🪶 Tuning in to Nature

Tuning in to Nature with Bioacoustics

With thanks to Conrad Young of Chirrup.ai, Geoff Carss of Wilder Sensing, Andrew Baker of Soil Acoustics, Zack Bintakies of evolito and Florian Geiser at Hula Earth for sharing their insights.

Let’s get started…

🦜 The big picture

• Bioacoustics is about listening to ecosystems. Where satellite images give us the “sight” of nature, bioacoustics offers its soundtrack. 

• From insects buzzing in forests to whales singing in the deep, these soundscapes are key to monitoring biodiversity, detecting ecological stress, and even preventing illegal activity like poaching or logging.

• Bioacoustics refers to how ecosystems and individual species produce unique sound signatures, and how bioacoustics allows scientists to track presence, absence, or shifts in animal populations.

• The technology has traditionally been a research tool, but now it's edging into climate tech territory, offering a passive, non-invasive way to track change and inform decisions across conservation, agriculture, and infrastructure.

• “With simple passive audio recorders running 24/7 over long periods of time, each file can be checked every 3 seconds using AI to identify what species has made a sound. This generates large amounts of data and this directly informs how assemblages of species are changing” Geoff Carss, the founder of Wilder Sensing advised. With a complete library of species recordings based on a self service model, using bioacoustics is now very straightforward.

• “Useful bioacoustics monitoring balances the desire for comprehensive wildlife data with the practical costs and diminishing returns of monitoring” as Conrad Young, Founder of Chirrup.ai tells us, their approach is to: optimize sampling by using a specific number of sampling sites, species and days to provide useful biodiversity metrics and avoid redundancy by steering clear of trying to obtain comprehensive audio coverage across every hectare, to control costs and complexity of reporting.

📈 Interest is on the up

• We’re in a biodiversity crisis. The World Economic Forum ranks biodiversity loss as one of the top five global risks in terms of likelihood and impact. But without continuous, reliable monitoring, it’s hard to know what we’re losing, and where to intervene.

• That’s where bioacoustic monitoring offers a compelling edge. It’s cheaper than field surveys, works 24/7, and can cover areas too remote or dangerous for humans to access.

• In the last few years, funding for environmental sensing and biodiversity monitoring startups has started to grow. AI-powered sound interpretation is improving fast, and key players are positioning themselves as infrastructure providers for nature intelligence.

• NASA is now incorporating acoustic data into biodiversity and reforestation efforts, while startup founders see it as a critical tool to build nature-based solutions that are verifiable and scalable.

💡 6 reasons to pay attention

• Loss of sound = loss of life: Ecosystems going silent is a warning sign of collapse.

• Decline in endangered species. Early insight if a red-listed species is declining.

• Real-time insights: Unlike camera traps or satellite imagery, sound can be continuous and cost-effective.

• Unseen threats: From insect declines to ocean noise pollution, many threats show up in acoustic data first.

• Policy potential: Sound-based monitoring could support biodiversity MRV frameworks, helping unlock finance or enforce protections.

• Metrics for progress: Birds are excellent key stone indicators giving insights on habitats, which is highlighted by the EU nature restoration law.

🔍 How is it shaping up?

Forest intelligence

• Rainforest Connection has deployed solar-powered “Guardian” devices in over 30 countries to stream live audio from endangered ecosystems. Using real-time AI analysis, the devices can detect chainsaws, gunshots, and illegal logging, triggering alerts to local authorities.

• Nature Tech Collective is developing open-source tools to train conservationists in bioacoustic deployment, lowering barriers to entry for NGOs and community groups.

Ocean listening

• Hydroacoustic startup OceanMind is using acoustic sensing to support sustainable fisheries and detect illegal activity in marine protected areas. Others like Orca AI focus on ship navigation, but their real-time sound data could be repurposed for marine conservation.

• And in coral reefs, scientists are using sound to track reef health: healthy reefs buzz with life, while degraded ones fall eerily silent.

Pollinator & agricultural monitoring

• At Kew Gardens in the UK, researchers are using acoustic sensors to detect the wingbeat frequencies of different pollinators. This offers real-time, species-specific data on insect activity, helping inform conservation and crop protection efforts.

• AgriSound are using bioacoustics to quantify honey and bumble bee pollinators helping fruit farmers increase their yields.

• Meanwhile, startups like Vivent are using plant electrophysiology and sonic monitoring to detect early signs of crop stress to offer a new dimension to precision agriculture.

