Scientists put nature’s infinite playlist on iPods to monitor wildlife

Put this on your playlist: scientists at the University of Puerto Rico have developed a system to monitor wildlife in tropical rainforests, using captured audio in real time to remotely record the sounds made by animals. Using hardware that includes iPods, solar panels, and car batteries, the scientists created a network of radio-connected listening posts around the world that allows them to collect data 24 hours a day over long periods of time. The sound will help them track the effects of environmental changes—such as deforestation and climate change—on endangered species.

The system, called Arbimon (Automated Remote Biodiversity Monitoring Network), was created by a team led by Dr. Mitchel Aide and Dr. Carlos Corrada-Bravo of the University of Puerto Rico. As described in a paper published by the team in PeerJ today, Arbimon's monitoring stations use an iPod recording application to capture up to 144 one-minute audio recordings per day of animal calls. Most of the components of the monitoring stations—the iPod, the battery, a voltage converter, a preamplifier for the microphone, and a router—are in a sealed watertight case. A 50-watt solar panel powers the system and charges the battery during the day.

A diagram of the components of the Arbimon monitoring network.

PeerJ

The collected audio is then transmitted over a 900MHz radio signal back to a collection base station—which can be up to 24 miles away—and is uploaded over the Internet to the team's server in Puerto Rico. Audio processing software on the server then attempts to automatically identify the species caught on the audio recordings; scientists can "teach" the system to improve its identifications or learn new species through a Web-based audio analysis application. The server can process over 100,000 recordings an hour, delivering data on the presence or absence of a species across the monitored sites.