Awesome Acoustics

Nature is noisy. Some animals are very hard to see but much easier to hear. Some species that look alike have very different voices. With developments in the technology of audio recording devices, ecologists increasingly use sound to monitor birds, mammals and other wildlife. But how do they turn thousands of hours of recordings into usable data? Find out in this interactive session, where we will be seeing in sound.

Research is revealing that small mammals, such as mice, voles, rats and shrews, have a wide range of vocalisations used for a range of purposes. Discover more about these species and how they use specific sounds to communicate, locate food and avoid predators, and how we can use these sounds to help us understand more about these species and their behaviours.

Have you ever heard the saying ‘bats are a farmer’s best friend? Probably not! However, these cryptic critters of the night love a full meal of flies, midges and other farmland insects. Unfortunately, many farming practices do little to encourage bats. Come along to hear more about how we used echolocation recordings to understand the needs of bats on farms.