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The Zooquarium Podcast

Where Are Crickets' Ears Located?

5/26/202615 min

Willa asks: Where Are Crickets' Ears Located? Are the on their heads? Their wings? Someplace else?? Chanel answers Willa's question and tells Mike more cricket information than he ever though he'd need to know. Then, they welcome back guest Chuck Duke to talk about his experience animating Sebastian J. Cricket for Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio.

Chuck began his professional career in animation in his early twenties and has since contributed to a wide range of feature films and television productions in the animation and visual effects departments. Aside from James and the Giant Peach, his credits include Fantastic Mr. Fox, Isle of Dogs, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, as well as stop-motion animation and effects on Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (2019), and Star Wars: Mandalorian and Grogu (2026).

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The Zooquarium releases episodes about different animals every other Tuesday with bonus content for each episode the following week. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you’re informed when new episodes come out! Video versions are available on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, and thezooquarium.com/podcast

Credits

Special thanks to

Willa & Willa's family, Chuck Duke, Michele Kraus Bennett, Cayley Pater, The Elakha Alliance, Teddy Albertson, crickets in general

Clips

Animating Pinocchio's Underwater Struggle
Animator Becomes Cricket Violinist
Two-Legged to Six-Legged Transition
Where Are A Cricket’s Ears?

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Speaker 00:00

    My name is Willa, I'm nine, and my question is where are crickets' ears located?

  2. Chanel Hason· Host0:06

    [upbeat music] Open up the door to habitats you can explore. With animals galore in the Zooquarium. Zooquarium. Zoo, Zoo, Zooquarium.

  3. Speaker 00:31

    Sometimes on the Zooquarium Podcast we get a question that I've never asked myself. Willa, thank you so much for asking where crickets' ears are. Uh, thank goodness we have Chanel here at the Zooquarium Podcast. Chanel, any insight?

  4. Chanel Hason· Host0:46

    Yes. I definitely know the answer to this question, and it's super fun and unique. So crickets don't have ears on their heads like people do. Instead, on each front leg they have a tiny, flat, oval spot called a tympanum. Say that 10 times fast. Tympanum. Uh, so it works kind of like a little drum. So when sound waves hit, the tympanum vibrates, and then the cricket's body sends those vibrations to its brain so it can hear. Isn't that neat?

  5. Speaker 01:20

    That's wild. [laughs] So, so just to, to say that in simpler terms, crickets' ears are in their legs?

  6. Chanel Hason· Host1:28

    Yeah. So

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