Along with swaddling a squirmy baby, changing a diaper without smearing poop over every surface and operating on practically no sleep, making animal noises is a skill absolutely necessary to parenthood.
Between songs like Old MacDonald and books like Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?, moms and dads become pros at mooing, quacking and cock-a-doodle-dooing. As a child ages, though, the animal sounds parents must make become more complex.
But when was the last time you heard a toucan? And do you go all-in with genuine elephant trumpeting, or do you cop out and say “toot toot”?
In addition to these pressing questions, I am going to bet you’ve been making a handful of animal noises completely wrong.
So let me (and YouTube) enlighten you. Go ahead and click play (though not if your dog is in the room—he might will definitely freak out) to step up your animal noises game.
Animal noises you’re getting wrong
1. The fox. Despite what Ylvis claims, some of us do know what the fox says, and it’s nothing like what you’d imagine. And it definitely doesn’t sound like “bee-dap weydo.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBpZTo1dlPM]
2. The kangaroo. Peeper has this book with a million buttons that she aptly calls the Noisy Book. It took her a long time to like it/stop being terrified of it, but now she enjoys reading it to herself and pushing the animal noises.
There was one in particular I’d hear and have no idea what creature it corresponded to. Turns out it was a kangaroo. Did you realize kangaroos are snorting beasts? I sure didn’t.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf-SAelGQqs]
3. The zebra. I always assumed zebras sounded like horses. Well, stop your neighing and practice this instead.
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4. The flamingo. Peeper loves visiting these pink guys at the zoo, but the first time we went in, I kept looking around for the source of that weird honking. It took me a while to realize that the wholly un-graceful sound was actually the flamingos! I haven’t been able to replicate it, so in our home, flamingos say “flap flap.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLGI_z4zyRc]
5. The barn owl. I’m with you—I “hoot hoot” for the owls in every book. Somehow, it’s more charming than a glass-shattering Velociraptor screech.
6. The cheetah. Cheetahs actually chirp—a wholly unthreatening sound—but I still wouldn’t want to find myself on the wrong end of their dinner.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn45X2PhCBA]
7. The giraffe. This stately animal is silent, so you’ll have to get creative in making a sound for it. Try chewing loudly—it works for us.
What about you? Are there any animal noises you’re getting wrong?
The giraffe doesn’t make any sounds?? No way! Haha I’m going to go through this post with my kiddos today. They’ll love to get the facts straight once and for all 🙂 cheers!
Truth be told, there’s a little ambiguity about the giraffe. Some sources I consulted said they do rarely make a noise, but I couldn’t find a single video that actually recorded it. So for the purposes of this post and our reading shenanigans, the giraffe is silent.
Oh my goodness, that zeebra sound is crazy!!!!
I know, right? My mind was blown!
J danced to the zebra sounds. D thought cheetah noises were cute and kangaroos “sound evil,” the latter point on which he couldn’t elaborate. Both boys were alarmed by the owl’s “skreek.”
Hahaha! That’s awesome. I haven’t risked showing Peeper the barn owl. She’d surely freak out, then we’d have to endure “That owl not too noisy” every time we saw a picture of one – just like we do with the elephant, seal, hippo, rhino, cow, rooster and about a million other animals. (Yes, she’s still preoccupied with loud noises.)
I plan on bringing this information and party trick to all future dinner parties! 🙂
I would be so impressed if you busted out a barn owl impression at a dinner party!!!
Fun facts you never knew!
NO idea about the zebra! Wow!
Ha! This is so awesome! And yes, your title was so accurate, I’ve definitely gotten those wrong (not that I’m making animal noises a lot these days…)
My kids LOVE this post….as for me, I may have nightmares about the fox and the owl for years to come!