Natural sounds are any sounds produced by non-human

organism An organism is any life, living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have be ...

s as well as those generated by natural, non-biological sources within their normal

soundscape A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term, originally coined by Michael Southworth, was popularized by R. Murray Schafer. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline, ...

s. It is a category whose definition is open for discussion. Natural sounds create an acoustic space. The definition of the soundscape can be broken down into three components: the

geophony Soundscape ecology is the study of the acoustic relationships between living organisms, human and other, and their environment, whether the organisms are marine or terrestrial. First appearing in the ''Handbook for Acoustic Ecology'' edited by B ...

, non-biological natural sounds that include the effects of water by a stream or waves at the ocean, the effects of wind in the trees or grasses, and sound generated by the earth, itself, for example, glaciers, avalanches and earthquakes; the

biophony Soundscape ecology is the study of the acoustic relationships between living organisms, human and other, and their environment, whether the organisms are marine or terrestrial. First appearing in the ''Handbook for Acoustic Ecology'' edited by B ...

, all the non-human, non-domestic sounds that emanate from a relatively undisturbed habitat; and anthrophony, all sound generated by human endeavor, whether music, theatre, or electromechanical.

Definition

Humans are a product of nature this could be considered part of nature. However, humans have long-considered themselves to be separate and in conflict. For that reason, a special category of the soundscape has been set aside for humans alone. Called anthrophony, it includes all of the sound that humans produce, whether structured (i. e. music, theatre, film, etc.), or entropic, as in the electromechanical chaotic and uncontrolled signals we generate by whatever means. Anthrophony has a profound effect on the natural soundscape and the featured organisms who play seminal roles in those habitats, but the nature of that effect varies with the types and families of sound and their relative intensity. Natural sounds are restricted to natural sources in their normal

because clips of isolated natural sources are like sound bites: without context the sounds are prone to be misinterpreted.

History

The historical background of natural sounds as they have come to be defined, begins with the recording of a single bird, by Ludwig Koch, as early as 1889. Koch's efforts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries set the stage for the universal audio capture model of single-species—primarily birds at the outset—that subsumed all others during the first half of the 20th century and well into the latter half and into the early 21st, as well. In late 1968, influenced by acoustic efforts in the fields of music and film, this model began to evolve into a much more holistic effort with attention paid to the acoustic experience of entire habitats, inclusive of all the wild animal voices. Expressed as wild soundscapes, these phenomena included sounds primarily from two main sources, non-human and non-domestic wild ones, and non-biological sources in relatively undisturbed habitats.

Humans

Humans can benefit from

natural environment The natural environment or natural world encompasses all life, biotic and abiotic component, abiotic things occurring nature, naturally, meaning in this case not artificiality, artificial. The term is most often applied to Earth or some parts ...

s to restore from stress and directed attention fatigue. A human can endure high levels of stress for short time periods as long as these periods are interrupted by restoration moments. While a natural environment provides more sensory input than the soundscape there are indications that the soundscape alone also affords restoration. A majority of humans indicate that they find natural sounds pleasurable.

Animals

Territory sounds

These are sounds, calls, or audible signals made by any one species to its own or any other species, establishing boundaries so like or unlike species will not transgress those boundaries. Male baboons make sounds heard for miles by other baboons, communicating to those other male baboons, the

territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, belonging or connected to a particular country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually a geographic area which has not been granted the powers of self-government, ...

of that male

baboon Baboons are primates comprising the biology, genus ''Papio'', one of the 23 genera of Old World monkeys, in the family Cercopithecidae. There are six species of baboon: the hamadryas baboon, the Guinea baboon, the olive baboon, the yellow ba ...

. The strength, volume, and

timbre In music, timbre (), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes sounds according to their source, such as choir voices and musical instrument ...

, inherent in that "call", determine whether or not rival males attempt to invade that male baboon's territory. They do this to make them sound impressive and then to attract the female to them.

Courtship and/or mate attracting sounds

These are sounds made by the male baboon to attract females to his territory for courtship and mating. Again, the strength, quality, and timbre of those sounds, often determine the ability of that species to attract females for reproduction. These mating calls, often low and guttural, are the main criteria, used by the female baboon to determine which male she mates with.

Cultural references

The imitation of natural sounds in various cultures is a diverse phenomenon. and can fill in various functions. In several instances, it is related to the belief system, for example, imitation of natural sounds can be linked to various shamanistic beliefs or practice (e.g. yoiks of the

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ne ...

,Szomjas-Schiffert 1996: 74 some other shamanic songs and rituals,Hoppál 2006: 143
Diószegi 1960: 203Hoppál 2005: 92
/ref> overtone singing of some cultures). It may serve also such practical goals as luring game in the hunt;Nattiez: 5 or entertainment (such as the katajjaq of the

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

).Deschênes 2002
/ref>

Notes

References

* * * * The book has been translated to English: * The title means “Shamans in Eurasia”, the book is published also in German, Estonian and Finnish
Site of publisher with short description on the book (in Hungarian)
* * * . The songs ar

from the ethnopoetics website curated by Jerome Rothenberg. * * * {{cite book , last=Krause , first=Bernie , title=The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places , year=2012 , publisher=Little Brown/Hachette , isbn=978-0-316-08687-5 , url-access=registration , url=https://archive.org/details/greatanimalorche0000krau

External links

The British Library Sound Archive
has 150,000 recordings of over 10,000 species.
International Bioacoustics Council
links to many bioacoustics resources.
Listen to Nature
400 examples of animal songs and calls
Wildlife Sound Recording SocietyWildsanctuary.com
Zoomusicology