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Clip description
The voice-over announces 'the male koala grunting’. We hear a series of deep-voiced grunts similar to the sounds of a large pig.
Curator’s notes
This is the noise a male koala makes when courting. The aggressive sounds are in contrast to the animal’s image as cuddly and cute. The wheezing and snoring noises are abrasive and unpleasant to the ear, and seem more likely to repel than attract a mate!
Unfortunately, as Pollock predicted, koala numbers have decreased due to the pressures of urbanisation and recordings such as these are therefore increasingly important to document their habits. While some surface noise from the vinyl disc is inevitably audible, the recording is otherwise very clear and offers an excellent record of the koala’s unusual grunting ritual for generations to come.
