Reader Jim E. called my attention to a great resource for naturalists and biology-lovers: Cornell University’s famous Department of Ornithology has put up the world’s largest library of digitally-encoded natural sounds: the M. L. Macaulay Library. There are hundreds of audios and videos, and you can browse by taxon. There are 2853 audio clips (and 725 video clips) of owls alone! This is really a treasure trove.
I’ll introduce you to just a few lovely sounds as noted on the Cornell Tumbler and Macaulay site itself, with these notes from the former site:
It took archivists a dozen years to complete the monumental task. The collection contains nearly 150,000 digital audio recordings equaling more than 10 terabytes of data with a total run time of 7,513 hours. About 9,000 species are represented. There’s an emphasis on birds, but the collection also includes sounds of whales, elephants, frogs, primates and more.
“Our audio collection is the largest and the oldest in the world,” explained Macaulay Library director Mike Webster. “Now, it’s also the most accessible. We’re working to improve search functions and create tools people can use to collect recordings and upload them directly to the archive. Our goal is to make the Macaulay Library as useful as possible for the broadest audience possible.”
The recordings are used by researchers studying many questions, as well as by birders trying to fine-tune their sound ID skills. The recordings are also used in museum exhibits, movies and commercial products such as smartphone apps.
- The call of the common loon on Mason Lake, New York
- “Youngest bird: This clip from 1966 records the sounds of an Ostrich chick while it is still inside the egg – and the researchers as they watch.”
- “Liveliest wake-up call: A dawn chorus in tropical Queensland, Australia is bursting at the seams with warbles, squeals, whistles, booms and hoots.”
- “Best candidate to appear on a John Coltrane record: The indri, a lemur with a voice that is part moan, part jazz clarinet.” [JAC: don’t miss this one!]
- “Most likely to be mistaken for aliens arriving: Birds-of-paradise make some amazing sounds – here’s the UFO-sound of a Curl-crested Manucode in New Guinea.”
- Great horned owl (16 minutes of calls)
- Snowshoe hare. (Sounds like a baby crying.)
Knock yourself out browsing–hours of fun on the site!
I was please to find the have bearded seals: http://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/128122
I think they give the manucodes a close run as “most likely to be mistaken for aliens”!
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Creeeeepy. Might be taken as is for a ghost movie.
*Why* would a seal’s lament be creepy to human ears ? Is there something actually dangerous which sounds similar ? Or is it sheer randomness, with that many different cries in existence, that some should tug at our strings indirectly, false positives for the real danger patterns ?
Well, that was fun, so thank you. This summer we had some vacation time at a lake which had a loon family. We would hear the mom and pop loon calling to each other off and on thru the day. Absolutely haunting. They had a tiny chick with them too.
The call of the loon has to be one of the most lonely and beautiful sounds in the entire world. The recording takes me back to a long stay at a cabin in the wilderness of New Hampshire. It sends chills up my spine.
I’ve only ever read wistful references to “the call of the loon”. Now I know why no one forgets it.
The indri is mesmerising. Wonderful.
Having just spent several days getting the metadata right for some “stuff”, that aside about taking a dozen years to get the archive online hits home. Data is useless if you can’t find it later.
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I use Macaulay a lot for checking bird vocalizations but it’s great fun checking out their other offerings as well. Thanks for the suggestion, Jerry and Jim!
I got to know the library when checking for the American elk rut, also amazing, hauting sounds.
The snowshoe hare recording solved a small riddle for me: a few weeks ago I was out just after dawn, and was wondering why there might be a crying baby out in the woods. I suspect that the Common Hare has a call similar to the Snowshoe Hare, and hares, while rare, do exist in our neighborhood.
I find the Loon a truly haunting sound, but if you want sounds this is the World Champ, but can they be classed as natural being mimickry.?
Astonishing!
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That’s just beyond belief! Chain saws destroying his environment??? Too much.
Here’s a NPR program from last year. I had no idea bats sang:
http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2014/10/01/352586936/is-that-a-lark-i-hear-a-nightingale-surprise-its-a-bat