00:01The noisy urban environment often seems devoid of wildlife, but behind the traffic and chaos, there is a hidden world.
00:13Birds sing, frogs croak, insects buzz, and together they create a soundtrack of life.
00:23Scientists call this bioacoustics, the study of sounds in nature.
00:28By recording and analysing these sounds, researchers can tell which species are present, how ecosystems are changing, and if biodiversity
00:37is declining.
00:39And that is exactly what Sasha Dines is doing.
00:46In an urban environment we can use bioacoustics to track biodiversity because we don't have to see the animals.
00:53We can just stand and listen to the world around us and we can look at all the different sounds
01:01that we're recording.
01:02And the more sounds we're getting, the more species we're getting, the greater the biodiversity of an area without ever
01:07having to see the animals themselves.
01:10Researchers need lots of data, but African birds are underrepresented in global sound archives.
01:16To fix that, Cornell University and partners have named 2026 the big year of African sounds.
01:23The sounds that you're uploading to the sound libraries will actually feed into training apps to automatically identify species.
01:32And so these apps work really well in the Northern Hemisphere, but we have less than 20% of data
01:39that we need to train it for Southern Hemisphere species.
01:42So we're really trying to raise a profile and get as many species uploaded as possible to put Africa on
01:49the map.
01:51And the best way to do that is by bringing more ears into the field.
01:57In 2018, Sasha's organisation Sea Search helped build the African bioacoustics community.
02:05The idea is simple. Turn ordinary people with smartphones into nature detectives.
02:12They train people how to record sounds of animals around them wherever they are.
02:20What I really like about citizen science is that it allows you to dip your toes into all kinds of
02:26science
02:26without having to have this niche understanding or have this degree specifically on this thing.
02:33So it allows you to have an understanding and maybe a basic understanding,
02:38but contribute and help little piece by little piece for much larger pictures.
02:45A lot of bioacoustics research focuses on birds.
02:49But sound recorders can go almost anywhere, even underwater.
02:54They can capture all kinds of species in all kinds of places.
03:00Compared to video, the sound recordings have a big advantage.
03:06You can get a lot more data that's easier to store.
03:09So video data might use a lot more space and memory if you're recording for months at a time,
03:13and battery power.
03:14Whereas these recording devices that are just recording sound often can kind of get a lot more data,
03:20so you have a better chance of picking up really rare species.
03:24Bioacoustic scientists and artists are working together too.
03:29They've developed the Listening for Life project over the last few years
03:32to encourage conservation at a community level.
03:38The silent workshop seeks to connect people to nature through sound.
03:48A lot of what happens in the scientific world can often stay in the science world,
03:54and it doesn't reach the public in an easily accessible way.
03:59So I love being part of helping to build a bridge between the two different worlds.
04:05So bringing scientific knowledge and environmental understandings into public space,
04:11and also transforming public space through art, bringing colour, bringing movement,
04:17and especially this other element of participation.
04:22These local school children are listening to an audioscape from the marine life of Falls Bay,
04:28hearing whales and reef sounds while painting a mural dedicated to their unique underwater habitat.
04:36At first I was a bit surprised, I didn't know what it was,
04:41and then I started listening to it more, and then I started to understand,
04:45and yeah, it felt very calming and interesting. I really liked it.
04:51Every ecosystem tells a story through sound.
04:54And in a continent as rich in biodiversity as Africa,
04:58scientists say we've recorded only a fraction of it.
05:02A lot of everything in this community and a lot of the people are connected.
05:02We're like the music.
05:04I'm not just about a person in this world.
05:05I'm not just about a person in the world.
05:06Sounds like a person in the world.
05:06So I can easily imagine.
05:07It was a person in the world from the world and I agree with you,
05:08but I'm not just about a combination of what they were getting.
05:08I'm not just about a company that's been so you,
Comments