Dave:
You asked
" Does a proper naturalist collect all the different
>sounds produced by a particular species and then attempt to explain
>where each one fits into the lifecycle of that particular animal? "
And a partial answer is yes, there's a fair number of people who choose to
concentrate on a small number of organisms and record/document as many of
their sounds as possible as well as accumulating data that associates these
sounds with particular behaviors and environments.
Also, as you suspected, there's also a fair bit of interest in documenting
geographic variation in animal sounds. The 'net has proved very helpful for
this sort of project as distant recordists can now easily share their
recordings. Some species show lots of geographic diversity while others are
remarkably constant over entire continents. In this respect my own personal
project has been to record birds at the extremes of their geographic ranges
and, when possible, on islands where their population may be fairly isolated.
If you'd like, email me separately and I can offer you the few Gray
Squirrel recordings I have to compare with your own.
Best,
Steve Pelikan
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
|