Ringtones For A Cause

The New Mexico-based Center for Biological Diversity is hoping to take advantage of the ringtone craze. Ever wonder what a Central American poison arrow dart frog or a Mexican gray wolf sounds like? Well, Peter Galvin, co-founder of the Center for Biological Diversity, is traveling the world to find out for you. All you have to do is download his free ringtones. Some of the options also include downloads of an Arctic beluga whale, and several variations of South American birds.

So far 24,000 people have gone to the environmental group’s website to download ringtones, and four in five voting-age Americans have cell phones. The hope is that the ringtone hype will help make more people aware of the importance of saving endangered species. Each recording available is of an endangered species, taken from the animal’s natural habitat. The recording of the Mexican gray wolf is one of the only recordings of the wolf in the wild.

This idea is one of the few to really target the younger generations and ask for help. The environmental group wants to attract the younger, computer savvy generation, and to educate them so that they will choose to help out the endangered species in the future. Other foundations that have utilized ringtones for a cause are Bono’s ONE Campaign to help out global AIDS and poverty, and Amnesty International.

It is important that the Center for Biological Diversity is reaching out to younger generations in a way that these previous foundations may not have. It will be interesting to see whether a free ringtone is enough to draw pre-teens and teens to do anymore with the website than just download the recordings. The group will have to also make an effort to invite the younger generations to further research the animals in trouble. Wouldn’t it be surprising if these ringtones actually did start up conversations at school about the recorded animals? Perhaps this is a little too idealistic though.