Mobile Phone Users Hear The Call Of The Wild

By Maria A. Schulz

The roar of a lion, the chattering of monkeys, and the screeching of parrots. No, you’re not at the zoo. It’s just your mobile phone’s ringtones.

The British Library, owner of the world’s largest animal sound archive, has sold 40 sounds from their collection of 100,000 wildlife recordings to iTouch and Mobiletones. The two companies bought the sounds and converted them into short sound loops that can be used as ringtones.

Some of the ringtones are already on sale on the Mobiletones website. More are likely to be available in September but will only work with phones that can replay polyphonic ringtones.

The animal calls being offered include the songs of mallards, chiffchaffs, cuckoos, Amazonian parrots, garden warblers and blackbirds. The sounds of lowing cattle, chattering colobus monkeys, bellowing hippos, snorting pigs, and gorillas thumping their chests are also available.

"We have a vast collection of wildlife sounds at the library, including British wildlife and more exotic birds and animals from the Amazon to the Serengeti," said Richard Ranft, the British Library’s curator of wildlife sounds. The library’s recordings range from parrots to penguins.

"We have produced a range of CDs with bird sounds and have found that they are used in doctors’ surgeries for their calming effects. We hope people will find their mobile ring tones as relaxing," Mr. Ranft said.

The British Library’s animal sounds collection is regularly used for research purposes and some have been issued on CD. Now, the library is hoping to generate some cash from the sound file sale as the overwhelming popularity of ringtones make them a huge cash generator, with the potential to bring in millions of pounds each year.

The library may consider offering more animal sounds from its archives if the first collection is popular.

© 2003 Animal News Center, Inc.