Elephants can hear through their feet by feeling vibrations in the ground from miles away.

Elephants have sensitive nerve endings in their feet called Pacinian corpuscles. These nerves detect tiny pressure changes and vibrations. A thick layer of fat in the foot called the digital cushion helps conduct these ground signals to the nerves.Dr. Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell from Stanford University studied this behavior in Namibia. She found that elephants can detect calls from other groups up to 10 miles away. These sounds are often too low for humans to hear. Humans can hear sounds down to 20 Hertz, but elephants use frequencies as low as 10 Hertz.The vibrations travel from the feet through the elephant's leg bones to its ears. This process is called bone conduction. When an elephant feels a vibration, it often stands still and leans forward. This puts more weight on its front feet to better sense the ground.Sound travels at different speeds through air and soil. In soil, these waves move at about 250 meters per second. By feeling the ground and hearing the air at the same time, elephants can tell how far away a sound started.