News

10 November 2022: The Cornell Daily Sun published an article titled “Cornell Researcher Builds Groundbreaking Machine Learning Toolkit For Bioacoustics” featuring the work of Yang Center scientist Dr. Shyam Madhusudhana, a postdoctoral researcher in the Lab of Ornithology. The article highlighted how machine learning tools are helping bioacoustics research for marine mammals and beyond.

19 March 2022: KLY-CCB’s BirdNET app was featured on The Wall Street Journal’s recent article titled “Alexa for Animals: AI Is Teaching Us How Creatures Communicate.” The article highlighted how scientists were applying artificial intelligence algorithms to better understand the sounds of the animal world, from whale songs to mouse squeaks.

16 December 2021: The Helena Independent Records published a news article titled “Quacks, trills, and peeps could help save migratory habitat.” The article highlighted how technology and science expertise developed at the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics are helping researchers track habitat health and bird biodiversity.

02 September 2021: In an article titled “In the Absence of Cruise Ships, Humpbacks Have Different Things to Say,” Hakai Magazine featured the work of KLY-CCB scientist Dr. Michelle Fournet. The article covered Michelle’s ongoing research on changes in humpback whale vocalization  during the COVID-19 related shutdown near Juneau, Alaska.

28 May 2021: The Science of Birds podcast series released an episode titled “Artificial Intelligence in Bird Research.” The BirdNET platform was recognized as the leading AI based algorithm for automated bird species recognition from acoustic data.

28 March 2021: The latest episode of BBC Sounds series featured an interview with CCB scientist Dr. Michelle Fournet. In this interview, Michelle talked  about (segment starts at the 14:00 minute mark) the effects of COVID-19 related lockdown on ocean soundscape and vocal activities of humpback whale near Juneau, Alaska. Audio of the episode titled “Martha Kearney investigates the effects that lockdown has had on wildlife” is available now on the BBC website.

25 March 2021: The Irish Times published a story titled “Name that birdsong: How to tell the flying dinosaurs from their chirps” featuring the BirdNET app. Please visit the BirdNET website to learn more about how BirdNET helps identify bird sounds.

18 March 2021: CCB scientist Dr. Wendy Erb shared a keynote presentation about the concepts and applications of bioacoustics during a webinar titled, “The young who hear: the use of bioacoustics technology for wildlife conservation”. The event was hosted by University of Gadjah Mada’s Wildlife Laboratory and was attended by about 200 participants from across Indonesia, from Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and more, who showed great enthusiasm and engagement!

10 March 2021: EurecaAlert, a news-release platform operated by AAAS, published an article featuring the BirdNET App. The article titled “Bird call app downloaded one million times worldwide — now available for IOS devices” mentioned the rapid growth of the app globally and the recent release on iOS platforms.

07 March 2021: The New York Time’s Travel section published an article titled “For Planet Earth, No Tourism Is a Curse and a Blessing” featuring the research work of CCB scientist Dr. Michelle Fournet. In this article, Michelle talked about the effects of COVID-19 related lockdown on man-made noise in the waters near Juneau, Alaska as well as in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.

19 November 2020: The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development included CCB as a partner for global ocean science over the next decade. UN has established the “Ocean Decade” initiative to catalyze ocean science across the globe.

03 October 2020: BBC Radio4’s Today program aired an interview with CCB scientist Dr. Michelle Fournet. In this interview, Michelle (segment starts at 1:20:50) talked about the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on ocean soundscape and vocal activities of humpback whale near Juneau, Alaska.

21 July 2020: The latest episode of National Geographic’s Overheard podcast, The Canary of the Sea, featured an interview with CCB scientist Dr. Michelle Fournet. In this episode, Michelle talks about whales, noise, and effects of COVID-19 pandemic on ocean soundscape.

20 July 2020:  National Public Radio (NPR) published and article titled “Whales Get A Break As Pandemic Creates Quieter Oceans” featuring CCB’s collaborative acoustic research work in Glacier Bay.

27 May 2020: The Mongabay Newscast released an episode highlighting the research work of Elephant Listening Project (ELP) at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The episode titled “Listening to elephants to protect Central Africa’s tropical forests” featured an interview with Ana Verahrami, ELP Research Analyst, who has recently returned from her second field season in Central African Republic. The episode features a handful of recordings the Elephant Listening Project has made at Dzanga Bai in the Central African Republic as well as recordings from its landscape-scale acoustic grid in the Republic of Congo’s Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park.

27 April 2020: CCB scientist Dr. Michelle Fournet was featured in an article titled “Silence is golden for whales as lockdown reduces ocean noise” published by The Guardian news journal. In this article, Michelle talked about the effects of reduced ocean on humpback whale communication during the coronavirus lockdown.

19 April 2020: The Narwhal website featured CCB scientist Dr. Michelle Fournet in an article titled “An important time to listen: ocean scientists race to hear the effects of coronavirus under water.” In this article, Michelle talks about the importance of listening to ocean soundscapes to understand the effects of coronavirus in under water habitats.

15 April 2020: Top of Mind With Julie Rose, a radio program on the BYU Radio, published an interview with Dr. Peter Wrege, Director of Elephant Listening Project at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. In the segment titled “Helping African Forest Elephants Requires Lots of Listening,” Peter talks about elephant voices and the importance of listening to them.

