A THOUSAND CALLS OF THE WILD CAPTURED

A free, online archive of wildlife sounds recorded throughout the western United States
has been created at The University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Library. The digital archive is
available to anyone interested in listening to the natural sounds of this diverse section of
the North American environment.

If you can find the elusive Gunnison Sage Grouse while hiking through isolated pockets of
remote southeastern Utah, you might be able to hear one. But now, thanks to nature
recording specialists and a grant from a prestigious library institute, you can listen to its
distinctive gurgling calls at your desk with a click of a computer mouse.

The sounds of the Gunnison Sage Grouse in the wild is now one of 1,000 calls of different
bird species, coyotes, FROGS, and other creatures to be catalogued and made available
through the Western Soundscape Archive, a free, comprehensive, online archive dedicated
entirely to the natural sounds of the western United States. The archive is part of the
collection of the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah.

The recordings currently available range from rare birds to the endangered WYOMING
TOAD. From your desktop, you can travel to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to hear the
calls of an Arctic Fox, or follow a biologist into an abandoned mine to record bats. The
unique natural environments of the west are available through sounds and stories.

Through freely available streaming audio files and downloadable podcasts, scientists,
scholars, educators, students and nature enthusiasts will be able to identify animals and
hear ambient recordings of natural environments throughout the eleven contiguous
western United States and parts of Alaska.

By focusing on the sounds of the western U.S., the archive emphasizes the connection
between sound and place -- something that is not only culturally valuable, but also
biologically crucial, say scientists. Scientists recognize that even the same species of
animals can sound different based on their geography. Birds, especially, can sing in
dialects unique to their areas; frog calls can vary with temperature.

The project was made possible by a prestigious National Leadership Grant from the
federal Institute of Museum and Library Services that was awarded to the J. Willard Marriott
Library at the University of Utah. Ongoing partners include the National Park Service, the
USGS, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, as well as some of the nation's finest nature
recordists.

To view a full video on the Western Soundscape Archive, visit

http://westernsoundscape.org/videoFull.html

For more information on Western Soundscape Archive news and events, visit

http://155.97.130.88/westernsoundscape.org/news.php