This fascinating exploration is brought to you by the Field Museum in Chicago and the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. Join us as we delve into the natural wonders of the Lower Oder Valley National Park, located on the border of Germany and Poland.
The Oder Valley has been a hub of agricultural activity for over seven thousand years. However, significant changes began in the early 19th century, intensifying through the 1970s due to industrialization and expanded farming. Political shifts in 1990 allowed for the preservation of this area, leading to the establishment of the Lower Oder Valley National Park in 1995. This decision marked a shift towards allowing the land to return to its natural state.
Dr. Karl-Heinz Frommolt, curator of the animal sound archive at the Museum für Naturkunde, plays a pivotal role in understanding the park’s wildlife through sound. Established in 1951, the archive now boasts over 120,000 recordings, many of which are being digitized for global access.
The journey of sound recording began with Professor Günter Tembrock, who captured the calls of Tawny Owls in 1951. These recordings laid the foundation for modern bioacoustic research, which now utilizes advanced digital technology to monitor wildlife.
Dr. Frommolt demonstrates how field recordings are conducted in wetlands to study the local fauna. The equipment has evolved significantly, from cumbersome gramophones to compact digital recorders capable of capturing high-quality sound for extended periods.
One of the key species monitored is the Corncrake, a rare bird whose presence influences land use decisions. The use of long-term recording devices allows researchers to gather continuous data, providing insights into the presence and behavior of various species.
Analyzing the vast amount of data collected is a challenge. Researchers employ pattern recognition algorithms to identify species from recordings, although human analysis remains crucial. The digitization of recordings ensures their preservation and accessibility, with nearly 96% of analog tapes already converted to digital format.
Dr. Sarah Darwin introduces the Nightingale City Berlin project, a citizen science initiative encouraging the public to record nightingale songs. This project not only enriches the animal sound library but also engages the community in scientific research.
Participants are trained to analyze the complex melodies of nightingale songs, contributing valuable data to the project. This initiative highlights the importance of public involvement in scientific endeavors and fosters a deeper connection with nature.
The work being done in the Lower Oder Valley and beyond is crucial for understanding and preserving our natural world. By digitizing and sharing these recordings, researchers are paving the way for future generations to continue this important work. Whether through professional research or citizen science projects, the study of animal sounds offers a unique window into the lives of the creatures that inhabit our planet.
Embark on a sound mapping exercise by visiting a local park or natural area. Record the sounds you hear, noting the time and location. Create a sound map that illustrates the diversity of sounds and their sources. Reflect on how these sounds contribute to the ecosystem’s health and dynamics.
Participate in a workshop where you will learn to use bioacoustic software to analyze wildlife recordings. Practice identifying species based on their calls and explore how technology aids in wildlife research. Discuss the challenges and opportunities of using sound for ecological studies.
Conduct a research project on the historical changes in the Lower Oder Valley. Investigate how industrialization and political shifts have impacted the region’s ecology. Present your findings in a multimedia format, incorporating historical data, images, and sound recordings.
Join a citizen science project like the Nightingale City Berlin initiative. Record bird songs in your area and contribute to a global database. Analyze the data you collect and discuss the importance of community involvement in scientific research and conservation efforts.
Organize a field trip to a nearby wetland or natural reserve. Use digital recorders to capture the sounds of the environment. Compare your recordings with those from the Lower Oder Valley, and discuss the similarities and differences in species presence and behavior.
This episode is brought to you by the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, and the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, Germany.
Hey, we are here in the National Park Unteres Odertal, and Poland is right there! We can see it! Also, my feet are freezing. Let’s go!
People have been cultivating grain and farming cattle in the Oder Valley for more than seven thousand years. The alteration of the land ramped up in the early nineteenth century and continued through the 1990s. During the 1970s, industrialization and expanded agricultural practices had a significant impact on transforming the region. Then, the political changes in 1990 allowed for the area to be set aside and protected, leading to the establishment of the Lower Oder Valley National Park in 1995.
