There are two main types of sounds animals make. Mechanical and vocal.
Animals use vocal sounds for various reasons. Displaying dominance, to attract a mate, territory warnings, if threatened, or when communicating with others.
Mechanical noises are sounds that animals make while eating, moving, or fighting.
Producing sounds is an important element of everyday life for the vast majority of animals. But what animals make no sound?
Examples of quiet animals include rabbits, giraffes, snakes, worms, and jellyfish. These silent animals make very little or no sounds which means that they will not communicate or produce sounds using their mouth.
List of Quietest Animals
- Rabbits
- Snakes
- Giraffes
- Snails
- Sloths
- Worms
- Jellyfish
- Turtles
- Lizards
- Crabs
- Sharks
- Goldfish
- Octopus
Rabbits
Scientific Name: Oryctolagus cuniculus
Class: Mammalia  Diet: Herbivore
Rabbits or bunnies are small charming creatures that live in every part of the world, except for Antarctica. These little rodents are quite popular indoor pets due to their loving personalities.
Did You Know: A rabbit’s teeth never stop growing; yearly their teeth grow up to 5 inches!
Bunnies do not have vocal cords, which means you won’t hear any sound coming from their mouth. But, this doesn’t mean that these cutie-pies are completely silent.
When stressed or threatened, rabbits would make all kinds of noises. Some of the most common sounds include growling, hissing, and snorting.
However, in case your pet bunny is most of the time quiet, do not worry, it is completely normal!
Snakes
Scientific Name: Serpentes
Class: Reptile Diet: Carnivore
There are more than 3,000 snake species, and they can be found all around the world. Not many people are indifferent to these creatures, and their quiet nature is quite scary.
Did You Know: Snakes are animals without external ears, and they collect sound through ground vibrations!
Like rabbits, snakes have a small larynx, and they do not possess vocal cords. Unlike many animals, snakes are unable to make sounds.
However, these reptiles are able to make some kind of noise. The most common sound is hiss. Other than that, snakes may rattle or rub their scales in order to make some sound.
Although, one exception is the Pine snake. This snake is the only snake species that have vocal cords, but it is also a quiet animal, and it will utilize its vocal abilities rarely.
As opposed to vocal communication, snakes collect chemical cues from the environment to notice the presence of other snakes.
Giraffes
Scientific Name: Giraffa
Class: Mammalia  Diet: Herbivore
Giraffes are legendary giants that are native to the open woodlands and grasslands of Africa. They are the largest extant land animals and the largest ruminants.
Did You Know: Due to their huge and legs necks, giraffes are animals that can’t swim!
Giraffes may seem like completely silent animals, but in fact, the sounds they make are too low-frequency for the human ear to hear.
Besides infrasonic communications, giraffes may occasionally produce hiss and grunt sounds when threatened. Apart from vocal communication, they use a wide range of non-verbal communication.
Body posture, eyes, touching. Mates would also use their long necks to fight each other.
Snails
Scientific Name: Gastropoda
Class: Mollusca Diet: Herbivore, Carnivore, Herbivore
Snails are shelled gastropod creatures found in a wide range of habitats. Snails are night eaters, and they prefer decaying organic matter food.
Did You Know: Snails have up to 20,000 teeth, most than any other animal species!
We are all familiar with the saying “slow as a snail”, but we would like to add another metaphor – “silent as a snail”.
Snails do not have vocal cords, and they are entirely silent animals. They would only make sounds only while eating or when retracting into their shelled houses.
However, these sounds are emitted while doing mechanical actions and not by producing the audio intentionally.
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Sloths
Scientific Name: Folivora
Class: Mammal  Diet: Herbivore and Omnivore
Sloths are unusual animals that are native to the tropical forests of Central and South America.
The three-toed slots diet is based completely on plants, while two-toed sloths eat insects, leaves, fruits, and even small mammals.
Did You Know: Sloths are one of the slowest crawling animals in the world (1 foot per minute)!
Besides being super slow creatures, sloths are very quiet animals as well.
However, baby sloths are known to produce high-frequency squeaking sounds when scared or left alone.
Adults make low pitch sounds, but it is also associated when the animal is stressed or terrified.
Worms
Scientific Name: Lumbricina
Class: Oligochaeta Diet: Omnivore
Worms are limbless animals that live in freshwater environments or underground. They can vary in size, from microscopic to over 3 feet.
