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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Based in Australia, in the Blue Mountains and working with WWF-Australia on a new program "Eyes on Country". Working on the interface of tech, conservation and First Nations/Ranger groups.
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Article
HawkEars: a high-performance bird sound classifier for Canada
Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute
HawkEars is a deep learning model designed specifically to recognize the calls of 328 Canadian bird species and 13 amphibians.
13 May 2025
Link
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
Article
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
Careers
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
InsectSet459 - the first large-scale open dataset of insect sounds, featuring 26,399 audio clips from 459 species of Orthoptera and Cicadidae.
24 March 2025
Careers
Naturalis is looking for a postdoc in AI for Ultrasonic Bioacoustic Monitoring
24 March 2025
Careers
Postdoctoral opening in the Bioacoustics and Behavioral Ecology Lab at Syracuse University
14 March 2025
Funding
BirdCLEF+ 2025
Alex Rood
Species identification from audio, focused on birds, amphibians, mammals and insects from the Middle Magdalena Valley of Colombia.
12 March 2025
Careers
Postdoc in bird modelling and remote sensing
Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute
Building species-specific habitat models for forest bird species using state of the art methods and remote sensing layers
28 February 2025
Funding
Osa Conservation is launching our inaugural cohort of the ‘Susan Wojcicki Research Fellowship’ for 2025, worth up to $15,000 per awardee (award value dependent on project length and number of awards given each year)....
10 February 2025
Article
workshop introduced participants to the power of bioinformatics and next-generation sequencing (NGS) in conservation biology.
10 February 2025
June 2025
event
Julia Wiel
July 2025
September 2025
October 2025
event
Vanesa Reyes
November 2025
April 2019
61 Products
| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I have been waiting for journal club to come back!! 10000% down.I agree with @StephODonnell, would love it to come back!!! And now that variety hour is happening, that's more of... |
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Acoustics, Community Base | 2 years 8 months ago | |
| Alex,which one of thosehttps://selectronix.co.uk/collections/waterproof-acoustic-vents would be the appropriate for the Audiomoth case?Agus |
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Acoustics | 2 years 9 months ago | |
| Hey maya, If you're free - come along to our Variety Hour call next week and ask folks there too. We're keeping the last 10 mins open for people to jump up and put out calls... |
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Acoustics | 2 years 9 months ago | |
| @Andrew_Hill I wonder if you could let us know more about the time keeping difference btw the regular AudioMoth and the HydroMoth (which is said to do better)? |
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Acoustics, Marine Conservation | 2 years 9 months ago | |
| The Bioacoustics Stack Exchange has now made it past the private beta stage and onto public beta as of July 26! This means that the site... |
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Acoustics | 2 years 9 months ago | |
| 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 | 2 years 10 months 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 | 2 years 10 months ago | |
| The Bioacoustics Stack Exchange has reached the Beta stage and is LIVE! It is also in a critical... |
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Acoustics | 2 years 10 months 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 | 2 years 10 months 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 | 2 years 10 months 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 | 2 years 10 months 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 | 2 years 11 months ago |
