Study explains how horses produce the whinny’s two-part call

Scientists have identified how horses produce the whinny’s unusual two-part sound: the lower-frequency component comes from vocal fold vibration, while the higher-frequency component is generated as an aerodynamic whistle inside the larynx. The finding, published in Current Biology on February 23, 2026, comes from a multinational team led by researchers including Élodie Floriane Briefer, Romain Adrien Lefèvre, and William Tecumseh Fitch. Using excised larynx experiments with helium, CT imaging, endoscopy in live horses, and acoustic analysis of horses with recurrent laryngeal neuropathy, the team concluded that horses use true biphonation, producing two distinct sound sources at once. The researchers also reported that Przewalski’s horses show the same pattern, while donkeys and zebras appear to lack the high-frequency component. (sciencedaily.com)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, the study adds new detail to equine laryngeal physiology and vocal biomechanics, and it may sharpen how clinicians think about airway function, communication, and disease-related voice changes. The paper specifically included acoustic analysis in horses with recurrent laryngeal neuropathy, linking this basic science question to a condition veterinarians already manage in practice. More broadly, the work suggests the horse whinny may encode multiple emotional signals at once, with researchers proposing that the low-frequency and high-frequency components could carry different information. That could matter for future work in equine welfare, behavior assessment, and interpretation of vocal changes in clinical or husbandry settings. (sciencedirect.com)

What to watch: The next step is behavioral work testing what each component of the whinny communicates, and whether those signals can be used in welfare or clinical assessment. (eurekalert.org)