Sound analysis hints sirens have an evolutionary link with wolf howls

By Douglas Heingartner

Glenn Nagel / Alamy

There is an uncanny similarity between wolf howls and emergency sirens. The sirens might be effective because we evolved to be alerted by howls, suggest researchers.

Hynek Burda at the Czech University of Life Sciences and his colleagues compared several dozen recordings of wolf howls to the sounds made by various emergency sirens, such as ambulances and tornado-warning systems. Their analysis looked at the most important acoustic components of these sounds – for example their initial and closing frequencies, or how the sounds change from …