Mobile ring tones, the electronic beeps and buzzes that have shattered a thousand silences from commuter train carriages to funerals, are to take a walk on the wild side with the help of the British Library, it was announced today.

Roaring lions and screeching parrots could take their place alongside top 40 hits and the infamous Nokia tune as the library opens up its archive of wildlife recordings to mobile users. The range of recordings also includes penguins and pigs.

Around 40 sounds from its collection of 100,000 animal recordings will be available from September to download from the internet to polyphonic mobile phones (which have the capacity to play more complicated ringtones than individual electronic beeps).

This is not the first time the sounds of the natural world and mobile phones have crossed paths. Songbirds, in particular starlings, have previously been reported to imitate ringtones.

Richard Ranft, the library's curator of wildlife sounds, said: "We have a vast collection of wildlife sounds at the library, including British wildlife and more exotic birds and animals from the Amazon to the Serengeti.

"We have produced a range of CDs with bird sounds and have found that they are used in doctors' surgeries for their calming effects. We hope people will find their mobile ring tones as relaxing."

The library has sold the sounds to the firms iTouch and Mobiletones, which sell mobile users a choice of rings.