Acoustic sensors enable efficient and non-invasive monitoring of a wide range of species, including many that are difficult to monitor in other ways. Although they were initially limited in application scope largely due to cost and hardware constraints, the development of low-cost, open-source models like the Audiomoth in recent years has increased access immensely and opened up new avenues of research. For example, some teams are using them to identify illicit human activities through the detection of associated sounds, like gunshots, vehicles, or chainsaws (e.g. OpenEars).
With this relatively novel dimension of wildlife monitoring rapidly advancing in both marine and terrestrial systems, it is crucial that we identify and share information about the utility and constraints of these sensors to inform efforts. A recent study identified advancements in hardware and machine learning applications, as well as early development of acoustic biodiversity indicators, as factors facilitating progress in the field. In terms of limitations, the authors highlight insufficient reference sound libraries, a lack of open-source audio processing tools, and a need for standardization of survey and analysis protocols. They also stress the importance of collaboration in moving forward, which is precisely what this group will aim to facilitate.
If you're new to acoustic monitoring and want to get up to speed on the basics, check out these beginner's resources and conversations from across the WILDLABS platform:
Three Resources for Beginners:
- Listening to Nature: The Emerging Field of Bioacoustics, Adam Welz
- Ecoacoustics and Biodiversity Monitoring, RSEC Journal
- Monitoring Ecosystems through Sound: The Present and Future of Passive Acoustics, Ella Browning and Rory Gibb
Three Forum Threads for Beginners:
- AudioMoth user guide | Tessa Rhinehart
- Audiomoth and Natterjack Monitoring (UK) | Stuart Newson
- Help with analysing bat recordings from Audiomoth | Carlos Abrahams
Three Tutorials for Beginners:
- "How do I perform automated recordings of bird assemblages?" | Carlos Abrahams, Tech Tutors
- "How do I scale up acoustic surveys with Audiomoths and automated processing?" | Tessa Rhinehart, Tech Tutors
- Acoustic Monitoring | David Watson, Ruby Lee, Andy Hill, and Dimitri Ponirakis, Virtual Meetups
Want to know more about acoustic monitoring and learn from experts in the WILDLABS community? Jump into the discussion in our Acoustic Monitoring group!
Header image: Carly Batist
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National Geographic Society
Experience utilizing technology to inspire, educate, and create solutions to some of our biggest challenges. Currently, head of the National Geographic Society Exploration Technology Lab, overseeing the development and deployment of research and storytelling technologies.
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University of Florida (UF)
PhD student - acoustic monitoring in Amazon flooded forests.
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I'm a wildlife ecologist with interests in a range of technology.
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- @ana-alcantara
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Postgraduate Biology student interested in bioacoustics, conservation biology and biodiversity
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- @AthenaRycyk
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- @SamuelHertz
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I'm a PhD researcher at Royal Holloway University of London (Centre for GeoHumanities) researching modalities of sound-sensing technologies across climate and conservation sciences. Interested in ethics and histories of acoustic monitoring as well as new visualization methods.
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Nature lover
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Centre for Wildlife Studies
Doctoral fellow at Centre for Wildlife Studies
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- @maddy
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Iam a Doctorate in molecular bology by profession & associated with a tech startup, focued on IoT/sensor based automation solutions. But I spend half of my time to document and conserve local & wildlife arond us and trying to explore our technology in conservation.Love to join
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General Purpose Electronics Engineer
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Agroecology Geek
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BSc Forest Engineering, MSc GIS Sciences, Drone researcher
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| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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| Good afternoon,My name is Maya and I am writing to you as an intern at 'Sounding Images', a Berlin-based production company https://www.... |
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Acoustics | 3 years ago | |
| I don't know if this was resolved, but if you copy this code into a python file in the same folder as your .wav files and then run it, it should rename everything. Try testing it... |
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Acoustics | 3 years 1 month ago | |
| The Bioacoustics Stack Exchange has reached the Beta stage and is LIVE! It is also in a critical... |
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Acoustics | 3 years 1 month ago | |
| Hi just bringing this thread back up to attention: the bioacoustics stackexchange is now up and running in beta form, and could use as much participation as possible to ensure its... |
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Acoustics | 3 years 1 month ago | |
| Hmm 20kg raised 5m would only buy you less than half an AA battery assuming 100% efficiency. Lame, so much for that idea. |
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Acoustics | 3 years 1 month ago | |
| @gracieermi & I are happy to announce the latest update to the Conservation Tech Directory, bringing our total resources in the... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Camera Traps, Community Base, Data management and processing tools, Drones, eDNA & Genomics, Geospatial, Software Development | 3 years 1 month ago | |
| Awesome stuff!! Interested in what kind of recorders you are using and how are you sync'ing them for the TDOA? |
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Acoustics | 3 years 1 month ago | |
| Jamie's tip piqued my curiosity, so I bought what I thought might be what Jamie was talking about. It is an SK-001 as detailed here (not my video) for SGD4 or thereabouts.... |
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Acoustics | 3 years 1 month ago | |
| Hi Eric, Dropping in a reply we had over on Linkedin here. Annoyingly I can't do a snazzy embed of the comment - will fix that!Anton Baotic shared: I guess it depends on... |
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Acoustics, Early Career | 3 years 1 month ago | |
| Thank you @carlybatist , @Freaklabs and @MK . The inputs are very useful and I am progressing on my project based on that. Appreciate a lot. |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation | 3 years 1 month ago | |
| Hi Julien,I use this mic for my raspberry pi setup and it works well picking up bird species singing in our garden while the mic and raspberry sit under our roof tiles.Greetings,... |
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Acoustics | 3 years 2 months ago | |
| Koen, Hi - the config for the audiomoth looks fine (you could put a high-pass filter on to cover frequencies 12-96 kHz only). The scheduler is not set (you have 0 files per day... |
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Acoustics | 3 years 5 months ago |
