What Animals Make a Clicking Noise and Why?

Clicking is one of the most widespread sounds in the animal world, made by creatures as different as whales, shrimp, beetles, moths and birds. A click is short and sharp, which makes it useful for very different jobs, from seeing in the dark to stunning prey to leaping into the air. The animals that click are often not related at all; several groups arrived at clicking on their own.

Clicking to See With Sound

Echolocation means detecting objects by sending out sound and listening for the echoes that bounce back.1PubMed Central. Convergence in hearing-related genes between echolocating birds and mammals The animals known to do it include toothed whales, many bats, Rousettus fruit bats, and two bird groups, oilbirds and swiftlets.2PubMed Central. Convergence in hearing-related genes between echolocating birds and mammals It arose separately in several of these groups rather than being inherited from one shared ancestor.3Wikipedia. Animal echolocation

A click suits the job well. It is so brief that it ends before the echo returns, so the echo isn’t drowned out. The gap between click and echo tells the animal how far away something is.

The echo carries more than distance. By comparing how it arrives at each ear, an animal can tell whether an object is to the left or right. A change in loudness as it moves closer shows whether it is approaching something or passing it. Different materials return different echoes, so a cave wall sounds unlike an insect or a fish.

Dark places are where this pays off. Light is scarce in a cave or the deep ocean, so eyes are of little use, while sound travels well in both. Water carries sound far better than air, which is part of why whales and dolphins can use clicks over long distances.

The sperm whale’s huge nose makes powerful clicks that let it sense prey at long range.4PubMed Central. Sperm whale predator-prey interactions involve chasing and buzzing, but no acoustic stunning Its spermaceti organ, filled with the waxy oil that gave the species its name, helps produce and direct those sounds.5Naturaliste Charters. Sperm Whale: Master Navigators of the Deep A dolphin, meanwhile, can change the shape of the fatty bulge on its forehead to focus clicks into a cone-shaped beam ahead of it.6Dolphin Communication Project. What Animals Make a Clicking Noise and Why?

Bats are the more familiar echolocators, but most don’t click the way fruit bats do. Most echolocating bats make their calls with the voice box, not the tongue, and those calls are usually too high-pitched for people to hear. The Egyptian fruit bat is unusual: it makes very short clicks with its tongue and can aim the sound beam by moving its tongue.7PubMed Central. Hearing, echolocation, and beam steering from day 0 in tongue-clicking bats Its pups click in the adult pattern and steer the beam from the day they are born.8PubMed Central. Hearing, echolocation, and beam steering from day 0 in tongue-clicking bats

Oilbirds and swiftlets click with their voice organ, which lets them nest in pitch-dark caves where fewer predators reach them.9PubMed Central. Echolocation in Oilbirds and swiftlets Oilbird clicks are low enough for people to hear, and the birds can still detect obstacles smaller than the sound’s wavelength.10The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. Acuity of echolocation in the oilbird, Steatornis caripensis

Clicking to Fight Off Predators

More than 14 families of moths have ears tuned to hear bats’ echolocation calls.11Physiological Entomology. Bats and moths: what is there left to learn? Hearing gives a moth time to react, because it can detect an approaching bat before the bat is close. It can then dive, loop or fly away.

Certain tiger moths respond to an attacking bat with high-pitched clicks that make it give up the pursuit.12PubMed. Jamming bat echolocation: the dogbane tiger moth Cycnia tenera times its clicks to the terminal attack calls of the big brown bat Eptesicus fuscus The clicks can scramble the echoes the bat needs to finish its catch.13PubMed. Jamming bat echolocation: the dogbane tiger moth Cycnia tenera times its clicks to the terminal attack calls of the big brown bat Eptesicus fuscus One tasty tiger moth jams the sonar of big brown bats this way, so it is not just warning that it tastes bad.14PubMed. Tiger moth jams bat sonar

There are three possible ways a click could stop a bat: a warning that the moth tastes bad, like bright colors in daylight; a sudden startle that makes the bat flinch; or jamming that creates false echoes and confuses its aim. For some tiger moths the evidence points most strongly to jamming.

Near the end of an attack the bat sends calls in very rapid bursts, which is when the moth’s clicks arrive and compete with the returning echoes. If the bat misjudges the moth’s position even slightly in those last instants, it can miss.

Timing matters. The dogbane tiger moth ignores a bat’s early calls and waits until the final moments of the attack to click.15PubMed. Jamming bat echolocation: the dogbane tiger moth Cycnia tenera times its clicks to the terminal attack calls of the big brown bat Eptesicus fuscus Another tiger moth is most ready to click when the bat is closing in.16PubMed Central. Optimal Predator Risk Assessment by the Sonar-Jamming Arctiine Moth Bertholdia trigona

Clicks That Hunt and Leap

Snapping (pistol) shrimp have one enlarged claw that strikes shut at very high speed.17PubMed. Developing elastic mechanisms: ultrafast motion and cavitation emerge at the millimeter scale in juvenile snapping shrimp The claw has two parts, and the shrimp cocks it open and holds it before the strike. Opening it stores energy, and when the latch releases, the claw slams shut far faster than a muscle alone could close it.

