A low-frequency hoot carries well and allows for maximum reach with minimum attenuation in a variety of habitats, assuming the hooting isn’t too close to the ground. When my friend Kinari Webb was studying orangutans in the rainforests of Borneo, she and her colleagues used owllike hoots to signal one another. “A medium-pitched whoo-whoo call carries well,” she says, so it’s the method most Indonesians use to locate one another in the forest. From the right perch, even the subtle hoot of the Long-eared Owl can travel more than a third of a mile, if wind or traffic doesn’t drown it out.
Low frequency hoot
