15 November 2022, Sydney, Australia

Taronga’s resident Superb Lyrebird Echo can mimic a number of unique sounds. One of those sounds in is the evacuation fire alarm (not Taronga’s Code One alarm). Echo can also mimic a power drill and a crying baby, which went viral last year.

Although it has been documented, it isn’t very common for wild Lyrebirds to mimic human/artificial sounds. However, in a zoo setting, because there is such an abundance of sounds that they would hear, it would be hard for these birds not to mimic some of them, including our fire alarm which is the most common alarm. All lyrebirds are individual with the sounds they will mimic and they create their own repertoire of these sounds to use during the breeding season to attract a mate.

Credit to: @tarongazoo