Last updated: February 6, 2023
Article
The Sounds of Rocky Mountain National Park
Photo courtesy of Jacob Job
Dr. Jacob Job, Research Associate with the Sound and Light Ecolgoy Team at Colorado State University and the National Park Service
In 2007, the Natural Sounds & Night Skies Division of the National Park Service collaborated with the Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology and Biology departments at Colorado State University to create the Sound and Light Ecology Team. The general mission of the group is to understand the effects of noise and light pollution on ecological processes, inform the public about the importance of sound and light and its impact on wildlife and people, and preserve the natural sounds and night skies of the world. In 2015, Dr. Jacob Job began a project to record the natural sounds of Rocky Mountain National Park. Over the past several years, Dr. Job has made numerous expeditions to accessible and remote areas of the park and has collected over 200 sounds and soundscapes. The extensive catalog is now part of the Rocky Mountain National Park Sound Library which includes songs and calls of over 60 bird species, numerous other wildlife species, and over a dozen non-living (e.g. wind, rain and thunder) soundscapes from around the park. While the recordings in the Sound Library are enjoyable and informative to local and remote visitors, they also serve as a benchmark for the sounds and soundscapes in the Park today. These recordings are crucial to understanding how climate, human encroachment, and human-made sounds affect wildlife and soundscapes throughout the Park. Dr. Job plans to continue his work in Rocky Mountain National Park in the coming years, focusing on recording the sounds of all breeding bird species in the park, as well as a more complete array of soundscapes that characterize Rocky.
The Rocky Mountain National Park natural sounds project is part of a bigger effort by Dr. Job, which is focused on creating similar recordings within parks across the Park Service.