THE LITTLE BOOK OF SAFARI ANIMAL SOUNDS

Sound-clip enhanced introductions to cries and calls of a dozen creatures native to central and southern Africa.

The animals are relatively common and a mix of familiar (at least in type) and less high profile, including the African elephant, the hippo, the cheetah, the black-backed jackal, the pearl-spotted owl, and the chacma baboon. Each gets a large individual close-up portrait photo that has been digitally placed into a natural landscape opposite notes on habitat, average size, and other basic facts, plus descriptions of vocalizations—some of which can be heard by pressing the appropriate touch-sensitive area on a plastic panel attached to the edge. Young armchair travelers whose only contact with wild animals is in zoos may be in for an ear-opening experience. Though the lion sounds like some guy gargling and the elephant’s trumpeting as if it were recorded indoors from another room, several of the generally sharp, loud recordings take surprising turns, from a zebra’s astonishing cascade of birdlike trills and a cheetah who sounds for all the world like a yappy dog to the gray go-away bird, which really does seem to be grumbling “go’way, go’way.” Children uninterested in the zoological detail can still enjoy creating a cacophony by pressing the buttons, and vice versa. Batteries are replaceable and come with a printed warning not to eat them.

Definitely not household or neighborhood noises…except for the lion, perhaps.