From the moment “you wake up in the morning ...you become
aware of sounds, the sounds of Africa“ says Saba Douglas Hamilton, a
conservationist who was born and brought up in the Great Rift Valley.
In the first of four programmes, wildlife sound recordist
Chris Watson guides us on a journey in sound across the Plains to hear the
world as you’ve never heard it before and explores the relationship between the
soundscape, the people and the wildlife. The great savannah wilderness of the
Maasai Mara in Kenya is filled with sound even before the sun rises above the
horizon. There are the sounds of the wildlife and the elements; the wind and
the rain.
Sound is used by animals to communicate with one another, to
attract a mate, and warn off predators. Being able to interpret this soundscape
is as important to the animals who live here as the people.
From a very young age Saba has been aware of the changing
soundscape around her. And as we discover, for both Saba and Jackson Looseyia,
a local Maasai, being able to identify the individual sounds in this changing
soundscape is crucial to their survival; for example, recognising the alarm
calls of a bird when a predator is nearby.
And it is not only the sounds of the wildlife that fill
these plains but also the elements - the wind and the rain. The rains “mean
life” explains Saba as vast herds of wildebeest follow the rains on their annual
cycle in search of food.
We also hear about the signature sound of Africa – the roar
of a lion. But for Chris Watson, the most memorable sound was of elephants
sleeping; a sound which you feel as well as hear!
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