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Adam Lewis of Sound Concealment “How deer hear”
well I’ve been hunting for 24 years now and a big hunter, and I’m also a, good or bad, a perfectionist. And so through my years of hunting in Michigan really there one thing that can really bother me a lot when I was in the woods. It was the fact that I couldn’t come and go, I couldn’t set up stands without making noise. It didn’t matter really what I did. It was a big problem that I had, and you can do kind of good sometimes, and you can totally fail other times. Adam Lewis of Sound Concealment “How deer hear” But I really found that making noise was a big problem that I had and through talking with other hunters, found out it was with them too.
in a nutshell version of why I started Sound Barrier LLC was just to help hunters in area
So that is I guess the simple, in a nutshell version of why I started Sound Barrier LLC was just to help hunters in area that really isn’t being addressed in the hunting community, isn’t being talked about too much in the hunting community, and I truly believe is the biggest way that hunters can improve their game, take their hunting to the next level, and increase their success by really getting past the deer’s ears, and knowing about how deer hear, and how sounds that us hunters make affect them is a big part of that. So anyways, that’s why I started it.
Bruce: So folks, get your pen and paper out, because Adam’s going to start out with how deer hear. So Adam? Adam Lewis of Sound Concealment “How deer hear”
probably for the last four years or so I’ve done a lot of research. I guess it was a process. It starts with, man, this is a problem.
Adam: Yeah, so probably for the last four years or so I’ve done a lot of research. I guess it was a process. It starts with, man, this is a problem. And then it starts with an idea. For me, it was the idea for a product, which was how can I keep myself from being heard by deer? And that process started a lot of research into, well, what is known about how deer hear? And there really isn’t a whole lot out there, not a lot of scientific research, and it’s a lot of guesswork really with hunters. So I started doing research and was able to find some science behind it, and did a bunch more of my own, and so that’s been part of the quest the last four years. And in that process, learned quite a bit about how deer hear.
Also did testing on well, these noises that I make in the woods, whether it be crunching through leaves, breaking branches accidentally, clanging equipment, just these unavoidable hunter noises, how far those travel and how that really affects deer and your hunting success. So it was a process, like I said, over the last four years.
So the interesting thing about deer.
So the interesting thing about deer. Some people think that deer can hear a lot better than humans. That is a myth. They really can’t hear better than humans, but they hear different than humans, and in ways that really make them obviously very difficult to hunt, as all hunters know. And well adapted and suited to stay alive. That’s the whole point. So what I found was basically if you want to compare how deer hear to how we humans hear, this is a reference point where we’re similar in one way, and that is just the what I call the sound pressure level, or the loudness of sounds that we can detect.
So for example, something that sounds loud to us is also going to sound loud to a deer. Something that is soft to us will also be soft to a deer. And they can’t, as far as loudness goes, they can’t pick up a mouse in the leaves a mile away. They don’t have bionic hearing like that, like some people might think. So that’s the one way they’re similar.
Well there’s three ways where they’re very, very different, and that’s put them at a distinct advantage, and us hunters at a very distinct disadvantage. The first way, real obvious, is what they call the pin eye of their ear, which is their outer ear. The pin eye is a huge radar dish. And the thing about hearing compared to other sense, they have sight and smell, is that hearing is the only one that’s 360. So they can take these radar dishes and move them, and really point them wherever they want. They can hone in on any source of any sound very accurately. And the huge cupped part of their ear really funnels that down to their ear drums. So any slight noise, they have a big advantage on, for example, humans. They can really hone in on it and really gather all that sound to analyze. And that’s what it’s about. So that’s a huge advantage they do have in one way that’s different than human hearing.
most hunter have probably been out in the woods, and you’ve been observing deer, and see them really alert to something, and you can’t see or hear anything
We probably all, most hunter have probably been out in the woods, and you’ve been observing deer, and see them really alert to something, and you can’t see or hear anything. Maybe it’s something that’s way off and a few minutes later another deer comes out in the field or wherever it might be, that they obviously heard. And so there’s really something to their pin eye and their ability to really funnel that sound and hone in on any sounds in the woods and really funnel those down to their ear drums.
A second way that deer hearing is way better than humans is, or I guess adapted for them to their advantage, is just where they hear best and that would be what I call frequency. So deer hear in a frequency range that is best, they hear best around 8,000 hertz, which humans hear best around 4,000 or so. And it’s really related to speech. So we hear best at normal speech level, and frequency being the pitch, right? But deer hear better a little higher, around 8,000 hertz, and the interesting thing with that is with testing that I did of hunter sounds, so things like normal walking through leaves, breaking branches, clanging equipment, we tested several dozen of these normal hunter sounds in a laboratory, and what we found was that the frequency range where they peaked was around the 8,000 to 10,000 hertz range, which is where deer hear best.
whole point, right, is them staying alive and us not having luck. So that’s the second way
So it makes sense, right? But it just goes to show that, okay, so these noises I’m making in the woods, deer hear them really well. They’re designed to hear those sounds the best. And again, keep us from success, and that’s the whole point, right, is them staying alive and us not having luck. So that’s the second way.