One of the world’s most productive wildlife sound recordists (录音师) has released a large collection of his most treasured recordings of wild places to listen to for free on Soundcloud.

“Martyn Stewart has recorded nearly 100,000 pieces, consisting of 30,000 hours of materials. They have been spread across 40 countries and used in 150 films,” Krause, a friend of Martyn said. “Some of these include sounds that can’t be heard anymore, as they belong to extinct animals or disturbed habitats.”

Martyn is one of the key recordists who helped set the standards that gave the work standing in the world of sound. Few can match the quality of his life-long efforts. Throughout his life, since he recorded his first bird at the age of 11, it was easy to record the sounds of faraway places. But times are changing, and the growing presence of noise pollution has made his job a lot harder.

Among his “treasured” recordings include Hurricane Dorian on a remote beach, thunderstorms in Australia, Denali National Park and Arctic Wildlife Home in Alaska, dawn in Zimbabwe, and so much more. He’s also recorded sounds and calls of certain animals, some of which are extinct like the white rhino and the golden frog.

“I hope the free project, called Martyn Stewart’s Listening Planet, is meant to inspire people to try and protect a more delicate part of the world — the auditory (听觉的) part. They have the connection between sound and the animal making the sound,” said Martyn. “I think we have to become the voice of the voiceless. If we can get these beautiful sound recordings out and let people in the world listen to them, maybe we can start protecting what we’ve got left.”

Once the red wolf’s historic range stretched from Long Island to Missouri and down to the Texas-Mexico border. But by 1972 their population was reduced to a small area along the Gulf coast due to habitat loss and hunting.

To conserve the species, 14 individuals were caught as part of a reproducing program. In 1980 their wild relatives were declared extinct — the caught wolves were all that was left and thus lots of genetic variation was lost. You can’t help it when you have so few founders.

Kristin Brzeski is an assistant professor at Michigan Technological University, whose research focuses on the conservation of genetics of wild animal populations. He thought this work had been an underdog scientifically and for conservation, for all wolves decreased in amount dramatically, especially the red wolves. Now, Brzeski and her co-workers have found a surprising new pool of red wolf genes that might help bring more diversity to the tiny population: they found the disappearing genes of red wolves in wild coyote populations. But why did this happen?

Remember: when a population is dying out, it might find the closest related species as their own best mate, so a red wolf and a coyote can have offspring. As a result, people can rediscover their genes in their coyote hybrid offspring. As red wolves are released back into the wild, reproducing with these coyotes could help the critically endangered species regain some of its genetic diversity.

This would be kind of the opposite direction: take the existing small population that still has red wolf genes that are so critical, and put them into a wild landscape with new genetic variation that they haven’t seen for 50 years or more. And all of a sudden, hopefully, this is like a super mix of genetic health and sort of a rebound that these animals can be wild and be themselves again.

The next step will include how to release red wolves in a way that takes advantage of the genes red wolves hiding in coyote populations. There should be a philosophy in our mind that we created this problem, so we should be responsible for fixing it.

Create an eco-friendly home

If you want to make a difference to the climate crisis, your home is a great place to start.

Start small

What’s the tiniest change you can make? Do that first. 【小题1】 The microwave is always an easy one to start with. From your thermostat (恒温器) to the water temperature you wash your clothes at, consider what can be turned down. Alternatively, pick one specific aspect of your home and try making that greener.

Inside and out

Another way to make your home more environmentally friendly is to systematically work through different spaces. In your bathroom, for example, experiment with plastic-free options such as soap instead of shower gel (沐浴露). 【小题2】 However small or large, how can you use the space to better support the environment? This could be anything from a bee hotel on a window box to an area of grassland.

New technology vs. basic swaps (交换)

Do you love cleverly-designed machines or tools? Use them to your advantage. Smart home technology, such as smart lighting and thermostats, may turn off automatically when not needed.【小题3】 Just make full use of your extra blankets and hot water bottles in cold weather.

The three Rs

Each of the three Rs represents a different approach. 【小题4】 What can you remove from your life altogether? What wouldn’t you miss if it was gone? Besides, you may swap to paperless billing. Think strategically about “reuse”. 【小题5】 Can you use it again? Finally, “recycle”. Check out your local authority’s website to learn about what you can and can’t put out for roadside collection.