The sounds of tree frogs and howler monkeys in Costa Rica

When I was in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica with my family a couple of weeks ago, I recorded the sounds of the howler monkeys and tree frogs.

The howler monkeys sounded different from ones I've heard in the zoo. These monkeys made an eerie roaring sound that gave me chills. And some of the frogs sounded like a human being yelping.

I suppose I should tell you more about these tree frogs and howler monkeys, but I would just be cribbing from Wikipedia. I don't know anything about these animals. But I like the way they look, and I love the sounds they make. The next time I go somewhere that has interesting nature sounds, I'm going to go off by myself so that I don't pick up the sound of other people's voices.

Listen to the tree frogs.

Listen to the howler monkeys.

More photos and streaming sound files after the jump. (Some of the frog photos were taken by my father.)

• Delightful creatures of Costa Rica
• Coconut face

Tree Frogs and Howler Monkey Sounds by Mark Frauenfelder is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

• [MagneticGrain]

  Thanks Mark, this gave me a nerd-0-riffic idea for a web toy/app that allows one to isolate critter sounds, and then layer them up towards the building a rain forest cacophony (or maybe better, vice-versa).

  Sounds profitable, so I’ll get right on that.

• [CodeRed]

  Wonderful!! The sounds of the Howler monkeys bring fond memories to my mind. I first travelled to Costa Rica in 2002, and fell in love with the country. I have been back 4 additional times since and have been able to see almost every area of the country. I highly reccomend travelling down the western coast. If you fly into Liberia, Ocotal resort is fairly close and is a wonderful jump point if you then travel south from there. Nosara is famous for its great surfing.

  There are Howlers located all along the western coast as well as areas inland close to Arenal (volcano) We watched the volcano spit up rocks of fire that desimated entire forested areas leaving scorch marks all the way down from summit. There are quite a few Sloths in the area as well

  Liberia also has quite a few CDs of good recordings of all the animals found in the most beautiful country in the world!

• [Anonymous]

  I took some video of howler monkey while I was in Costa Rica a couple of years ago. Please pardon the crappy quality – this was taken on an iPhone 3G.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXH15c9kEco

• [Anonymous]

  If you are referring to the howler monkeys at the LA Zoo sounding different it’s becasue they are actually Siamangs.

• [ck]

  Hearing the howler monkeys for the first time in Guatemala, my wife and I could have sworn we were being attacked by TIE Fighters.

• [Anonymous]

  I remeber once I was just coming back from a whirlwind tour of Europe and Africa and I stopped briefly in Zimbabwe. As the hefty winds blew in off the tropical grasslands and the wildefoot plants and the secretary bird feeds on snakes all stopped for a second and turned to look. I remember the sun was even shining like a boil and everything in the world stopped as if…as if…

• [Anonymous]

  Love, love, love Costa Rica and the diversity of the flora and fauna!! Too bad the U.S. could learn from Costa Rica regarding the lack of a military and protecting beautiful resources sustainably.

  • [Anonymous]

    CR has powerful allies that protect them.

• [Anonymous]

  Since some of you mentioned the possibility of using some of these sounds along with music, let me introduce you to Costa Rican composer Manuel Obregón’s Simbiosis: http://www.amazon.com/Simbiosis-Manuel-Obregon/dp/B00004U93S

  In the reviews the say Obregón, the current Minister of Culture, …”recorded this CD right in the middle of an actual Costa Rican rainforest!” It’s truly beautiful, just listen to the samples.

• [chris23]

  Great stuff, Mark! I too have added field recording to my list of standard holiday/vacation/adventure activities.

  BTW any licensing on these tracks of yours? Ie might they be re-used as backgrounds in music projects?

  • [Mark Frauenfelder]

    Hi Chris! I just added a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Have fun with them!

• [phlavor]

  My wife and I had our honeymoon in Manuel Antonio. The first Howler Monkey we heard had her in a dead sprint down the trail. You had better luck than us finding tree frogs (her favorite). I had forgotten how loud the jungle is.

  • [Micah]

    On our honeymoon in Guatemala howlers scared the crap out of my wife, too. I’d been to Costa Rica years before and vaguely recognized the sound, but couldn’t quite place it when they woke us up at 5 or 6am on our first morning there. When I poked my head outside I saw that it was just a family of monkeys in a tree a dozen or so yards from our little bungalow, but when we first woke up it sounded like an army of orcs was standing right outside our door massing for an invasion.

• [Brainspore]

  I encountered them early one morning atop a Mayan pyramid overlooking the mist-covered treetops of a Guatemalan rain forest. The first thing that came to mind while hearing the throaty roars echoing through the jungle was Skull Island.

• [Anonymous]

  thats the magic of nature.

• [Anonymous]

  I don’t know about primates, but the frogs appear to be (from top to bottom):
  
  Agalychnis callidryas
  Smilisca phaeota
  Dendropsophus ebraccatus
  A. callidryas
  Hypsiboas sp. (rosenbergi?)
  D. ebraccatus
  A. callidryas
  Hypsiboas sp. again

  – Jeff