Giraffes Communicating By Infrasound

[Richard W Travsky <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

The Friday evening ABC news had a segment on this. Went to their web site:

 http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/DailyNews/giraffes021010.html
 By Lynn Sherr
 ... 
 But now it turns out these amazing creatures have yet another secret.
 Astonishing new evidence indicates that these mammals we have always
 considered mute may actually be "talking" to each other.

 "We believe that giraffes are forcing large columns of air out their
 long, long trachea, and out of a small opening, which is actually their
 larynx," says bioacoustical researcher Liz von Muggenthaler, president of
 the Fauna Communications Research Institute in North Carolina. "And that
 is creating a sound."

 Von Muggenthaler has made a startling discovery. She says giraffes are
 communicating in a range far beneath our own hearing, called infrasound.
 And she says it's produced when the giraffes throw back their heads.

 "What this is doing is opening up the larynx so that air can pass freely
 through," she says. "If you could hear it, it would sound like a great
 burst of air: PSSH." 
 ...
 Lynn Sherr hosts a one-hour special on giraffes, Tall Blondes, on Nature,
 this Sunday on PBS at 8 p.m. ET. 

Of course, the first thing that came to my mind was long necked
sauropods...