The researchers were inspired by descriptions of wolves’ howling in a pack. “Howling has some similarities to human singing, in that these are long, sustained vocalisation,” says Patel. Observations from the wild suggest that each individual wolf attempts to hit a different tone. The result is a discordant chorus that might create the illusion of a much larger group, which would help to intimidate potential predators. “And so it had been theorised by some wolf biologists that they were actually paying attention and changing their pitch,” he says.