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Wild Sounds Take a walk through remote areas of the planet with this series of field recordings from unusual animals. You'll hear roars that penetrate through three miles of tropical forest; maniacal laughs that break the Australian bush dawn; and a barking, bugling, colorful-billed bird.
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Special Series

Wild Sounds

Take a walk through remote areas of the planet with this series of field recordings.
Slo-Mo Cricket Chirps Reveal Secret Serenades

A snowy tree cricket feeds on a leaf from a mountain dalea plant. Gerardine Vargas hide caption

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Gerardine Vargas

Slo-Mo Cricket Chirps Reveal Secret Serenades

The slight differences in the patterns of cricket chirps are undetectable to the human ear, but may actually determine how crickets recognize their own kind.

Slo-Mo Cricket Chirps Reveal Secret Serenades

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Grunts And Gurgles Signal Love For Grouse

An aggressive encounter between two male greater prairie chickens (Tympanuchus cupido). During aggressive encounters, males leap into the air and strike their opponent with feet, wings and/or beak. Fort Pierre National Grassland, South Dakota. Gerrit Vyn/gerritvynphoto.com hide caption

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Gerrit Vyn/gerritvynphoto.com

Grunts And Gurgles Signal Love For Grouse

Every spring, male grouse gather in the Great Plains and engage in a mass act of strutting, showmanship and general vocal frenzy that would put Mick Jagger to shame. For researchers, it's an opportunity to observe how these animals interact in a rapidly changing American West.

Grunts And Gurgles Signal Love For Grouse

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Sounds Give Researchers Clues To Elephants

The Central African Republic is the setting for the latest installment in the "Wild Sounds" series. Katy Payne is a biologist at Cornell University who has spent more than two decades interpreting the sounds elephants make. The ones you'll hear today, were recorded from a raised platform built in a part of the forest called a bai.

Sounds Give Researchers Clues To Elephants

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Hum Along With Male Plainfin Midshipman Fish

It's time for another installment in our occasional series Wild Sounds — short stories that take you to remote parts of the world to hear the sounds of rare animals. Biologist Andy Bass of Cornell University explains what makes the plainfin midshipman fish hum.

Hum Along With Male Plainfin Midshipman Fish

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Alpha Bison: The Quieter Bellow Wins The Females

Full-throated rumbling and roaring is one of the ways male bison establish their dominance in the herd. When a female runs through a group of males, it often provokes a "fighting storm" — the males bellow, head-butt and fight. In the end, the most dominant male in the group will pair with the female.

Alpha Bison: The Quieter Bellow Wins The Females

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Mating Rituals: Hammerhead Bats Honk To Woo

Male hammerhead bats are built to sing … for sex. These bats have huge heads, fluted lips and a larynx that takes up more than half the body. It's all to amplify their mating calls.

Mating Rituals: Hammerhead Bats Honk To Woo

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Laughing's No Joke For Spotted Hyenas

Spotted hyenas, the social, carnivorous creatures often referred to as "laughing hyenas," live across Africa and east to India. Their laughing sound, however, has nothing to do with their having a good time. Rather, hyenas giggle when attacked or when they are competing for access to a carcass.

Laughing's No Joke For Spotted Hyenas

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A Colony of Screechers And Wailers

Manx shearwaters nest and hatch their young in burrows in sand and dirt. Adults forage all day over the ocean. In the evening, as flocks of parents return to their underground homes, the cacophony of their screechy, whiny calls fills the air.

A Colony of Screechers And Wailers

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Frogs Pipe Up After Australian Desert Downpour

Morning Edition visits an ephemeral pond in the Australian desert, where a sudden downpour has flushed out 11 species of frogs. In their chorus, they signal to mates and mark territory. The segment is part of "Wild Sounds," a series of short, sound-rich stories from remote parts of the planet that are home to rare animals.

Frogs Pipe Up After Australian Desert Downpour

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A Bird With A Catlike Name — And Sound

The world is full of unusual animal sounds — and among the more unusual is the call of the bare-throated tiger heron. Greg Budney, a biologist from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, recorded one of these long-legged wading birds in Guatemala. The bird, he says, makes him "think of a large cat."

A Bird With A Catlike Name — And Sound

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Proud Lyrebird Steps Up To The Microphone

The pheasant-sized superb lyrebird doesn't look like much until you get to its tail. Sixteen feathers create a gorgeous pinnacle of lacy white and brown filaments shaped like the ancient musical instrument the lyre.

Proud Lyrebird Steps Up To The Microphone

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Sounds From The Wild: The Laughing Kookaburra

It's a common sound in the Australian bush, starting up just around daylight: the laughing call of the kookaburra. These birds get together in small groups, have a chat and then go into a full laughter song, letting other kookaburras know where their territory is.

Sounds From The Wild: The Laughing Kookaburra

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A Run-In With An Australian Desert Lizard

"Wild Sounds" is an occasional series of short stories that take you to remote parts of the planet to hear the sounds of rare animals. Wildlife recordist David Stewart introduces the "goanna" lizard that is native to the Australian desert.

A Run-In With An Australian Desert Lizard

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