Hyena sounds!

Описание: The eerie calls of Spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta)

Of all the wildlife I've recorded over the years, hyena calls (and in particular their series of whooping sounds) are the most eerie and fascinating. They sound powerful and decisive but they also have a plaintive and almost sad element, especially towards the end of the series.

It definitely helps that these hyenas know a thing or two about acoustics and pick some excellent spots for their calls. The 3 examples above were recorded over a two week expedition to Zambia. I was hearing these hyenas calling through the night from my tent, so I decided to set up a few rigs specifically to capture their sounds.

I didn't just want a close up, clean recording of hyenas, as I already had some of that stuff. I wanted to capture the calls and their echoes bouncing off distant hillside or treelines. When I want to tell a story set in the African bush with field recordings, I want to include the rich sounds of the bush and not just clinical representations of what animals would sound like in an anechoic chamber.

To achieve this, I had to set up my recording rigs in small bushes roughly at the centre of valleys or the open savanna. This would give me more chances of capturing the beautiful echoes, while still being fairly close to the hyenas calling. What do you think, did I succeed? Can you hear the long trailing echoes as the hyena calls are enriched by the acoustics of the African bush?

Recorded in South Luangwa with Sony PCM A10 and Lom mikroUsi microphones. Enjoying the videos I upload on here? Please consider supporting me by:
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