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
Over 35 years of experience in biodiversity conservation worldwide, largely focused on forests, rewilding and conservation technology. I run my own business assisting nonprofits and agencies in the conservation community
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Biologist I consider myself a data scientist with a passion for nature and with an extensive experience in species distribution modeling, handling large data sets from different sources such as gbif, eBird, xeno-canto, Worldclim, Terraclimate, ocean color e NASA among others. But
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Founder & CEO of we.are.tohorā, creating a community that cares about whales, the environment and each other.
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- @bumbleben
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Junior dev in a bioacoustics startup, interested in all forms of remote sensing and biologging
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IBM
Software Engineer for last 20 years and running a conservation organization for last 3 years, looking for more opportunities to implement tech skills for conservation
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Do you have photos and videos of your conservation tech work? We want to include them in a conservation technology showcase video
17 May 2024
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Read in detail about how to use The Inventory, our new living directory of conservation technology tools, organisations, and R&D projects.
1 May 2024
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The Inventory is your one-stop shop for conservation technology tools, organisations, and R&D projects. Start contributing to it now!
1 May 2024
Technology to End the Sixth Mass Extinction. Salary: $132 - $160k; Location: Seattle WA; 7+ years of experience in hardware product development and manufacturing; View post for full job description
1 May 2024
TBC is looking for an applicant to lead on the design, analysis and reporting of data from a wide range of innovative bat population monitoring surveys with a particular focus on passive acoustic monitoring, undertake...
24 April 2024
Full-time 3 year postdoctoral fellowship in Escondido, CA
22 April 2024
In a recent publication we tested Underwater Passive Acoustic Monitoring (UPAM) as a feasible non-invasive technique to study the calling behavior of therathened aquatic Andean frogs under natural conditions in the...
6 April 2024
What can soundscapes tell us about ecosystem functioning and health? We are looking to hire a postdoctoral researcher in ecoacoustics for Nature Recovery at Oxford
2 April 2024
Hussey Labs seeks a senior post-doctoral researcher/senior research associate for movement ecology of Greenland halibut in the context of fisheries management across Baffin Bay-Davis Strait, Eastern Canadian Arctic.
13 March 2024
Catch up on the conservation tech discussions and events that happened during World Wildlife Day 2024!
7 March 2024
Do you know anyone interested in this position? Let them know by sharing widely.
27 February 2024
The Ecological Acoustics and Behavior Lab at the University of New Hampshire seeks a PhD student to join our lab to investigate how forest habitat affects moose occupancy and soundscape in northern New Hampshire
13 February 2024
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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If you have the resources, I would suggest testing the sensitivity and directionality of the system at relevant frequencies both with and without an external mic, and let the... |
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Acoustics | 4 weeks ago | |
Thank you Robyn. Sure I will send more information to your email |
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Citizen Science, Acoustics, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Human-Wildlife Conflict | 1 month ago | |
Totally agree.Inititally sceptical until I saw Helena and Graeme were involved.MJ |
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Acoustics, Citizen Science, Community Base, Human-Wildlife Conflict | 1 month 1 week ago | |
Thanks Carly! I will keep anyone interested in this project posted on this platform. Cheers |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation | 1 month 1 week ago | |
'Most importantly, we have to make it play a MIDI version of the DoctorWho theme song when you arm the device. That has to be the #1 feature if you ask me!' Seconded! |
+9
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Acoustics, Biologging, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions, Sensors | 1 month 1 week ago | |
Congrats @MattyD797 and team!!! We do a lot of work in the underwater bioacoustic realm and your tool certainly seems like it would be a great instrumental addition to the... |
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Acoustics, Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Marine Conservation, Protected Area Management Tools, Sustainable Fishing Challenges | 1 month 3 weeks ago | |
We've deployed passive acoustic monitors in various urban environments without any issues of theft, even in locations where camera traps and other technology has been historically... |
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Acoustics | 1 month 3 weeks ago | |
We could always use more contributors in open source projects. In most open source companies Red Hat, Anaconda, Red Hat and Mozilla, people often ended up getting hired largely... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Early Career, Marine Conservation | 2 months ago | |
Hello everyone, I'm interested in gathering insights on how the behavior of different species impacts the development and efficacy of... |
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Biologging, Acoustics, Camera Traps, eDNA & Genomics, Emerging Tech, Marine Conservation | 2 months ago | |
Thank you Carly, I will definitely take a look. |
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Acoustics, Biologging, Climate Change, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Data management and processing tools, Remote Sensing & GIS, Software and Mobile Apps | 2 months 1 week ago | |
If you're interested in a free, no-code ecoacoustic analysis platform for your data, check out Arbimon! |
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Acoustics | 2 months 1 week ago | |
Hi @timbirdweather I've now got them up and running and winding how I can provide feedback on species ID to improve the accuracy over time. It would be really powerful to have a... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Citizen Science, Emerging Tech | 2 months 1 week ago |
New paper: Soundscapes show disruption across the diel cycle in human modified tropical landscapes
20 September 2022 2:40pm
Authors founds dawn & dusk choruses were lost/supressed in plantations, acoustic activity at dawn/dusk reduced in disturbed ecosystems compared to healthy forests.
