Type “loudest animal on earth” into any search bar and you’ll get a dozen confidently different answers, some articles say 230 decibels, others say 236, a few throw around 200-plus for a shrimp barely two inches long. Much of that confusion comes down to how the number was measured and reported, not genuine disagreement in the underlying science. Once you go back to the actual peer-reviewed studies behind these claims, a clearer, genuinely fascinating picture emerges. One caveat worth keeping in mind throughout: underwater decibels and airborne decibels aren’t directly comparable, since they’re measured against different reference pressures, so a “230 dB” ocean sound doesn’t translate to a jet engine’s volume in air. With that in mind, here are five animals whose extreme loudness has actually been documented in the scientific literature.
