Embryonic Eavesdropping: How Animals Hear and Respond to Sound

Recent findings buck the traditional idea that embryos are passive agents and instead suggest that by tuning into vibrations, organisms can better prepare to enter the outside world.

Written byAmanda Heidt

| 11 min read

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Birds have a rich vocal repertoire that they use to communicate with their peers, but behavioral ecologist Mylene Mariette is more interested in the calls they make when they are seemingly alone.

While working as a researcher at Deakin University in Australia, Mariette had planted microphones in the nests of captive zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) to study how male-female pairs coordinate their parenting efforts. One day in 2014, she noticed that “sometimes one parent would produce a very different call when it was incubating by itself,” Mariette recalls, which led her to wonder “whether it was communicating with the embryos, because they were the only audience there.”

We know a lot about what happens before the eggs are laid and when they hatch, but in the middle, there's actually not a lot known.

The cry she overheard—a form of vocal ...

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Meet the Author

Amanda Heidt
Amanda first began dabbling in scicom as a master’s student studying marine science at Moss Landing Marine Labs, where she edited the student blog and interned at a local NPR station. She enjoyed that process of demystifying science so much that after receiving her degree in 2019, she went straight into a second master’s program in science communication at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Formerly an intern at The Scientist, Amanda joined the team as a staff reporter and editor in 2021 and oversaw the publication’s internship program, assigned and edited the Foundations, Scientist to Watch, and Short Lit columns, and contributed original reporting across the publication. Amanda’s stories often focus on issues of equity and representation in academia, and she brings this same commitment to DEI to the Science Writers Association of the Rocky Mountains and to the board of the National Association of Science Writers, which she has served on since 2022. She is currently based in the outdoor playground that is Moab, Utah. Read more of her work at www.amandaheidt.com.
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