NPR Sound Treks--Animals

The NPR style comes through in short interviews with animal scientists about sounds of the wild that interest them. The interviews include recorded noises of hyenas, owls, rattlesnakes, and bison. A cricket lady electronically slows the speed of her little insects to show what the chirping consists of and explains how temperature affects it. An elephant naturalist plays the voices of elephants in the night forest talking to each other. With the sounds in the background, she demonstrates how the pachyderms' emotions modulate their communications. Adding chill to such a fuzzy lesson, she mentions that an occasional gunshot pops up on the recordings, reminding us that all wildlife face danger from homo sapiens. The vignettes make for light listening. J.A.H. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine