Coming up next to a cell phone near you are the thundering call of the African elephant and shivering chirps of the Emperor Penguin of the Antarctic.
That’s the word from the Center for Biological Diversity in Albuquerque, N.M., in announcing a new Web site and lineup of endangered-species ringtones. The organization reports that people in 150 countries have downloaded 100,000 such ringtones in the first year of the program.
“It’s pretty interesting,” Peter Galvin, the group’s conservation director, tells Associated Press. “We didn’t realize how much of an international hit it would become.”
Also available among the dozens of offerings are a Mexican gray wolf and Arctic beluga whale.
Galvin explains the challenge of acquiring the ringtones:
He’s going to make another try during a trip next month to Ecuador and Peru.
“If you’re bird watching, for example, in many cases you may or may not see the bird, and then getting an actual recording of it is even harder,” he said.
Despite the challenge, all but two or three of the ringtones offered on the site are from the wild. They’ve been collected by researchers around the world, and the center hopes for even more recordings.
This isn’t the only instance of cell-phone recordings being used to help preserve endangered species, as wildlife managers in India have gone that route to capture and relocate leopards.
Of course, much more common are the commercial tones, which inexplicably have ballooned into a multibillion-dollar market featuring everything from saints to sinners.
My phone just rings. Go figure.