Dr. Karl-Heinz Frommolt, with a German accent, explains that when the National Park was founded, it was decided that no agriculture would be done here anymore and that the area would develop naturally.
Emily: This is Dr. Karl-Heinz Frommolt, the curator of the animal sound archive for the Museum für Naturkunde. Today, he’s going to take us into the field to show us how scientists collect field recordings in wetlands to learn more about the animals that call them home. But first, a little background.
The animal sound archive at the Museum für Naturkunde was established in 1951, and in the last seventy years, scientists have contributed more than 120,000 recordings to this collection. Many of these sounds can now be heard from anywhere in the world as scientists at the Museum work to move their collection from tapes to digital online archives.
Dr. H-F: The first recordings were made in 1951 by Professor Günter Tembrock as part of a behavioral study. On October 30th, 1951, Günter Tembrock tested a tape recorder, and during this time, we had a housing for owls in the garden, and one of the Tawny Owls started to call. When this Tawny Owl was calling, a white Tawny Owl came and joined in.
Emily: Wow! That’s amazing! And he caught it all on the recording?
Dr. H-F: We have the recording, and we can listen to it.
[High-pitched owl sounds timed with visual peaks, lower, more throaty owl sounds, splashing water]
We have some wildlife activity here, which is evidence of a wild boar. Apparently, they use their nose to dig into the mud and make a big mess. We might see one today. That would be exciting!
I think I could handle it… *mumbles* me… versus a …boar. Anyway! We have a second sighting of evidence of boar—there, a little trail. I think if I follow it, I could go find him. See you! No, okay, I got other stuff to do, I gotta go.
We have a third piece of evidence from the wild boar—some hoof prints here heading that way, which is maybe east. I don’t actually know. And some roe deer hoof prints. But I appreciate how this video, which is supposed to be about a bioacoustic library, has become an in-search-of-the-wild-boar adventure.
Dr. H-F: Yes, I have used this.
Emily: Wow! For your own field recording?
Dr. H-F: For all field recordings.
Emily: And how much does this store? Like, how long could you record?
Dr. H-F: Usually, with high quality, approximately 30 minutes, as batteries don’t last more than 30 to 40 minutes.
Emily: Really?!
Dr. H-F: But it was already a large advantage in comparison with gramophone technology. You had to go with the gramophone to the animal, and it was almost impossible.
The first tape recorders of this kind were used by the CIA.
Emily: So, spies?
Dr. H-F: Yes, for spies.
Emily: *whispers* Wow!
And the advantage of this, of course, is that it’s much lighter, and the recording quality was extremely good. During the winter, you always have some problems with the batteries being cold until you could put the recorder inside your pocket to warm it up. But the advantage was it was easier to work with the tapes—cutting large tapes was easier than cutting small tapes.
Emily: Oh, okay, so this was just for spying and for…
Dr. H-F: For fieldwork.
Emily: Yeah, for fieldwork.
Dr. H-F: It’s excellent for fieldwork.
Emily: But mostly for spies!
You have this nifty little box here today too—this is something that you’re actually using today to record fieldwork.
Dr. H-F: Yes, it is for doing continuous recording. For this purpose, we use a small recorder.
Emily: Wow!
Dr. H-F: It’s self-made. Usually, you have two small batteries and can record with such a small digital recorder.
Emily: So this you could record for 30 minutes…
Dr. H-F: Yeah.
Emily: How long could you record on this?
Dr. H-F: Approximately one hour.
Emily: One hour, and then you’re going to 32 gigs, it can record for 48 hours.
Dr. H-F: Two days, yeah.
Emily: Wow! That’s amazing!
Well, we have used this equipment to check if Corncrakes are present. This is very important since corncrakes are a rare species, and when a corncrake is detected in a meadow, the meadow will not be used for a certain time.
