Book review: The Sounds of Life - how digital technology is bringing us closer to the worlds of animals and plants

Prof Bakker - 'sonic summons'

FIRST creature to be mentioned by Prof Bakker in her latest book, which is absorbing from start to finish, is the peacock.

In her introduction, she writes: "In one of the animal kingdom's most famous mating rituals, male peacocks transmit powerful infrasound with their raised tails.

"What humans perceive to be a visual display is, in fact, a sonic summons.

"Thereafter, it has to be said that ornithology takes a back seat in her narrative  to other forms of life such as bats, bees, whales, fish and even larvae.

That is because the author's focus is on the sounds which lie beyond the range of human hearing -  typically between 20Hz and 20 kHz.

She explores how research involving digital technology and artificial intelligence  is revealing how, in effect, the planet is a constant symphony. 

To some extent, much of this has  already been known about the mammals that live in the oceans.

Whales, for example, are finely tuned to the sonic environment of the ocean. Their consciousness is based on sound, not sight

Extraordinarily, sperm whales can vocalise at over 200 decibels, "louder than a rocket launch or a jet engine at take-off".

But the fact that tiny creatures scuttling about in the soil - and even plants - are in constant conversation  takes the author into fresher territory.

"Soundscapes can reveal much about the functional condition of eco-systems," she writes.

"One that is degraded sounds very different from a healthy one.

"Like a stethoscope that detects a heart murmur, eco-acoustics  can detect the presence or absence of healthy sounds."

Prof Bakker finds immense encouragement in this incredibly fast moving branch of zoological research.

She notes  "Our own physiologies - and perhaps our psyches - limit our capacity to listen to our non-human kin.

"But humanity is beginning to expand its hearing ability.

"Digital technologies, so often associated with our alienation from nature, are offering us an opportunity to listen to non-human in powerful ways, reviving our connection to the natural world."

Could it be that birds use the sounds from our resonant  planet's eternal 'symphony' to help guide their migration? Who knows?

The Sounds of Life is published in hardback at £28 by Princeton University Press.