The fast closure creates a pocket of vapor that collapses violently.18PubMed Central. Research on Claw Motion Characteristics and Cavitation Bubbles of Snapping Shrimp Water forced to move fast enough drops in pressure, and a small vapor pocket forms. The surrounding water then pushes it shut, and that sudden collapse produces the sharp pop. The bang comes from the water itself, not from the claw hitting anything. The collapse also sends out a shockwave that can stun or kill small animals nearby.19Science Stories. How Pistol Shrimp Kill with Bubbles

Where many shrimp live together, such as around reefs or docks, their pops merge into a constant crackle. Divers and boaters often notice it underwater or through a hull.

Click beetles snap a special hinge in their thorax to throw themselves into the air and flip back onto their feet.20PubMed Central. Functional Morphology of the Thorax of the Click Beetle Campsosternus auratus Coleoptera, Elateridae, with an Emphasis on Its Jumping Mechanism A peg and a lip on the body lock together, holding the beetle braced until they release with a click.21PubMed. Latching of the click beetle (Coleoptera: Elateridae) thoracic hinge enabled by the morphology and mechanics of conformal structures When a beetle lies on its back, the locked hinge stores elastic energy and releases it all at once.22PubMed Central. Jumping without Using Legs: The Jump of the Click-Beetles (Elateridae) Is Morphologically Constrained That energy lifts the body in a few thousandths of a second.23PubMed Central. Functional Morphology of the Thorax of the Click Beetle Campsosternus auratus Coleoptera, Elateridae, with an Emphasis on Its Jumping Mechanism

Muscles alone can’t move fast enough, so some small animals use muscle to load spring-like parts slowly.24Journal of Comparative Physiology A. Fast actions in small animals: Springs and click mechanisms A latch holds the energy until a trigger releases it in one burst, like a catapult.25Journal of Comparative Physiology A. Fast actions in small animals: Springs and click mechanisms Shrimp and beetles both use this principle with built-in latches.

Clicking to Communicate

Fish have no vocal cords, so they make sound by rubbing bony parts or teeth together. Grunts grind their throat teeth together, and their air-filled swim bladder amplifies the sound.26Ocean Conservation Research. Barred Grunt Vocalizations

Pot-bellied seahorses click when they snap up food.27Journal of Fish Biology. Characterization of sound production by the pot-bellied seahorse (Hippocampus abdominalis) during feeding The click’s pitch is linked to body size and condition, so clicks may tell others how fit a seahorse is.28Journal of Fish Biology. Characterization of sound production by the pot-bellied seahorse (Hippocampus abdominalis) during feeding

Geckos are among the few reptiles that use calls to defend territory, attract mates and signal distress.29PubMed. Mini-breaths and vocal-fry-like laryngeal register alleviate respiratory constraints on tokay (Gekko gecko) mating vocalizations In warm regions, house geckos often click or chirp from walls and ceilings at night. The sounds can mark territory or attract mates, and a gecko may squeak when grabbed as a distress call.

Many insects make sound by rubbing a ridged file across their wings, which can come across as clicks or chirps.30PubMed Central. Reviving the sound of a 150-year-old insect: The bioacoustics of Prophalangopsis obscura (Ensifera: Hagloidea)

What Might Be Clicking Near You

Where and when you hear the sound usually narrows it down.

Crickets and katydids are often mistaken for clicking animals. They keep a regular chirp going for minutes, unlike a beetle’s single snap, which comes only when it is disturbed or upside down.

To track down the source, note the time of day and the exact spot, and record it on your phone to compare with online sound libraries. Approach quietly, since many animals stop when disturbed. At night, use a flashlight to check walls and ceilings.

Season helps too. Many insects and geckos go quiet when it turns cold, so a sound that continues on cold winter nights makes heating or plumbing more likely.

Indoors, cooling pipes, wood and appliances also tick and click. Animal clicks tend to come at certain times, like night, though repeated clicks from one spot in a wall may still mean a gecko or insect.

Clicks That People Use

Some blind people have become highly skilled at echolocation using mouth clicks.36PubMed Central. Mouth-clicks used by blind expert human echolocators – signal description and model based signal synthesis The person makes a sharp click with the tongue against the roof of the mouth, then listens for how the echo changes near walls, cars or trees. Over time they learn to judge size, distance and position, usually alongside a cane rather than in place of one.

It is a learned skill that takes long practice, though sighted people can pick up the basics too. Studies of skilled blind echolocators suggest that brain areas usually used for sight can help process the echoes.

Scientists also listen for clicks. Each kind of beaked whale makes clicks distinctive enough to tell it apart from other whales and dolphins.37PubMed. Passive acoustic monitoring using a towed hydrophone array results in identification of a previously unknown beaked whale habitat Underwater microphones towed behind ships have found and tracked these whales and revealed places they live that were not known before.38PubMed. Passive acoustic monitoring using a towed hydrophone array results in identification of a previously unknown beaked whale habitat

Clicker training puts the sound to a different use. The click marks the exact moment an animal does the right thing, and a treat follows so the sound becomes meaningful. It is widely used with dogs, horses and marine animals. In pigs, a clicker helped animals learn to fetch in fewer tries than voice praise, but the clicker-trained pigs did worse at telling objects apart.39PubMed Central. Clicker Training Accelerates Learning of Complex Behaviors but Reduces Discriminative Abilities of Yucatan Miniature Pigs