{"id":3859,"date":"2022-03-13T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-13T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=3859"},"modified":"2022-02-28T03:33:32","modified_gmt":"2022-02-28T03:33:32","slug":"digital-sound-archives-can-bring-extinct-birds-briefly-back-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/digital-sound-archives-can-bring-extinct-birds-briefly-back-to-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital sound archives can bring extinct birds (briefly) back to\u00a0life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Colorized version of a 1935 photo of a male ivory-billed woodpecker, now believed to be extinct. Photographed by Arthur A. Allen.\n Forestry Images\/Wikipedia<\/a>, CC BY<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\nHannah Hunter<\/a>, Queen’s University, Ontario<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

When people think of extinct animals, they may picture taxidermy, skeletons, 19th-century illustrations or perhaps grainy black-and-white photographs. Until very recently, these were our only ways to encounter lost beings. <\/p>\n\n

However, technological advances are making it possible to encounter extinct species in new ways. With a few clicks, we can listen to their voices. <\/p>\n\n

In September 2021, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service recommended removing 23 apparently extinct species from the endangered species list<\/a>. This group included 11 species of birds, as well as various aquatic creatures, a fruit bat and a Hawaiian plant. <\/p>\n\n

Of the birds listed as likely extinct, six were recorded while they were still present: the Bachman\u2019s warbler, ivory-billed woodpecker and four native Hawaiian and Pacific Island species: the bridled white-eye, Kaua\u02bbi \u02bb\u014d\u02bb\u014d, large Kaua\u02bbi thrush (k\u0101ma\u02bbo), and po\u02bbouli. Technology capable of recording bird sounds was developed only about a century ago, so these are some of the first now-extinct species whose songs have been preserved. <\/p>\n\n

\n \"Drawing<\/a>\n
\n A 1907 drawing of a male (left) and female (right) Bachman\u2019s warbler by Harvard University zoologist Louis Agassiz.<\/span>\n Wikipedia<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

A not-so-silent spring<\/h2>\n\n

These recordings are available on the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology\u2019s Macaulay Library website<\/a>, a giant multimedia wildlife archive that holds more than 1 million audio recordings<\/a>. It includes the sounds of 89% of all bird species on Earth as of 2020<\/a>, along with photos and videos. The site includes modern sound recordings uploaded by hobbyists, professional sound recorders and scientists, as well as digitized historical recordings captured as long ago as 1929<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

Scientists use these recordings to study questions such as how bird song evolved and how animals behave. The recordings are also accessible to the public. Macaulay Library director Mike Webster<\/a> told me that he thinks of the recordings as time capsules: They let us hear what the world used to sound like and preserve our current sounds for the future. <\/p>\n\n

In his view, all of the library\u2019s recordings are precious. But sounds made by lost species are akin to priceless artworks, like a Rembrandt or a Van Gogh \u2013 the very definition of irreplaceable. <\/p>\n\n