Whether a natural sound counts as noise depends on the perceiving species

Evidence

If we consider noise in the physical sense, in nature the noise is a rare event when there is no direct or indirect human intervention. But again, does a waterfall or a wind tempest produce sounds or noise? This question remain unanswered. … From a semiotic point of view, a waterfall can be considered a sonic landmark for some species and simply a noise for others. — Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology, 1242

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the geophony vs. anthropophony distinction and the receiver-relativity threaded through this book. — connects to: Organisms adapt to natural noise but suffer stress from anthropogenic noise — Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology: Principles,…, 1275; Subjective interpretation of animal calls can mislead even experienced observers — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 90; Sonic processes are subjective and require a focal species to be identified. — Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology: Principles,…, 210 (+3 more)
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source

Broader Connections

• Any sound can function as noise depending on the listener #corroborates (0.95) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 2486
• Noise is fundamentally subjective rather than an objective property of sound #expands (0.88) — Schafer, Murray R, The Soundscape- Our Sonic Environment…, 614