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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Fauna & Flora
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Ph.D Speech-Hearing Sciences; 3D Designer/Printer interested in building/testing/deploying standardized environmental recording platforms for scientists and engineers in developing countries.
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San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
Lead, San Diego Zoo Conservation Technology Lab
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University of Cambridge & Imperial College London
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I am a Senior researcher and PI in Conservation and Animal Ecology at Fondazione Edmund Mach, Trento, Italy. I am coordinator of EUROMAMMALS, member of the advisory board of the Global Initiative on Ungulate Migration at CMS, and President of the International Bio-Logging Society
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I am biologist, I have studied wild life and ethnobiology at Amazon and caimans in Brazil
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Wildlife Acoustics
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Article
AI for Conservation Office Hours: 2025 Review
Jake Burton and 1 more
Read about the advice provided by AI specialists in AI Conservation Office Hours 2025 earlier this year and reflect on how this helped projects so far.
6 August 2025
Careers
If you're a Post-Doctoral Fellow, a PhD student, or a member of the research staff interested in applying your computational skills to support active research publications, please read on to learn about the Cross-...
5 August 2025
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A group of Montreal labs is searching for a postdoctoral researcher for a project applying machine learning to the spatial scaling of biodiversity.
28 July 2025
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The Marine Innovation Lab for Leading-edge Oceanography develops hardware and software to expand the ocean observing network and for the sustainable management of natural resources. For Fall 2026, we are actively...
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Still open for fundings
Szilvia Szilagyi
Still unfunded, we are looking for a lab office, materials, used instruments and to create our educational basement.
17 July 2025
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Contribute to India's largest open-access, annotated acoustic dataset
Sarika Khanwilkar
Join us in curating an annotated acoustic dataset for India! We are accepting strong and weak labels, read the FAQ document (linked below) for more info and sign the Data Agreement form to join
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Link
Acoustic monitoring for tropical ecology and conservation
Elsa Carla De Grandi
Conservation technologies have a critical role in supporting biodiversity surveys at scale. Acoustic sensors have been increasingly adopted in ecological research, enabling us to expand our capacities in assessing...
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ecoTECH YouTube webinar playlist by Biological Recording Company
Amber Balfour-Cunningham
The Biological Recording Company's ecoTECH YouTube playlist has a focus on webinars about Bioacoustic monitoring.
29 April 2025
Link
This paper includes, in its supplementary materials, a helpful table comparing several acoustic recorders used in terrestrial environments, along with associated audio and metadata information.
15 April 2025
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Nature Tech for Biodiversity Sector Map launched!
Carly Batist and 1 more
Conservation International is proud to announce the launch of the Nature Tech for Biodiversity Sector Map, developed in partnership with the Nature Tech Collective!
1 April 2025
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PhD position on bat acoustics and collective behavior
Blair Costelloe
PhD position available at the University of Konstanz in the Active Sensing Collective Group!
28 March 2025
August 2025
event
Louisa Richmond-Coggan
September 2025
October 2025
event
Vanesa Reyes
November 2025
January 2023
November 2022
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Wildlife Acoustics
event
Carly Batist
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Recently updated products
| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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| Hi Carly, The recording + our notes is here: WILDLABS Virtual Meetup - Acoustic Monitoring We also keep an archive of all past meetups here: ... |
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Acoustics | 5 years 3 months ago | |
| Hi there I was wondering when this virtual meetup recording will be available? Thanks :) Axel |
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Acoustics | 5 years 4 months ago | |
| Hi Harold! Great to know you are in the domain. To be honest my analysis so far indicates that when conducting a DSP approach on the spectrum, smoothing via... |
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Acoustics | 5 years 4 months ago | |
| How can we learn more about your BEESWAX7 buzz identification and counting program, and discuss working together? |
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Acoustics | 5 years 5 months ago | |
| Hi David, I use cron-like patterns. One form looks something like: mon,wed-sun 0-23:0-59/10 90 which means every day but Tuesdays, every 10 minutes from... |
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Acoustics | 5 years 11 months ago | |
| Hi Shawn, I've only heard good things about LiFePO4. The only issue I can think of is exactly the one you bring up: the EMF is low enough that a 2S battery is needed... |
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Acoustics | 5 years 11 months ago | |
| So far we have been able to disambiguate between the flocks of two different species of small birds? Not easy. Our problem seems to be based around the fact that... |
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Acoustics | 5 years 11 months ago | |
| Hi Sam, have you tried the Clippy EM172 ? I was looking at this microphone on Raspberry Pi + PiSound, but it has an electret capsule and should then be powered... Thank you... |
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Acoustics | 5 years 11 months ago | |
| Hi Kev, thank you for contacting us. We are a non-profit, too. I very much welcome collabortion on this system. Shall we continue our discussion through email? Mine is jankees.... |
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Acoustics | 6 years 1 month ago | |
| Hi all, In order to help the development of bioacoustics methods in the UK, I've recently produced some draft guidance, focussed on... |
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Acoustics | 6 years 4 months ago | |
| Hi. I'm moving a topic to this thread from the camera trap thread since it's more relevant here. Discussion with Alasdair... |
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Acoustics | 6 years 5 months ago | |
| Hi Tessa. Thanks and also thanks for being so generous with your work :) Regarding the format, how do you all think if we have a single document and a wiki? I could... |
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Acoustics | 6 years 5 months ago |
