Animals communicate with each other, often through making sounds. This means that in noisy environments, they can be forced to change how they communicate so that they can be heard. Insects are a particular group of animals that play a critical role in sustaining a healthy environment, but the effects of noise on their behaviour have been too challenging to study at scale… until now.

 

New technology makes studying this problem easier. Museum scientist Ed Baker has been developing the technology to disentangle background noise from sound recordings to detect insects and other wildlife.

 

The Nature Overheard survey, run by the Natural History Museum, invites participants across the UK to collect audio recordings and observe insects. These audio recordings, classified as part of FlyTunes play a role in studying the impact of road noise on insects at scale for the first time in the UK. Beyond identification, the classified data enables the calculation of road and wildlife activity, providing insights into the correlation between road noise and its effects on nature. Human classifications will serve as a foundation for this work, enhancing algorithm training and ensuring accurate interpretation of sounds.

 

Join us to listen to short excerpts from these recordings and identify the sounds you hear. Determine whether they have been made by vehicles, animal activity, or human actions.

 

 

Remember, there’s no need to differentiate between specific animals like bees and wasps – we’ll provide the categories. Feel free to listen to each clip multiple times, choose multiple options, or acknowledge when a sound is challenging to identify. Remember, each clip will be reviewed by multiple individuals.

 

The results from this project will be shared through publicly accessible channels such as blogs and open access journals.