Canadian wildlife: notes from the field

The British Library’s Canadian Wildlife sounds collection consists of over a thousand wildlife recordings and accompanying field notes. These were made in natural spaces across the Canadian province of Ontario by an amateur sound recordist called Tom Cosburn, who has spent the past 40 years recording the sounds of nature. These particular recordings were made between 2006-2007 and were originally sent to the British Library on 36 separate cassettes. They were recently digitised as part of the Library’s Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project which is currently working to digitally preserve half a million unique and at risk sound recordings.

The songs and calls of a range of birds and amphibians can be found within the collection, including the Wood Thrush, Red-eyed Vireo, Black-capped Chickadee, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern Leopard Frog, American Toad and many others. Accompanying the sound recordings is a very well organised collection of detailed and comprehensive field notes which describe, among other things, background sounds, vocalisation types, weather conditions and the behaviour of the animals at the time of recording. These notes provide valuable contextual details that help us make sense of the recordings and are a repository of information for researchers. For instance, these enhancements will help researchers understand how the animals were behaving while they were vocalising, where they were vocalising and what other species were present at the time of recording. Scientists working in the fields of bioacoustics, animal behaviour and taxonomic classification will especially benefit from having access to this additional information. The recordings and their accompanying data could be used by researchers in a variety of ways, for example the identification of new species, monitoring changes in biodiversity due to climate change, habitat conservation, local education and mental health therapies.

Transcribing this collection will ensure that this information is preserved and can be made freely available to researchers. Once this project is completed, the data will be available for everyone to access through the British Library’s Sound and Moving Image catalogue and on our forthcoming BLSounds website.