• Chirrup.ai focuses on large-scale biodiversity monitoring to support agricultural productivity. Unlike other services designed for in-depth conservation or tracking rare species, Chirrup provides indicators of total species richness and bio-indicators of natural capital and nature-based services relevant to land management.

• Wilder Sensing is a UK based startup working with numerous regenerative farmers, wildlife trusts, professional ecologists and solar farms to quantify the impact site management is having on the species living there - and how the overall species mix changes over time.

Soil health

• Soil acoustics can be used to measure soil health anywhere in the world, it is cheap to collect the data, analysis is fully automated, and the data provides objective information on the level of biological activity in the soil and consequently the health of soil. 

• “We are the first in the world to use eco-acoustics as a means of measuring soil health. By listening to the sounds that are generated by organisms in the soil we can measure the biodiversity which we know is an indicator of a soil’s agricultural productivity. Unlike other methods of measuring soil health it does not need samples to be sent to a lab, it is quick (a reading take 3 mins to collect) and provided objective data on soil health,” explains Andrew Baker, Director of Soil Acoustics.

Insects

• evolito’s evoSense technology capture the wing-beat frequency of insects, their sensors gather continuous, real-time field data without the need for manual trapping or lab work, eliminating disruption or harm to the very species we aim to observe.

• “Designed to be easy to use and low maintenance, it provides fast, reliable insights that reveal how ecosystems function and change over time. By turning complex biodiversity data into clear, actionable insights, we’re helping organisations build trust, improve transparency, and create measurable value through real evidence of change,” explains Zack Bintakies of evolito.

👀 Who? (22 companies to watch in this space)

• Ace Aquatec (acoustic tech to protect animals like seals close to aquaculture sites and marine mammals in near offshore construction projects, UK) 

• AgriSound (hardware and software solutions for the remote monitoring of pollinators across an estate, UK)

• BirdWeather (citizen science-powered bird song identification, USA)

• Carbon Rewild (bioacoustic monitoring to accurately identify biodiversity across bird and bat species groups, UK)

• Chirrup.ai (measuring biodiversity through innovative bird bioacoustic monitoring, driving sustainable land management, UK)

• Evolito (recording the Wingbeat Frequency (WBF) of flying insects, without harming them, Denmark)

• Flox (combining adaptive bioacoustics and real-time AI to gently deter animals without harm, USA)

• Fold Ecosystemics (IoT, AI and Data Science for forest health, ecosystem services value assessment, biodiversity and climate change remediation, France)

• Hula Earth (blending space technology, IoT, and AI to unlock biodiversity monitoring and nature investments, Germany)

• NatureMetrics (biodiversity monitoring using eDNA and sound, UK)

• Okala (terrestrial biodiversity measurement at scale using wildlife cameras, bioacoustics, eDNA and remote sensing, UK)

• Soil Acoustics (monitoring soil health by listening to the sounds that are generated by soil organisms, UK)

• SINAY (reducing the impact of noise on Marine life through passive acoustic monitoring, France)

• SonicFlora (translating bioacoustic signals plants generate into real-time insights, Sweden)

• Sorama (developing innovative acoustic devices, Netherlands)

• Sound Forest Lab (spearheading a scalable protocol to collect and analyze sound scapes, USA)

• Synature (AI and smart microphones, we are developing next-generation, real-time biodiversity assessment technologies to measure the heartbeat of ecosystems, Switzerland)

• Rainforest Connection (scalable, real-time monitoring system for protecting and studying remote ecosystems, USA)

• Rising Tide BioAcoustics (Acoustic solutions for fish and marine mammal deterrence and guidance, Canada)

• Vivent (bioacoustics and electrophysiology in agriculture, Switzerland)

• Wilder Sensing (Using audio files and Machine Learning to provide details of nature present on a site, UK)

• WildMon (Delivering globally accessible technology solutions to accelerate data-driven biodiversity & ecosystem conservation, USA)

Startup to Watch: Synature

🗓 Founded: 2024
👋 Co-Founders: Olivier Stähli and Noah Schmid
 🇨🇭Country: Switzerland

• What: Fully automated biodiversity measurements through sound

• Why: Biodiversity loss is accelerating, yet most ecosystems are poorly monitored due to high costs, limited access, and manual fieldwork. Synature aims to close this data gap by making ecological monitoring scalable, continuous, and cost-effective.

• How: Synature deploys solar-powered acoustic sensors that continuously record environmental soundscapes. Their AI models analyze these recordings to detect and classify species activity, providing real-time biodiversity insights across habitats.

