Background

Thanks to the Boring Fund, we are developing a common standard for Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) data.

Why it’s important: PAM is rapidly growing, but a core bottleneck is the lack of accepted standard for the exchange of PAM data, thereby limited data exchange, large-scale studies, and publication of open and FAIR data to platforms such as the GBIF. 

We explore if the recently developed Camtrap DP standard is a good fit for PAM. Camtrap DP has successfully solved this problem for the exchange and archival of camera trap data, which are structurally very close to audio data. Camtrap DP is a good candidate standard because it models data into deployments, media and observations, which is similar to PAM data.

News

After collecting use cases to ensure this standard meets the diverse needs of the eco- and bioacoustic community, and exploring existing standards at both project and national levels, we compiled a list of Suggested changes to Camtrap DP to include PAM data. You are invited to leave your comments in this document and discuss the proposed changes.

You will find more comprehensive information in our Summary report, including tables showing how the standard would look after integrating the changes.

We are organising a webinar hosted by WILDLABS in May to explain the purpose of this standard for bioacoustic data, how it was developed, and what comes next. Stay tuned!

Contact:

Julia Wiel - julia.wiel@nina.no

Sanne Govaert - sanne.govaert@inbo.be