Emily: Really?! So this is what you’re putting out there now in these wetland environments to get an idea of what’s living there…
Dr. H-F: It’s at least one way.
Emily: Okay, Karl, where are we now?
Dr. H-F: We are now at this place where we are doing our acoustic monitoring.
Emily: Okay.
Dr. H-F: We have here a long-term recorder, and this recording device has been working now for almost 10 months without any break. The only break is when we change the batteries and the memory cards.
Emily: Really?!
Dr. H-F: Yes. The idea is why we have placed the recorder here—in front we have the open space where water birds are breeding, and it’s a vital place where we have a high concentration of spotted crakes, for example.
Emily: And those are rare birds in this area, or…?
Dr. H-F: These are generally rare birds. We recorded a spotted crake three days earlier than any ornithologist in Germany has reported a spotted crake.
[Pause button press sound]
E voiceover: Since we recorded this, Karl found another recording showing that the spotted crake had actually migrated to the area 13 days earlier than ornithologists had initially observed, which is a significant finding when tracking an endangered species.
Emily: Well, I love that this work is being proactive, and you’re recording it now with the idea that future generations will utilize the animal sound library and help analyze that information and learn from what you’ve recorded here today.
Dr. H-F: Yes, we have already started to use it as a sound library for developing recognition.
Emily: Great! Well, you should probably change those batteries.
Dr. H-F: Yes.
Emily: Okay.
*Overlayed dialogue*
Emily: So, what are some of the observations that you’ve made by analyzing this information?
Dr. H-F: We have already analyzed data for some breeding seasons, and at least 60 species of breeding birds could be detected on the sound recordings.
Emily: Wow! It seems like a lot of information to go through, though. Are you coming back here to your lab every night and having to go through the recordings? Or are you relying on volunteers, or how are you ultimately analyzing this information?
Dr. H-F: You’re right; it’s really a challenge to analyze this huge amount of information. Up to now, we can only estimate the real species composition by listening to the recordings and developing some algorithms for automated analysis using a pattern recognition algorithm. It works not perfectly, but at least the algorithm gives us a good indication.
Emily: Yeah, that is a large battery! Oh my god, this has to be at least 10 pounds!
Dr. H-F: Almost twenty!
Emily: Oh my god! You hiked this… I guess you’d have to! You hiked all the way with it. I wasn’t carrying anything. I wasn’t even helping!
Dr. H-F: Now we are recording.
Emily: Ah, there it goes! We’re back!
Dr. H-F: For the next round.
Emily: Good. For another month. Back at it. Why am I still holding this battery? I don’t know.
Dr. H-F: When we only want to check if a certain species is there, a one-channel recording or stereo recording is excellent, but when we want to estimate the density of birds, we use a four-channel setup. You can exactly estimate the direction from which an animal is calling, and when you use a setup of different four-channel recordings, you can triangulate and have an exact localization.
Emily: So you can have a 360-degree acoustic understanding of where everything might be positioned rather than just hearing things on either side and not knowing if it’s in front of you or behind you.
Dr. H-F: That’s right.
So, you mentioned that that first recording made back in 1951—anybody can listen to it online. So, is it just that recording, or how much of this information is available to the public, and why digitize it in the first place?
Dr. H-F: Digitizing those tape recordings is the only way for conservation of tape recordings. Up to now, we have digitized almost 96% of our analog tapes, and I expect that we will finish the process of digitizing within the next two years.
Emily: That’s amazing!
Dr. H-F: I will have a total of approximately 120,000 recordings, and up to now, we have approximately 30,000 or 35,000 recordings online.
Emily: Oh, that’s fantastic! So our audience could go on to the library today and listen to some of the older recordings or even the more recent recordings.
Dr. H-F: Yes. There’s no need to come here…
Emily: Yeah, I mean come and say hi to Karl, but…
Dr. H-F: And to look at the magnetic tapes.
