system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: how do animals with extremely acute hearing not get bombarded with loud noise all the time.

with my only frame of reference being my own hearing.. I struggle to grasp how this works.  If you can hear a whisper across the room.. Shouldn't every sound in your immediate vicinity be blaring loud? Any insight would be appreciated.
gpt
Animals like dogs & cats have 'directional' ears, so if a sound is uncomfortably loud they can turn their ears away from the sound to help. They will also have ears that can 'adapt' to the ambient sound level better than ours.