Are there any reasons, beyond the purely aesthetic, for us to be Essay

Are there any reasons, beyond the purely aesthetic, for us to be interested in the sounds of animals - Essay Example There are also arguments by Rothenberg (2013) that opine humans got their notion of dance, rhythm and synchronisation from insect sounds that have surrounded them through millions of years of evolution. Essentially, animal and insect sounds have shaped human sounds. He claims that the sound of insects has acted as a soundtrack for humanity in its entire history and presently, the sounds insects and animals produce are inextricably linked with humanity. From this perspective, this paper will research on the relationship and answer the question â€Å"are there any reasons, beyond the purely aesthetic, for us to be interested in the sounds of animals?† Sound can either be audible or inaudible to the human ear. Inaudible sound is further categorised as infrasound (those below 20 hertz) and ultrasounds (those above 20 kilohertz). The human inner ear has a spiral sheet on which sound plucks synonymously to the way guitar strings are plucked and fires the brain cells that constitute the hearing parts of the brain. When the firing pattern is varied, different cell ensembles are excited and the sounds associated to past experiences, thoughts and feelings. Animal sound is natural in the sense that they are generated by the animals in their normal soundscape (Seyfarth, Cheney & Fischer, 2010). Apart from humankind having the unique ability to understand or identify with the needs most animals, listening to their sounds is one of the key ways of understanding such needs (Rothenberg, 2013). This can also be viewed from the perspective that humans know relatively little on other creatures’ sensory world but, apart from visually, they can interact with them by listening to the sounds they make. Most of the sounds and the vocalizations animals produce are specialised for communication with other animals belonging to the same species. In mammals, sound is produced in the vocal chords (larynx) while birds use a special organ known as the syrinx to produce their songs.