Knocking haddocks to squirming silk worms

7 July 2005 :: Posted by Victoria Main

Wake up to the sounds of an Australian bushland dawn chorus, relax to dusk in an oriental rainforest or even discover the noise made by captive haddock in Aberdeen at the click of your mouse, with the British Library's new Listen to Nature site on www.bl.uk. Users can listen to 400 examples of nature sounds, many available for the first time from the British Library's Sound Archive.

Listen to Nature illustrates the diversity of the Sound Archive collection and features a vast range of sounds from around the globe. As well as the familiar songs of British birds and domestic cats and dogs, rare sounds on the site include the cries of the O'o A'a, a bird that became extinct in Hawaii in 1987, the chestbeats of lowland gorillas in Gabon and the bleating noises of baby Siamese crocodiles. Nearer to home there is also the singing Black Redstart that nested near to the British Library.

The sounds are categorised by animal groups, habitats, and locations or users can click on the continent or country on interactive maps to access recordings of sea sounds, rainstorms and soundscapes from around the world. The audio clips of fish, birds, frogs, snakes, mammals and insects feature an array of sounds from the natural world, from a Burmese Bushlark to Greek Tortoise and Amazon parrots to bumble bees. It even includes a page featuring 'talking birds' and the song of birds who imitate folk songs.

The selection includes the familiar sounds of our countryside: the skylark, blackbird, fox, and a Cumbrian Meadow soundscape as well as the sounds from further afield with Japanese silk worms, pine cones splitting, a Desert Cobra in London Zoo, the simulated sound of a dinosaur, the calls of an Arctic Fox, and a tropical savannah soundscape in Tanzania.

The British Library Sound Archive holds the world's most comprehensive collection of nature sounds including over 150,000 recordings of over 10,000 kinds of animals and their habitats from Britain and overseas.

Richard Ranft of the British Library Sound Archive who designed the site, said: "These sounds were originally collected for scientific research, but they have a fascination beyond science. Thanks to the agreement of many nature sound recordists and the support of the Wildlife Sound Trust, the British Library is delighted to make these rare recordings available to a worldwide audience."

The Listen to Nature pages can be viewed at the following link:

http://www.bl.uk/listentonature/main.html

Richard Ranft is available for interview from an ISDN studio on Thursday 7 July. He can talk about how the recordings were selected, about the extent of the Library's wildlife collections and about the significance of the recordings. Richard Ranft is Head of Technical Services at the British Library Sound Archive and an expert on its wildlife collections.

To arrange an interview or for further information, contact Victoria Main at the British Library Press Office: Telephone +44 (0)20 7412 7112 or victoria.main@bl.uk.