NOTING THE CALLS OF THE WILD
The whistling of a nightingale. The howl of
a gray wolf. The kazoo-like calls of emperor
penguins. To keep his ear trained during
a COVID-19 lockdown, French-German
composer Alexander Liebermann began
transcribing sounds of the animal kingdom
into sheet music that he posts online. What
started as a joke has resonated with fans, he
notes, and become “something bigger.” —HWPHOTOS: KIM TAYLOR, NATURE PICTURE LIBRARY (SNAKE); JAN WEGENER, BIA/MINDEN PICTURES (BIRD); MIRA/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO (WOLF); ALEXANDER LIEBERMANN (SCORE)
Listen to the songs
of the endangered
regent honeyeater.SECTION
SOUNDTHE REGENT HONEYEATER (Anthochaera phrygia)
is a critically endangered songbird in southeastern
Australia. Only a few hundred are left, and some
young males aren’t around older ones enough to
learn their songs. A research team based in Canberra
recently reported that 27 percent of male honey eaters
were singing flawed renditions, while 12 percent
didn’t know their mating calls at all and had adopted
those of other species—not what female honeyeaters
want to hear. The team has exposed captive young birds
to older birds’ recorded songs—and even to wild-caught
older males—in hopes that this music therapy will teach
youngsters the right tunes to preserve the species. It’s
a reminder that populations and cultures rise and fall
together, like the notes of a song. —HICKS WOGANWHAT’S A SONGBIRD
WITHOUT ITS SONG?
A SPECIES’ SURVIVAL MAY REST ON ELDERS
TEACHING YOUNG MALES MATING CALLS.SNAKE USES ITS
RATTLE SPEED
TO FOOL FOES
If you
can hear
the raspy
ch-ch-ch
produced by a
rattlesnake’s tail,
then you’ve already
wandered too
close. Or is that just
what the snake
wants you to think?
By analyzing sound
waves, scientists
learned that west-
ern diamondback
rattlesnakes vibrate
their tails slowly
when a threat is
far away but shift
into a quicker, high-
frequency rattle as
a threat nears. This
acceleration tricks
the human ear into
thinking the ser-
pent is closer than
it actually is.
——JASOJ A S ONN B I T T E L BITTEL