WILDLABS Journal Club
15 September 2022 11:42am
15 September 2022 3:49pm
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 the "mix of things" that she mentioned anyways so I think that new format would be great.
Online Course – Introduction to Aquatic Acoustic Telemetry
14 September 2022 6:13pm
CFP - transnational biodiversity monitoring (from European Biodiversity Partnership)
14 September 2022 1:42pm
Join the BirdNET team!
9 September 2022 2:43pm
BOEM job openings
Postdoctoral Fellow in Soundscape Ecology at Purdue University
8 September 2022 4:12pm
Catch Up with the Variety Hour: September 2022
6 September 2022 12:31pm
Postdoc: Noise Impacts on Marine Animals
1 September 2022 9:25pm
New paper - 'soundClass: An automatic sound classification tool for biodiversity monitoring using machine learning'
1 September 2022 8:53pm
Silva et al -
- R package to train convolutional neural networks & employ them to classify sounds
- sound event classification pipeline, from annotating recordings to automating
trained networks
- case studies with bat & whale echolocation calls, bird songs
Solicitation of Interest: NAVFAC Atlantic Marine Resources
31 August 2022 7:28pm
Acoustics Modeler & Analyst, Marine Acoustics Inc
30 August 2022 9:45am
Conservation Technology Research Internship
26 August 2022 4:58pm
New paper: Acoustic indices as proxies for biodiversity: a meta-analysis
22 August 2022 4:03am
First seen on Diego Llusia's Twitter - https://twitter.com/DiegoLlusia/status/1561275951463415808?s=20&t=5Z-Do…
Ceres Wild Rhino application
22 August 2022 1:29am
29 September 2022 4:05am
Replacement acoustic membranes for Audiomoth case
31 May 2022 2:15pm
9 June 2022 11:35am
Hi carly,
You've probably seen this already as we tagged you, but I'm dropping it here in case anyone else is having the same issue!
We used the plastic from a stronger A4 plastic folder-case taped. Don't know the type, the one we keep our fieldnotes...
— Attila D. Sandor (@adsandor) June 9, 2022
9 June 2022 1:09pm
@alex_rogers jumping in too:
@groupgetscom has the original vent fitted to the case in stock and available individually - https://t.co/IozIRPVPOS. There is also a UK-based specialist who can provide small numbers of vents - https://t.co/wrQy80Xx0I.
— Alex Rogers (@alex_rogers_cs) June 9, 2022
20 August 2022 9:49am
Alex,
which one of those
https://selectronix.co.uk/collections/waterproof-acoustic-vents
would be the appropriate for the Audiomoth case?
Agus
Looking for plant and animal eco-acoustics specialists in the Alps
10 August 2022 3:01pm
10 August 2022 3:24pm
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 like this!