• Unfair Advantage: A proprietary AI model trained on unique field datasets, combined with Swiss-engineered hardware built for remote deployment and long-term autonomy.

NGO in bioacoustics: Rainforest Connection

🗓 Founded: 2013
👋 Founder: Topher White
 🇺🇸 Country: USA

• Why: Most species and ecosystem threats make noise. Acoustic data offers a uniquely powerful lens to monitor biodiversity and detect illegal activity like logging or poaching—at a scale and depth unmatched by visual or satellite methods. RFCx exists to turn sound into actionable ecological insight.

• How: RFCx combines field-deployable acoustic hardware with a cloud-based analysis platform. Its tools enable automated biodiversity monitoring, threat detection, and collaborative data sharing. AI-driven algorithms reduce manual work and deliver real-time insights to scientists, governments, and local communities.

• Unfair Advantage: A decade-long track record in ecoacoustics, with an end-to-end system (hardware, software, AI) trusted by global conservation leaders. RFCx bridges advanced acoustic science with on-the-ground impact across some of the world’s most threatened ecosystems.

🚀 Opportunities

• Biodiversity credits: Verified nature data is crucial for future biodiversity markets. Bioacoustic monitoring can support claims in biodiversity credit systems or regenerative finance.

• Infrastructure monitoring: Acoustic data can be used to monitor the impact of infrastructure projects—like wind farms or roads—on local wildlife.

• Citizen science: Low-cost recorders and AI-powered platforms allow ordinary people to contribute to global biodiversity monitoring efforts. Democratizing this technology could be key to scaling it.

• Global conservation potential: Scaling and accelerating our technology worldwide could revolutionize biodiversity conservation. Integrating satellite insights and IoT sensors would offer a continuous and real-time view of ecosystems globally. This unique data access would enhance our ability to monitor and respond to biodiversity changes promptly. Harnessing artificial intelligence for analysis and prediction on a global scale ensures optimized resource allocation, notes Florian Geiser at Hula Earth.

• Location free: “Soil acoustics can be used to measure soil health anywhere in the world, it is cheap to collect the data, analysis is fully automated, and the data provides objective information on the level of biological activity in the soil and consequently the health of soil. There is also the potential that soil acoustics can be used for early detecting key pest species,” says Andrew Baker.

• Nature’s signal: “Unlike human surveys, it's unobtrusive, standardized and unit costs reduce the larger the group of sites. Ecologists and land managers can efficiently tailor interventions based on landscape-level biodiversity results, focusing their expertise on data interpretation and improvement planning,” says Conrad Young, of Chirrup.ai.

• Building for scale: “Scaling creates a real-time ecosystem ‘nervous system’ enabling proactive conservation. Continuous monitoring detects population shifts and environmental stressors as they happen, rather than annual snapshots. At scale, data trains better AI models, improving accuracy across rare and understudied species globally,” notes Florian Geiser of Hula Earth

❗️Risks and remaining questions

• Data overload: Continuous monitoring generates massive datasets. Startups need strong AI and filtering tools to make the information usable and actionable.

• Verification: While sound can be a powerful signal, linking it to specific species or behaviors still requires careful calibration and fieldwork. How do we validate findings at scale?

• Privacy and ethics: In some regions, acoustic surveillance may inadvertently capture human activity, raising privacy concerns. Clear boundaries and local engagement are essential.

• Scaling for commercialisation: “Although the scientific literature is significant it is only recently that bioacoustics is starting to be fully exploited by commercial originations. The key barrier has been the cost of recording equipment however that barrier has now gone. The remaining barrier is the lack of suitably trained personnel who really understand the power of the techniques”, notes Andrew Baker of Soil Acoustics.

🎯 The bottom line

• Florian Geiser of Hula Earth summarises: “bioacoustics reveals behavioral patterns, breeding activity, and ecosystem health in real-time – not just species presence. A single sensor monitors hundreds of species 24/7, generating insights that would take expert teams months to collect, with data value compounding over time.”

• Bioacoustics is more than birdsong, it’s a powerful, passive tool for understanding and protecting our planet. As biodiversity monitoring becomes core to climate strategy, this quiet revolution in sound is turning up the volume on nature’s needs.

🐾 What’s next:

• BirdNET Sound ID cover 6,500 bird species globally

• How hulaearth built the AI flywheel for bioacoustics

• Check out the Acoustic Monitoring Guide by WWF

• Applications of bioacoustics in animal ecology by ScienceDirect

• Watch The Nature Conservancy unpack bioacoustics for biodiversity

• Listen to the sounds of the rainforest with Rainforest Connection’s App

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