I now have a huge collection of sound effects available to me. It makes me wonder 1) why the people selling the CD thought we might need some of these — like, in what play would you need the sound of an escalator? And what exactly does an escalator sound like (well, I’ll be able to tell you shortly). I wonder 2) about the people who must create the recordings. Does someone kneel down by an escalator with a microphone?

Here’s my favorite sound effect, both because of the scarcity of dramatic uses and because of the rigors of capturing it. Can you guess what it is?

68 Track 68 3.m4a

HINT: It’s an animal.

Feel free to post your guesses, but keep it clean.