Terrifying ‘Game of Thrones’ dragon sounds come from Florida animals

Yulee, FL — The dragons on Game of Thrones certainly look spine-chilling, but their ghastly roar came from animals a little less alarming.

In fact, some might even think they’re cute.

And they live right here in Florida.

Sound designer Paula Fairfield visited the White Oak Conservation Center in Northeast Florida to gather all sorts of sounds for the show's creatures.

Part of the magic of the dragon’s roar included resident rhinos and Mississippi sandhill cranes.

Fairfield even let the conservation center record a sneak peek of her work for their Instagram.

Mobile users see Instagram video here.

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Today is Endangered Species Day, so throughout the day, we will post photos of some of the endangered species that can be found at White Oak. But we thought we'd start with something a little different. As you know from a previous post, a couple of White Oak's species were featured in the most recent season of Game of Thrones. Sound designer Paula Fairfield used our rhinos' (and cranes') voices to help bring her dragons' voices to life. She felt that using endangered species vocalizations was important: "We live in a world where our animals are disappearing at a rapid rate," she said. "So it's powerful for me to listen to their beautiful voices and use them in this space." As the GOT series winds down, we thought we'd show you how the sounds were collected. And if you want to learn more about the now-famous rhinos at White Oak, be sure to sign up for our Rhinogram at www.whiteoakdwildlife.org/rhinogram. #endangeredspeciesday #saverhinos #GOT @eargasminc

A post shared by White Oak Conservation (@whiteoakconservation) on May 17, 2019 at 7:35am PDT

The sound designer said she felt that using endangered species vocalizations was important, telling SYFY WIRE, "We live in a world where our animals are disappearing at a rapid rate, so it's powerful for me to listen to their beautiful voices and use them in this space. Some of them are very startling and unusual."

She also used the sound of some objects, including some 40 pounds of dry animal bones fashioned into a wind chime, and human voices to create the overall mix of the terrifying roar.