Downloadable mobile phone ringtones

We've been enjoying the sounds that you've been sending in to us so much that we thought it might be fun to turn some of our favourites into mobile phone ringtones.

If you're bored of hearing the same old standard tones, then now is your chance to stand out of the crowd with laughing hippos, a San Franciscan cable car or even a wolf-whistling bird from Ecuador (be careful with this last one, we wouldn’t want to get you in trouble in important meetings).

The following six mp3's are available for download in mono, 32kbps format.

Download 56k Modem - Download Size 63k - Sent by Ervin Tagoe, Accra, Ghana.

This is the sound of a US robotics 56K modem which I use to connect to the internet, here in Accra.

Download Cable Car Bell - Download Size 27k - Sent by Lou Lesko, San Francisco

The San Francisco cable cars are a unique form of transportation. They are a network of large cables running underneath the city that the cars grip onto, to move forward. Each year in July there is a cable car ringing contest between crews. This sound is a sample of what you would hear at the cable car turn around at Powell and Market streets.

Download Church Bells - Download Size 12k - Sent by Ian Birch, Rishton, East Lancashire

Ian Birch recorded the sound of bell ringing practice on Thursday evenings in Rishton, East Lancashire (sadly now discontinued) for the BBC. Hear the bells of St Peter's and Paul's Church tower.

Download Hippos - Download Size 22k - Sent by Frank Hinrichs, Hippo pool, Central Serengeti, Tanzania

Amongst a few hundred hippos that were dozing off or fighting, a sudden eruption of a powerful howl by a big male and the response.

Download Kookaburras - Download Size 26k- Sent by Jane Ulman, Bundanon on the Shoalhaven, NSW, Austraila

Here are some kookaburras recorded at Bundanoon on the Shoalhaven in March 2009.

Download Wolf Whistle Bird - Download Size 15k - Sent by JC, Pavacachi, Ecuador

This sound brings me out in goose pimples everytime I hear it. The screaming piha is an Amazonian bird with found in the Pavacachi reserve in the Ecuadorian rainforest.

I was lucky enough to spend five weeks there doing biodiversity surveys of the forest, up at 5am to go and record the dawn chorus. This sound needs saving as this area of the world is under constant pressure from the oil companies and loggers who want to tear down the forests, destroy the habit of wildlife and force indigenous communities from their homes. Pavaccachi and its community are very special so I'm putting them on the map.