[ **up: [[Snakes]] | [[Questions]]** ] --- # Do snakes have ears? How do they hear? - Snakes do not have ears.[^1] - They do, however, react to both (loud) airborne sounds *and* ground-based vibrations.[^2] > ‘Snakes are able to detect both airborne and groundborne vibrations using their body surface (termed [[somatic hearing]]) as well as from their inner ears.’[^3] [^1]: C.B. Christensen, et al. ‘[[Christensen, et al. ‘Hearing with an atympanic ear_ good vibration and poor sound-pressure detection in the royal python, Python regius’, 2012.|Hearing with an atympanic ear: good vibration and poor sound-pressure detection in the royal python, Python regius]]’, *Journal of Experimental Biology*, vol. 215 (2012), p. 331. [^2]: C.B. Christensen, et al. ‘[[Christensen, et al. ‘Hearing with an atympanic ear_ good vibration and poor sound-pressure detection in the royal python, Python regius’, 2012.|Hearing with an atympanic ear: good vibration and poor sound-pressure detection in the royal python, Python regius]]’, n.p. [^3]: Bruce A. Young, ‘[[Young. ‘Snake Bioacoustics’, 2003.|Snake Bioacoustics: Towards a Richer Understanding of the Behavioral Ecology of Snakes]]’, *The Quarterly Review of Biology* 78, issue 3, (2003), pp. 303-325.