Sound Research in Vienna: AI Recognizes Rare Birds and Bats

In Breitenlee in the northeast of Vienna, prisoners of war had to lay tracks for a long marshalling yard during the First World War. However, it soon became a natural gem with dry grasslands, old trees, and ponds. Over ninety partly rare bird species and many bats chirp and squeak there, said sound researcher Anton Baotic in an interview with APA. He monitored the area with recording devices and used artificial intelligence to identify the sound sources.

"The area is a great natural corridor between the Lobau and the Bisamberg and a superb refuge for animals," explained Baotic, who conducts research at the Institute of Sound Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) in Vienna: "We set up ten acoustic recorders to find out which animals occur there." There were many different ones, namely 93 bird species and eight types of bats.

Vienna-Breitenlee: Rare Scops Owls and Barbastelle Bats Were Heard

"Among the species with the most recorded calls are the robin, long-tailed tit, great tit, chiffchaff, common pheasant, and great spotted woodpecker," said the researcher. The voices of rare birds were also recognized, such as the red-backed shrike, which eats large insects and small mammals, and the scops owl. The recordings also revealed common bats in Austria like the common pipistrelle and noctule, and rare to endangered ones like the barbastelle and alpine bat, he reported. Calls of deer were also heard in the recordings.

The birds and bats were identified using a database with many different European species. "The sounds are visually represented in the form of so-called spectrograms," said Baotic. Each has its own structure there, which a computer algorithm can recognize. "With such a visual comparison, it works quite quickly," he explained. Purely acoustic analyses with artificial intelligence (AI) would, however, be more time-consuming. "Afterwards, you have to listen to the recordings for control," said Baotic. Sometimes the AI confuses a bat squeak with insect chirping, and then the results need to be corrected.

Noise from Outside Disrupts Animal Communication

Additionally, noise was noted in the area that could hinder the birds in communication. This includes motor noises from the surroundings, dog barking, and human voices - which were not listened to for data protection reasons but were immediately deleted from the recordings, as Baotic explained. "This knowledge can be used to make the area a bit quieter for wildlife, for example, by means of noise barriers," he said. The city of Vienna, which has largely taken over the area from the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), is setting up an EU nature reserve there. In the course of this, new habitats for reptiles, amphibians, and numerous other protected and rare species are to be created, according to the municipality.

Baotic and his colleagues at the Institute of Sound Research will bring the acoustics of the animal world closer to interested parties through experiments and interactive stations on the "International Noise Awareness Day" (April 30). "At the 'Scream the Lukas' station, everyone can test how loud they really are, while 'Biology of Musicality' offers exciting insights into the hearing abilities of animals. The station 'Two Ears Are More Than Twice as Good' shows how our brain creates spaces from sounds. And those who want to know how noise in traffic is created and can be reduced are in the right place at 'Noise Protection in Traffic'," said the ÖAW in a release.

(APA/Red)

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