Boy (Jan 23, 2010)

Talking to plants helps them grow.PlausibleSeven small greenhouses were set up on the M5 Industries roof. Four were set up with stereos playing endlessly looping recordings (as having the MythBusters actually talk to the plants could contaminate the samples with their expelled carbon dioxide): Two of negative speech, two of positive speech (Kari and Scottie each made one positive and one negative inducing soundtrack), a fifth with classical music and a sixth with intense death metal music. A seventh greenhouse, used as a control sample, had no stereo. The greenhouses with the recordings of speech grew better than the control, regardless of whether such talk was kind or angry. The plants in the greenhouse with the recording of classical music grew better, while the plants in the greenhouse with the recording of intense death metal grew best of all despite somewhat dying, due to the fact that the battery died on one of the timers that was watering the plants.Seven small greenhouses were set up on the M5 Industries roof. Four were set up with stereos playing endlessly looping recordings (as having the MythBusters actually talk to the plants could contaminate the samples with their expelled carbon dioxide): Two of negative speech, two of positive speech (Kari and Scottie each made one positive and one negative inducing soundtrack), a fifth with classical music and a sixth with intense death metal music. A seventh greenhouse, used as a control sample, had no stereo. The greenhouses with the recordings of speech grew better than the control, regardless of whether such talk was kind or angry. The plants in the greenhouse with the recording of classical music grew better, while the plants in the greenhouse with the recording of intense death metal grew best of all despite somewhat dying, due to the fact that the battery died on one of the timers that was watering the plants.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(2004_season)


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## SamNabz (Jan 23, 2010)

Reptiles like music as much as they like to be taught tricks and given names.


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## slim6y (Jan 23, 2010)

Oh - GSXR - I apologise profusely - I remembered there was an anomaly now - that's totally correct - which blows the other theory that Amy put up out of the water 

The talking is a response to increased carbon dioxide (most likely) but the other ones could be down to location, location, location.... There's certainly plenty of room for error.

I'd love to see a full scale experiment set up in well controlled environments. That would put an end to the speculation once and for all  

Though it appears Mythbusters did a good job starting it


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## GSXR_Boy (Jan 23, 2010)

Not need to apoligise mate, you had me doubting myself for a bit there though! 

Be interetsing to see what happened in a longer experiment though!


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## kavsreptiles (Jan 24, 2010)

*my bredlis*

i swear hey i got home from the night clubs a few times hey an theres ginger megs (my big bredli girl) sittin at the turntables bustin out sum hardstyles music an really gettin the move on... or wait was that a fragment of my imagination.... :shock:


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## beatlloydy (Jan 24, 2010)

kavsreptiles said:


> i swear hey i got home from the night clubs a few times hey an theres ginger megs (my big bredli girl) sittin at the turntables bustin out sum hardstyles music an really gettin the move on... or wait was that a fragment of my imagination.... :shock:



Most likely a figment of your imagination...if it was a fragment then your imagination just broke off.


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## SamNabz (Jan 24, 2010)

lmfao beatlloydy


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## toximac (Jan 26, 2010)

kavsreptiles said:


> i swear hey i got home from the night clubs a few times hey an theres ginger megs (my big bredli girl) sittin at the turntables bustin out sum hardstyles music an really gettin the move on... or wait was that a fragment of my imagination.... :shock:



thats what happens to my bredyl they dance side to side and I swear its not the alcohol cause Im the one driving.


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## Tinky (Jan 27, 2010)

Yea

Put some good rock classics on and my beardies are head bobbinh and holding up therir arms in a three finger satanic salute.

Play rap or kylie and they go into their hides. My mum playes some Celene Dion once. Took me a week to clean up there crap.


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## Tinky (Jan 27, 2010)

My Beardie, Bolt has some awsome air guitar moves.


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## toximac (Feb 18, 2010)

I feel sorry for the reptiles that have to listen to ac/dc as shown on the forum lol I also saw that thing on myth busters with the plants, didn't effect them, but the ones with high rock were to grow 1% or something more than the classical lol... I dont know if they just put that one in to make the audience interested


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## toximac (Mar 22, 2010)

so like yeah, do your reptiles listen to music


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## toximac (Mar 23, 2010)

Cause my BHP like aqua


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## maanz641 (Mar 23, 2010)

mine love disturbed .........................because they have no choice


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## Andrais (Mar 23, 2010)

when mo jo was around he used to bob his head and do run up and down when i played loud, rock music like metallica. He got really into the head bobing when a bass guitar was playing  snake doesn't like it tho i could imagine if she could talk she would say... 'turn that darn racket off! im tryna sleep here!' cranky old snake


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## Scleropages (Mar 23, 2010)

hahahahah


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