A koala “roars” in Jurassic Park? Hollywood Filmmakers Made Weird Animal Sound Choices

OK, you’re deep in what appears to be a scorching tropical jungle, a voyeur on some kind of fearless safari, judging by the hats.

The men speak what sounds a bit like Spanish, maybe Portuguese, and you can hear exotic animal calls through the bush.

Alright, so you must be somewhere in South America.

An ominous mountain peak in the distance appears to be the destination of your travel party.

Their manner suggests they are in a hurry, on some sort of quest, perhaps involving an ark.

A kookaburra is calling.

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You are no longer in the jungle. You’re back in your living room thinking, “what’s a kookaburra doing in South America?”

If you’ve ever had a movie marred by something completely incongruous, a glaring oversight that once you noticed you couldn’t see (or hear), you’re not alone.

But it turns out you’re especially at risk of that happening if you have a decent knowledge of animals.

You may have already spotted a few yourself, but here, in no particular order, are some of Hollywood’s most ridiculous fantasies, sometimes justifiably so tawny. Hang on, we’re going to the movies.

(And if you’re a fan of Jurassic Park and don’t want your precious memories of that movie sullied…we’re talking audio of a turtle having sex and a koala in love just to start then , you have been warned .)

Raiders of the lost kookaburra

You might have guessed it already, but the description above was for 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first in Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones series.

In this case, birdwatchers couldn’t even make it past the opening credits without a misplaced kookaburra spoiling the scene.

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As you’ll soon hear, this seems to be a regular occurrence for the kookaburra in Hollywood.

But this particular kookaburra was the work of a “Sydney sound engineer,” sound engineer and editor James Currie told the ABC RN podcast What the Duck?!

“Oh yeah, it’s a good movie,” says James, a 40-plus-year industry veteran with credits on movies like Charlie’s Country and The Tracker.

“I was laughing with the Sydney sound guy who sent the Americans the kookaburra sound.”

Many American films are shot “silent” and atmospheric sound is added later, James says.

“They wanted something different, something that would excite American audiences, something exotic. So [the sound guy]said ‘how about a kookaburra?’ And they said ‘what is this?'”

It was not, however, the first nor the last film to include the Aussie bird. The Wizard of Oz, Cape Fear, and Tarzan are just a few more examples.

And there’s another really weird one but you’ll have to read to the end for the big reveal.

Don’t jump ahead. You will miss lots of good things.

Jurassic Koala

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While the example above is perhaps a lack of rigor on the part of the filmmakers, in other cases there is little choice but for the sound designers to get creative with their sound.

Enter the scene, Jurassic Park.

Lawyer Donald Gennaro has taken refuge in a particularly fragile dummy, as a rampaging T. rex approaches.

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Before pulling him out of his addiction, the dinosaur emits a series of grunts.

“One of the sounds that T. rex makes is that of a koala,” says Maggie Watson, an anornithologist and conservation biologist at Charles Sturt University.

More specifically, it is the mating call of a male koala.

“A lot of [the T. rex’s]the grunts are alligators and crocodiles.

In fact, the sound designers of Jurassic Park borrowed an entire assortment from nature’s audio library to give voice to their prehistoric actors.

The hiss of the velociraptor, for example, came from agoose. And its bark?

It was actually a male turtle consummating his relationship, according to Dr. Watson.

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But the creators of Jurassic Park deserve a little leeway here. It’s not like they have access to real dinosaur audio.

Which is more than can be said for many Hollywood producers of the past, who inadvertently created the modern sound designer’s dilemma: “the coconut effect”.

Basically, the coconut effect is a phenomenon where a false sound such as the snapping of coconuts for a horse’s galloping hooves has become so ubiquitous that filmmakers have been forced to continue including the fake device to instead of the real.

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The absence, for example, of the audible snap of a fist or the ringing of a drawn sword may be shocking to an audience steeped in the language of Hollywood.

Anyway, this is the last time we’ll let Jurassic Park get away with it because other than their island off the coast of Costa Rica that also has a kookaburra, they went and did this:

Bad mosquito, bad sex

“In my humble opinion, the most famous mosquito from Hollywood blockbusters is the Jurassic Park mosquito,” says Cameron Webb, mosquito researcher at the University of Sydney and NSW Health Pathology.

If you’re unfamiliar with the plot, a mosquito is discovered with a gut of dinosaur blood and perfectly preserved in amber.

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Scientists extract blood and use it to harvest dino DNA and insert scientific dinosaur clones. Corn …

“It’s really not the right kind of mosquito,” says Dr. Webb.

“The mosquito that is featured in the film is a real-life mosquito whose scientific name is Toxorhynchitis. In Australia we have a very similar species.”

Toxorhynchitis is a generally large-sized mosquito genus, which may explain why it was used in the film to dramatic effect.

“So this type of mosquito is not the one you’re extracting blood from.”

But even if they had correctly identified the species, there is still the question of the genus.

“To make matters worse, the mosquito looks like a male,” says Dr. Webb.

“Only female mosquitoes bite. The males feed on plant juices and sugars; it is the female that needs blood to develop her eggs.”

Golf shows have bird tracks?

For some reason, when Hollywood gets its wildlife wrong, it often involves birds, which can make cinema a minefield for the likes of John Fitzpatrick, professor emeritus at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Its audio enemy is the often misplaced shrill cry of the red-tailed hawk.

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