The discovery that changed everything
In 1984, a musician named Katy Payne was standing near the elephant enclosure at Washington Park Zoo in Portland, Oregon, when she felt a throbbing in the air, not heard, felt. The sensation reminded her of sitting near a pipe organ during the lowest pedal notes. She had spent years studying whale song. She knew what infrasound felt like. When she returned with recording equipment and slowed the tapes down, she found it: elephants were talking in frequencies the human ear cannot reach.
