Start here
Featured species
Barn Owl
Tyto alba
Barn owls have a heart-shaped facial disc, pale underparts and golden-buff upper wings.
Tiger
Panthera tigris
Tigers are solitary predators recognised by their orange coats with black stripes.
Gray Wolf
Canis lupus
Gray wolves live in packs that are usually families made up of a breeding pair and their offspring.
Humpback Whale
Megaptera novaeangliae
Humpbacks are large baleen whales with long pectoral fins and a knobbly head.
American Bullfrog
Lithobates catesbeianus
Bullfrogs are green to brown with a large round eardrum behind the eye.
Indri
Indri indri
The indri is a black-and-white lemur with a very short tail, long legs and rounded ears.
Explore by group
Did you know?
Blue whale calls are so low that many fall at or below the edge of human hearing, yet they can travel across entire ocean basins.
🐧Emperor penguins sing with two voices at once, which lets a parent pick out its own chick in a colony of thousands.
🐍A rattlesnake’s rattle is not a voice at all: it is hollow keratin segments clicking together.
🦗Cricket chirps speed up as the air gets warmer, so the rate can be used to estimate temperature.
🦛A hippo’s call can travel through air and water at the same time when the animal floats half-submerged.
🐒The howler monkey’s hollow hyoid bone acts like a loudspeaker, making a few-kilogram primate audible across a forest.
Why sound matters
Sound is the main way many animals find mates, defend territory and warn each other of danger. In dense forest and deep water, where sight is limited, it is often the only signal that carries. Scientists use the same sounds to count animals they rarely see, a field called bioacoustics, and falling or changing soundscapes can be an early sign that a habitat is in trouble.
That is why we write about voices rather than only appearances. Each profile explains the mechanism behind an animal’s call and what the call is for, and our guide to how animals make sound shows how very different bodies produce very different voices.
From the blog
Frequently asked questions
Why do animals make sounds?
Animals use sound to attract mates, defend territory, warn of danger, keep groups together and, in some cases, to find food. Bats and dolphins even use echoes of their own calls to “see”. Which function matters most depends on the species and the season.
Do wolves really howl at the moon?
No. Wolves howl to keep in touch with pack members and to signal territory to other packs. Studies that compare howling with the lunar cycle have found no meaningful link. Our article on wolf howling explains the science.
Which animal is the loudest?
It depends on how you measure it. Sperm whales produce some of the loudest sounds in the animal kingdom underwater, while on land, howler monkeys, cicadas and peafowl are among the loudest for their size. Our article on the loudest animals compares them.
Are the species profiles written by AI or copied from other sites?
Every profile and article on WildVoices is written and reviewed by our editorial team. We do not copy text from other websites, and we explain the sources we rely on on our Media & Sources page.
How can I report a mistake?
Use the contact page. Tell us the page address and what looks wrong, and we will check it and correct it as soon as we can.
Our editorial standards
All text on WildVoices is written by our team and reviewed before publishing. We do not copy descriptions from other websites. Where facts can change, such as conservation status, we say so and point to the source. If you spot an error, please tell us and we will correct it. Read more on the About page.