Animals’ Greatest Hits Go On Internet
Ever fancy waking up to the sound of a crazy frog? No, not that crazy frog, but a chorus of strawberry frogs from Costa Rica.

Perhaps the noise of field crickets is more your cup of tea? Or if that rubs you up the wrong way you may prefer to soothe your ears with the silky sounds of silkworms.

All these weird noises and more are available thanks to a new website, Listen to Nature, created by the British Library in Euston Road.

Users can now log on to 400 different nature sounds made available from the library's extensive archive, which contains recordings of more than 10,000 different kinds of animal from Britain and overseas.

Sounds are categorized by animal groups, habitats and locations, or users can click on a continent or country on interactive maps.

Website designer and head of sound archives Richard Ranft said: "The library has the largest sound collection in the world. The sounds chosen reflect the huge diversity within our collection: from common garden sounds in the UK to more exotic and rare ones from far flung places."

The rarest sounds on the website include the distinctive cry of the O'o A'a bird which became extinct in Hawaii in 1987, the bleating noises of baby Siamese crocodiles, and lowland gorillas in Gabon beating their chests.

A highlight of the website is the selection of soundscapes featuring recordings of tropical savannahs, thunderstorms, the Australian bush and a beautiful dawn chorus.

For the less adventurous there are more familiar noises from our countryside, such as the skylark, blackbird and fox, as well as cats and dogs.

The website is designed to be entertaining, but behind it is a serious message. Mr Ranft said: "This is an important resource for scientific study and the first time that the public has had open access to our archive samples of real sounds from across the world."