Steph
Catch Up with the WILDLABS Variety Hour: August 2022
10 August 2022 11:44am
Product Grant Program
9 August 2022 7:09pm
African Bioacoustics Conference 2022
5 August 2022 3:08pm
IBAC Online Symposium 2022 - Frontiers in Bioacoustics
5 August 2022 2:42pm
Opportunity: Postdoctoral Researcher
4 August 2022 9:08pm
HydroMoth GroupGets campaign
28 June 2022 11:07am
20 July 2022 3:06am
From Alex on Twitter:
Yes. The HydroMoth has the same microphone and firmware as the standard AudioMoth which is widely used for terrestrial conservation. You would need the standard green case which has a waterproof acoustic vent.
20 July 2022 5:57pm
@Andrew_Hill Out of curiosity, since this campaign reached its goal & is ending soon, is it possible to turn the remaining Hydromoth units that didn't sell into Audiomoths for a limited GroupGets? I understand that Hydromoths can be used terrestrially as well, but they are more expensive than the last Audiomoth campaigns have been by $50+ so just wanted to see if Audiomoths would still be cheaper. Just trying to figure out if I should buy more Hydromoths or wait until Audiomoths start selling again (ends up being a trade-off between cost and time basically).
31 July 2022 5:20pm
@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)?
Bioacoustics Stack Exchange has reached the public beta stage!
28 July 2022 3:14pm
Looking for specialists in eco-acoustics (Alp region) for Documentary
18 July 2022 5:17pm
Earth Species Project - Senior AI Research Scientist
15 July 2022 6:40pm
CIEEM 2022 Summer Conference
12 July 2022 12:33am
Renaming files with incorrect timestamps
28 June 2022 2:12am
4 July 2022 2:39pm
Hi Carly,
has your issue been resolved yet? Could you link the stackoverflow question maybe? Otherwise this seems like a few lines of python code may solve this. I could assist with this if required.
R is usually not the obvious choice for file level operations :)
5 July 2022 4:03pm
Just posting the link to the Bioacoustics Stack Exchange post where I asked this as well, some other people gave code as well (though I haven't had time to try it as it has been a holiday weekend here in the US).
8 July 2022 10:40pm
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 on a copy first in case something is off! This assumes that all devices are named "swift1" and all .wav files are in the same folder.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#Reset timestamps for passive acoustic recorders
import os
from datetime import datetime,timedelta
from time import strftime
#Set Path to where you placed this file - Should be placed in folder with all recordings
os.chdir(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
#Start Date YYYY-MONTH-DAY and Time HR:MIN:SEC
start_date = "2022-06-17"
start_time= "T09:30:00"
curr_time = start_date+start_time
time = datetime.fromisoformat(curr_time)
incby = timedelta(minutes=20)
#For all .wav files in folder, set name to updated YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS and the increment by 20 minutes.
for file in os.listdir():
tnameform = "swift1_"+time.strftime("%Y%m%d_%H%M%S.wav")
if file[-4:] == ".wav":
os.rename(file,tnameform)
time = time + incby
Bioacoustics Stack Exchange Beta is live & we need your help!
6 July 2022 3:13pm
Bioacoustic Stack Exchange
26 August 2020 12:09pm
28 August 2020 11:55am
I'm not a bioacoustics person but StackExchange has taught me more than half of what I know about GIS as a professional. I still regularly use and recommend it to people wanting to improve their skills at any level. Perhaps there needs to be more awareness raising amongst the bioacoustics community (as you are doing here!) about just how useful it can be, to build up the critical mass. Sadly I don't have 200 points to throw behind this, but I'll look out for anyone who does and might be tempted. Good luck!
7 May 2021 2:02pm
Were you ever able to get a Bioacoustics StackExchange off the ground? An annual retry? :)
5 July 2022 3:21pm
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 establishment as a community. bioacoustics.stackexchange.com
If anyone is interested in getting in and can't get an invite, please feel free to DM me and I'll pass one along.
15 September 2022 12:17pm
Ah Journal club - this was a lot of fun but a little chaotic. We've been wondering if we should bring it back with a slightly different format. ie we all agree on a paper to read before rather than bringing a mix of things to present. What does everyone think? Is anyone else keen? Is there a format you'd suggest we use?