(Phys.org)—A small team of researchers with the University of
Oldenburg has found that barn owls do not suffer hearing loss as they get
older. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society
B, the group describes hearing tests they conducted with a group of
trained owls, what they found and why they believe more study of the birds may
lead to preventing hearing loss in aging humans.
Most everyone knows that growing older can lead to hearing loss. It happens
because humans and other mammals have an inability to regenerate sensitive
cells inside the ear. As damage accumulates over time, hearing degrades. This
is not the case with birds, however. Prior research has shown that some experience
little if any hearing loss in their old age. In this new effort, the
researchers looked to see if that also applied to long-lived birds such as the
barn owl.
Barn owls are the most widespread of all the owls—they are
found all around the world except in polar and desert regions. They earned
their name by taking up residence in barns, drawn by the rodents that are
attracted to stored grains. Barn owls have exceptionally good
hearing—approximately 10 times as sensitive as human hearing, according to
previous research. Barn owls are able to use hearing alone to capture prey
moving in total darkness. They also live a long time—some in captivity have
lived to be over 20 years of age.
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