Worms feed on bacteria, fungi, and protozoans, among living organisms.
Did You Know: Worms do not have lungs; instead, they use their skin as breathing organs!
Worms do not make any sounds, but instead, they rely on touch and taste when communicating with each other.
Worms also have the ability to sense the vibrations from the ground, which comes in handy when avoiding predators.
Jellyfish
Scientific Name: Chrysaora
Class: Cnidaria Diet: Carnivore
Another member on our list of silent animals is a jellyfish. Jellyfish are marine creatures widely recognized for their umbrella-shaped appearances.
They can be found in surface waters or the deep seas in every part of the world.
Did You Know: Some types of jellyfish species are immortal!
Jellyfish are brainless animals, which means that they do not have the ability to produce any form of vocal communication. As a result, they are animals that are 100% quiet.
However, scientists believe that jellyfish use colorful lights to signal to each other or to attract prey.
Turtles
Scientific Name: Testudines
Class: Reptile Diet: Omnivore
Another quiet animal characterized by its shell is the turtle. Native to a wide range of continents and oceans, these creatures roamed the world for 220 million years.
Did You Know: Despite being mixed by many people, turtles and tortoises are not the same animals!
Despite not having vocal cords, some turtle species are known to make high-pitched sounds. However, the sounds they produce come from their lungs, including hisses, grunts, honks, and moans.
When it comes to communication with each other, turtles usually use non-verbal communication, such as biting, water splashing, and blinking.
Lizards
Scientific Name: Lacertilia
Class: Reptile Diet: Omnivore
There are 6,000 different lizard species and they live in every corner of the world except for Antarctica. They can vary in size from a few inches to 10+ feet.
Did You Know: Some lizard species have the ability to detach and regrow their tails!
Acoustic communication among lizards is uncommon. Hissing is the most popular sound among all species and it is usually displayed as a warning sign.
However, geckos and some iguanas use more complex communication related to courtship and territorial defense. Some of the vocals include barks, growls, squeaks, and clicks.
Crabs
Scientific Name: Brachyura
Class: Phylum arthropods Diet: Omnivore
Crabs are ten-legged animals characterized by a single pair of claws. They live in oceans but could be found in both lands and water.
Did You Know: The biggest crab in the world is The Japanese crab (12 feet)!
Crabs are animals that are quiet, however, they have developed a special technique when it comes to communication.
The technique is called stridulation, and it is a very unusual way of communication that involves rubbing the claws against the legs to produce audio.
Sharks
Scientific Name: Selachimorpha
Class: Chondrichthyes Diet: Carnivore
Sharks are one of the most dangerous fish species that can be found in most water habitats, from shallow waters to the deepest ocean parts.
There are around 500 different shark species, and non is capable of making any sound.
Did You Know: The largest fish in the world is known as The whale shark!
Sharks are silent killers of the sea. Equipped with special scales, sharks can swim in complete silence. This ability is one of the reasons why sharks are one of the greatest predators in the underwater world.
Communication between sharks takes place via touching, smelling, gaping, and electromagnetism.
Goldfish
Scientific Name: Carassius auratus
Class: Ray-finned fishes Diet: Omnivore
If you think that all fish are silent, you are wrong. Many fish species can produce different sounds, but not goldfish.
These popular aquarium pets have extremely well hearing but cannot utter vocalizations.
Did You Know: Goldfish can live more than 40 years!
Goldfish mainly communicate with each other via body language. As for the pets, they will come to the surface of the water when wanting food.
Octopus
Scientific Name: Octopoda
Class: Cephalopods Diet: Carnivore
The last members on our quiet animal list are octopuses.
They are strange and unique ocean creatures characterized by having bulbous heads and eight limbs.
Baby crabs feed on sea stars, larval crabs, and copepods, while the diet of adult octopuses is based on snails, fish, crabs, and claims.
Did You Know: Octopus has a brain in each arm; in total, they have 9 brains!
These animals are silent hunters, and they do not produce any sounds,
When communicating with each other, octopuses use a wide range of signals. They’ll utilize their arms, body posture, and color changes as a way of interacting with others.
More Examples of Silent Animals:
- Sponges
- Starfish
- ButterfliesÂ
- Goldfish
- Man O’Wars
- Moths
- Sea Cucumber
- Sea Anemones
- Sea Squirts
- Sea Urchins
- Sea Lilys