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© 1994-2007 David L. MartinSee complete copyright notice. |
Sounds of Mammals
Recording wild mammal sounds is challenging, and I have presented sounds of only three mammals here. All are alarm or warning sounds and are among the ones you are most likely to hear in the woods.
The beaver's tail slap, which is made as it dives, sounds somewhat different above water than it does underwater. (These two sounds are the same tail slap recorded with a standard microphone and a hydrophone.) Beavers may use the tail slap to warn other beavers of danger, to get the attention of an intruder or to drive away a predator. It is an excellent warning sound for a semi-aquatic mammal, because it can be heard above and below the surface. The tail-slap sound has a strong bass component and probably will sound better if you have a subwoofer.
The chipmunk makes a high-pitched chitter, as it begins a dash to escape to cover. This chipmunk watched me silently for more than a minute before it gave the chitter and dashed to safety in a rock pile. A chipmunk will often gives its chuck or chip chip call for many minutes while watching an intruder from a safe place. The 'chuck' calls here were given after the chittering chipmunk reached the safety of a rock pile. The 'chip' calls were given by a different chipmunk that appeared to be aware of us.
When surprised or disturbed a white-tailed deer may snort by forcing air out its nostrils. We happened across this deer, which looked at us for short time, snorted, and immediately turned and ran. You can hear it crashing through the brush.
Male frogs and toads advertise for females by calling loudly from bodies of fresh water. Some of them may also use their calls to defend territory.
The male bullfrog is a basso profundo that calls from the edges of ponds and lakes. His advertisement and territorial call is said to resemble the bellowing of a bull. It often includes both a simple call and a stuttered call, as here. In New York it calls from May through August. (Albany, County, New York)
The male's territorial and advertisement call is a twangy gunk which may be given singly or in a short series or three or four calls descending in pitch. Both version are heard in this recording (red-winged blackbirds and bullfrogs in background). When startled it gives a squeak as it jumps into the water. In this recording the splash is louder than the squeak. In New York it calls from May through August. (Albany, County, New York)
The male's call has a quacking quality. Males call from vernal pools, small ponds, and roadside ditches for a short period in very early spring; the snow may still be on the ground. Their calls are not very loud in comparison to spring peepers, and if wood frogs are calling in the same place as a chorus of spring peepers, the wood frogs may be hard to hear. (Albany, County, New York)
The male's advertisement call is a piercing, loud, repetitious peep. First part of the recording is a small chorus; the second part is a large chorus. It calls from vernal pools, ponds and ditches from early spring to early summer. It is remarkable that such a small animal can make such a loud sound; a large chorus can be deafeningly loud when one is close to it. To me, the distant calls of peepers in the early spring is a wonderful sound. (Albany, County, New York)
A breeding male's advertisement call is a long pleasing trill. Thoreau wrote that the toad's call "is a dreamy, lulling sound, and fills well the crevices of nature". Listen to toads calling at a distance, and you will see what Thoreau meant. Each male in a pond calls at a slightly different pitch. In the second segment of the recording, the trilling toads are accompanied by spring peepers. Breeds April to June in New York (Albany, County, New York)
The male's call is a short trill. (The gray treefrog is almost indistinguishable visually from Cope's gray treefrog, but the call of the gray treefrog is more melodic and less harsh than Cope's). In New York the gray treefrog is heard from May through mid-summer. It may call from trees or bushes. (Albany, County, New York)
The field cricket's chirp is probably familiar to most people. There are two species of field crickets, the fall field cricket (G. pennsylvanicus) and the spring field cricket (G. veletis), which cannot be readily distinguished visually or by call. I do not know which species made this call; although it was recorded in September. (Albany County, New York)
Male Say's trigs make a prolonged high pitched trill to attract females. An individual does not make a very loud call in comparison to many cricket species, but many calling at once contribute to the general background of a summers day. Play this recording quietly to hear what the cricket sounds like to the unaided ear. Say's trigs are very active, small, brown crickets (body length about 6 mm) found on low vegetation; I captured them on goldenrod and on rhododendron bushes. They belong to the sword-tailed crickets, a group in which females have sharp, up-curved, scimitar-like ovipositors. (Recorded at 23°C; Albany County, New York)
The male's katy-did call sets the ambience of warm summer evenings. The katydid calls from high in trees and is hard to collect. The call varies regionally. (Albany County, New York)
Male fork-tailed bush katydids make a series of 2 to 4 very high pitched lisps to signal females. If a female responds with a tick, the male will move toward her to mate. The lisps are actually quite loud, but some people may find them difficult to hear because the most of the sound is greater than 10,000 Hz. Common throughout the US; found on low vegetation. (Recorded at 22°C; Albany County, New York)