Nation & World

<< Previous   of   Next >> Associated Press  (click to enlarge) University of Utah researcher Jeff Rice records the sounds of a Great Basin rattlesnake in Salt Lake City in September.   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Do you have a news tip? newstips@heraldnet.com | 425.339.3400   Published: Monday, October 6, 2008 Wilds of the West collected in audio archive online By Mike Stark Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY -- Rattlesnakes aren't to be trifled with, but if you're trying to collect the sounds of every creature in the West that slithers, hops, flies or flops, distance isn't a luxury you can afford. "You get yourself in some strange situations," said Jeff Rice, a University of Utah research librarian who's trying to create the first comprehensive -- and free to the public -- archive of natural sounds in the West. Minutes later he was squatting in the hills above the city training his lightweight parabolic microphone toward a Great Basin rattlesnake a few feet away. The snake, caught by wildlife agents earlier in the day in a back yard, offered a few doubtful quiet moments. Finally, though, it let loose a long, dry rattle. Rice grinned like he'd been given a Christmas present. "I knew he'd come through," he said. The recording, reduced to a short clip, will be the next added to the Western Soundscape Archive, a Web-based sound clearinghouse headquartered at the University of Utah library. Though it's just a year old, the site already has more than 800 recordings of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians from 11 Western states. It'll also feature "ambient soundscapes" from wild places across the region. The sounds will be available to teachers, scientists and anyone else interested in hearing the odd murmurings of a sage grouse, javelina, Columbia spotted frog or mountain-dwelling moose. The landscape recordings could also provide audio snapshots that could used for comparison later when trying to understand how animals respond to encroaching subdivisions, oil and gas development, a warming climate or other changes. Repeat photography can reveal changes in a limited area but repeated recordings offer broader insights, said Kurt Fristrup, a scientist with the National Park Service's natural sounds office in Fort Collins, Colo. "A good recording survey in an area might be a couple of football fields in diameter to a couple of miles in diameter," Fristrup said. Many of the sound clips on the archive have been donated from other recordists. Some, Rice had to go get himself. In the field, animals tend to be most active in early mornings and evenings. Rice comes prepared with hand-held digital recording equipment and a sense of adventure. "You leave at 2 a.m. and find yourself wandering around bleary-eyed in a swamp," he said. "Sometimes you wonder what you're doing." The work has an urgent, serious side, too. As natural places disappear, so do the animal sounds. Geneva-based World Conservation Union estimates that one in three amphibian species in the world is at risk for extinction. Rice, 41, wants to capture as many as possible on tape before they're gone. "It's very much a race against time," he said. He figures the library has recordings of about 75 percent of the 53 frog and toad species in the states involved -- Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. It has about 70 percent of the birds and dozens of mammal and reptile recordings.

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