When musician and naturalist Bernie Krause drops his microphones into the pristine coral reef waters of Fiji， he picks up a raucous mix of sighs， beats， glissandos， cries， groans， grunts， hits and clicks.

The water pulsates with the sound of creatures vying for acoustic bandwidth. He hears crustaceans， parrot fish， anemones， wrasses， sharks， shrimps， puffers and surgeonfish. Some gnash their teeth， others use their bladders or tails to make sound. Sea anemones grunt and belch. Every creature on the reef makes its own sound.

But half a mile away， where the same reef is badly damaged， he can only pick up the sound of waves and a few snapping shrimp. It is， he says， the desolate sound of extinction.

Krause has spent 40 years recording over 15，000 species， collecting 4，500 hours of sound from many of the worlds pristine habitats.

But such is the rate of species extinction and the deterioration of these pristine habitats that he estimates half his recordings are now archives， impossible to repeat because the habitats no longer exist or they have been so compromised by human noise. His tapes are possibly the only record of the original diversity of life in these places.

“A great silence is spreading over the natural world even as the sound of man is becoming deafening，” he writes in a new book， The Great Animal Orchestra. “Little by little the vast orchestra of life， the chorus of the natural world， is in the process of being quieted. There has been a massive decrease in the density and diversity of key vocal creatures， both large and small. The sense of desolation extends beyond mere silence.”

Hawaii， he says， is the extinction capital of the world.“In a couple of centuries since the islands were populated by Europeans， half the 140 bird species have disappeared. In Madagascar， 15 species of lemur， an elephant bird， a pygmy hippo and an estimated half of all the animals have gone extinct.”

Even partially disturbed habitats lose much of their life for many years， says Krause. Recordings of a meadow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains east of San Francisco before the surrounding forest was selectively logged in the 1980s， sounds very different to when Krause returned a year later.

“The overall richness of sound was gone， as was the thriving density and diversity of birds. The only prominent sounds were the stream and the hammering of a Williamsons sapsucker. Over the past 20 years I have returned a dozen times to the same spot at the same time of year， but the bio-acoustic vitality I had captured before logging has not yet returned.”

One in four mammals is threatened with extinction， he says. With the exception of a few sites， frog populations are in decline worldwide and birds are beginning to show radical signs of territorial shifting.

“Things are beginning to quiet down in the pristine habitats. The combination of shrinking habitats and increasing human pandemonium， have produced conditions under which the channels necessary for creature survival are being completely overloaded. The voices of the wild in their purest states where no [human] noise is present are splendid symphonies.”

But the wild natural world， comprised of vast areas not managed by humans， rarely exists now except for a few isolated spots like the Alaskan wilderness， the far Canadian north， Siberia， the pampas of Argentina and Uruguay， and the Brazilian Pantanal which he says are still rich with natural sound.

“The fragile weave of natural sound is being torn apart by our seemingly boundless need to conquer the environment， rather than finding a way to abide in consonance with it.”

音樂家、自然主义者伯尼·克劳斯把扩音器放进斐济一片清澈的珊瑚礁海域，他听到一阵乱哄哄的声音：叹息声、拍打声、滑音、尖叫声、呻吟声、呼噜声、撞击声以及滴答声。

各种海洋生物争相发出声音，海水伴随着这些声音而跳动。他听到了贝类、鹦哥鱼、海葵、濑鱼、鲨鱼、虾、河豚和刺尾鱼发出的声音。有些海洋生物在咬牙，还有一些在利用它们身上的囊袋和尾巴发出声音。海葵发出咕噜咕噜的排气声。礁石里的每种生物都在发出自己的声音。

然而，在半英里之外的同一片礁石里，他只能听到海浪声以及一些虾在跳动的声音，这里的礁石受到了严重的破坏。他说，这是生物灭绝的荒凉之声。

克劳斯花了40年的时间，走遍世界的原始生物栖息地，录下了15000种生物的声音，录制的声音长度达到4500个小时。

然而，越来越多的生物濒临灭绝，这些原始生物栖息地的环境也在不断恶化，克劳斯推测，他的录音现在有一半都已成为历史，无法重现，因为这些栖息地或已不复存在，或已被人类制造出来的噪声所侵扰。他的录音可能是记录下这些地方的原始生物多样性的唯一资料。

“随着人类的声音愈发震耳欲聋，自然界却逐渐变得一片死寂。”他在其新书《美妙的动物管弦乐团》中如此写道。“生命管弦乐团，自然界的大合唱正在一点一点地消失。动物主唱们的数量和种类已急剧下降，大型动物和小型动物皆是如此。这种荒凉感不仅仅是因为沉寂。”

夏威夷，他说，是世界上生物灭绝最严重的地方。……