Emily: Yeah, which are very cool, by the way. But that’s… I think that’s fantastic that you’re making such an effort to preserve this information, to make it available for people, and to inspire the next generation of people who want to use these techniques to monitor areas not just in Germany but anywhere in the world.
Dr. H-F: Worldwide!
Emily: Yeah, that’s fantastic!
Voiceover, Emily: Before we go, I had the chance to speak with Dr. Sarah Darwin about her work on the citizen science project Nightingale City Berlin. Sarah and her colleagues are working with the Museum für Naturkunde’s animal sound library to share and analyze the recordings of the migratory nightingale song, which are submitted by people from all over Berlin.
Dr. Darwin, with a British accent: So the idea is that in Berlin, every spring, these lovely little brown birds—nightingales—migrate from Africa, and they come to Berlin and sing on every street corner, every park, along railway sidings, in gardens. We’re going to have two scientific components. One will be asking the public to go and record the nightingales in their local parks and gardens and put them onto the website. And then the other will be in the autumn when the weather starts getting a bit dreary. We’re going to hopefully train people how to analyze this song. Nightingale songs have around a thousand different little melodies.
Emily: Really?!
Dr. Darwin: Yeah. I tried to write, um…
Emily: You tried to transcribe this!
Dr. Darwin: My intent… and it’s not easy because…
Emily: Can you maybe recite the poem for us?
Dr. Darwin: Okay, well, it’s not really… it is nearly a song actually, so I can perform it.
Emily: Okay, good.
Dr. Darwin: So it kind of goes *speak/sings mimicking nightingale song* tick tick tick tick *mid tone, prolonged* twee twee twee *high, sudden* pop! quidditch quidditch quidditch *low, fast* Tick-tick-tick *high sudden* tweet! brrrrrrrr *low, fast* Tick-tick-tick *high sudden* tweet!
*Laughs, claps*
Emily: Standing ovation, Sarah! That’s really something!
Dr. Darwin: Oh, you’re sweet. Well, it doesn’t really sound very much like the actual bird.
Emily: I was convinced!
Dr. Darwin: Were you?
Emily: Good!
Dr. Darwin: Aah! I love it, aah!
[Theme song]
*Squishing sound*
I like playing in the mud! It still has brains on it.
Nature – The inherent qualities and characteristics of the physical world, including plants, animals, landscapes, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations. – Understanding the delicate balance of nature is crucial for developing sustainable environmental policies.
Wildlife – Animals and other living organisms that are not domesticated and live in their natural habitats. – Conservation efforts are essential to protect the diverse wildlife found in the Amazon rainforest.
Research – The systematic investigation and study of materials and sources to establish facts and reach new conclusions, often applied in scientific contexts. – Recent research on coral reefs has provided insights into the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems.
Sound – A vibration that travels through the air or another medium and can be heard when it reaches a person’s or animal’s ear, often studied in relation to its effects on wildlife. – The sound of urban development can disrupt the communication and breeding patterns of local bird species.
Biodiversity – The variety and variability of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or the entire Earth, crucial for ecosystem resilience and function. – High biodiversity in tropical rainforests contributes to their resilience against environmental changes.
Preservation – The act of maintaining, protecting, or keeping something in existence, particularly in relation to natural environments and resources. – The preservation of wetlands is vital for maintaining water quality and providing habitat for numerous species.
Technology – The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry, which can be used to address environmental challenges. – Advances in satellite technology have improved our ability to monitor deforestation in real-time.
Citizen – An individual member of a community or nation, often engaged in activities that contribute to environmental awareness and action. – Citizen scientists play a crucial role in collecting data on local biodiversity and environmental changes.
Data – Facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis, essential for understanding environmental trends and impacts. – The data collected from weather stations worldwide help scientists predict climate patterns and assess global warming.
Community – A group of interacting species living in a common location, or a group of people with a common interest, often focused on environmental conservation. – The local community organized a cleanup event to restore the health of the nearby river ecosystem.