08 April 2020: The PHYS.org news published an article titled “Harbor seals find it difficult to be heard over noise of cruise ships.” The news article is based upon a new research publication by the journal Biology Letters titled “Acoustically advertising male harbour seals in southeast Alaska do not make biologically relevant acoustic adjustments in the presence of vessel noise.” CCB scientists Dr. Michelle Fournet and Dr. Holger Klinck were two of the co-authors of the Biology Letters article.

08 April 2020: The Guardian published an article titled “Seal the deal: amorous mammals forced to contend with cruise ships.” Acoustic research work of CCB scientists Dr. Michelle Fournet an Dr. Hoger Klinck were featured in this news article.

02 April 2020: The Atlantic published an article titled “The Pandemic Is Turning the Natural World Upside Down.” CCB scientist Dr. Michelle Fournet was quoted in this article. Michelle’s work in Alaska and Florida may provide important information about the effects of social distancing measures on ocean ecosystems and marine life.

28 February 2020: Simone Gatson (Class of 2020), an undergraduate researcher and a member of the Elephant Listening Project team was featured in a Cornell Research web article titled “Elephant Rumbles – What Do They Mean?” In this article Simone talks about her experience in coding and classifying elephant sounds.

21 February 2020: CCB scientist Dr. Michelle Fournet was featured in an article titled “Why the warming oceans will get louder,” published on mashable.com.  In this article, Michelle shared her perspective on how the warming ocean may increase the loudness of ocean soundscape.

22 January 2020: The Mongabay Newscast released an audio interview with CCB scientist Dr. Laurel Symes. In the accompanying article titled “Audio: The sounds of tropical katydids and how they can benefit conservation.” , The Mongabay Newscast highlighted Dr. Symes work on tropical katydids and how they can benefit conservation.

11 January 2020: In an article titled “With bioacoustics, conservationists try to save birds through their songs,” Washington Post has highlighted different aspects of CCB’s science and conservation research initiatives around the world.

09 December 2019: CCB scientist Dr. Allison S. Injaian was featured in a Mongabay news articled titled “Do birds try to shout down airplanes? The evidence suggests they do.” The story highlighted Alli’s work on wood thrushes in the Sapsucker Woods bird sanctuary in Ithaca, NY.

06 December 2019: Mongabay news featured an article titled “Canaries in the coal mine? North Atlantic right whale use of key habitat changing rapidly” based upon the results of a 6-year study conducted by the Center for Conservation Bioacoustics at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The article underlined how the North Atlantic right whale’s use of a key habitat is changing rapidly in Massachusetts Bay.

26 November 2019: Mongabay news featured the work of Dr. Dena Clink in an article titled “Audio: How listening to individual gibbons can benefit conservation.” The article accompanied an audio interview with Dena and a sample of her recordings of Bornean gibbon calls.

25 October 2019: NPR published an interview with Dr. Peter Wrege, Director, Elephant Listening Project at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The interview titled “Elephants Under Attack Have An Unlikely Ally: Artificial Intelligence” shared Peter’s view on how AI can help with elephant conservation in Africa.

19 September 2019: Microsoft On the Issues website has published an articled titled “How AI for Earth is inspiring new generations to help the planet” featuring the work of CCB scientists Dr. Laurel Symes and Dr. Holger Klinck. The article highlighted how CCB is using AI to monitor insect sounds in the rainforests and developing a better understanding of the dynamics of these habitats.

21 August 2019: Elephant Listening Project and BRP’s katydid project in Central America were featured in a blog titled “How AI is letting scientists listen in on animal chatter” on Microsoft On the Issues website. The blog highlights how artificial intelligence (AI) is helping elephant conservation efforts in Central Africa and understanding the health of the ecosystem in Central America. Both these projects are supported by the AI for Earth Grant.

09 August 2019: The Lower Cape TV released a video titled “The Fight for Right Whales” highlighting the status and future of North Atlantic right whales. The video featured comments from Dr. Chris Clark, the founding director of Bioacoustics Research Program at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

09 August 2019: The Elephant Listening Project (ELP) was featured on a National Public Radio (NPR) Planet Money Podcast titled “Deep Learning With The Elephants.” The Podcast highlights how artificial intelligence (AI) and neural network can help elephant conservation in Africa.

03 August 2019: BRP scientist Dr. Aaron Rice was featured on The Science Show produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Aaron was interviewed for the story titled “Field sound recordings show ecosystems changing fast.“

27 June 2019: The Wall Street Journal published a news article titled “The best Apps for Instantly Identifying Birds and Beasts” featuring the BirdNET App developed by scientists from the Bioacoustics Research Program and the Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany. The BirdNET App uses artificial intelligence to acoustically identify over 500 of the most common species of birds in North America and Europe.

04 April 2019: The Cape Cod News published an article titled “Hearing is Believing: Our Oceans Are Getting Louder.” The article featured an interview with Dr. Chris Clark, the former director and visiting senior scientist of Bioacoustics Research Program.

26 March 2019: The Hindu published an article titled “Studying animal sounds for conservation” featuring a workshop in India facilitated by a team from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology . In collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) and the Indian Institute of Technology (MANDI), the Cornell Lab of Ornithology team conducted a 10-day workshop on sound recording and bioacoustics research methods at Tirupati, India.

19 March 2019: The Mongabay India published an audio interview of BRP Volunteer Isha Bopardikar titled “What underwater sounds can tell us about Indian Ocean humpback dolphins.” In her interview, Isha talked about her bioacoustics research work on Indian Ocean humpback dolphins (Sousa plumbea) in India.

04 February 2019: BRP Volunteer Isha Bopardikar’s work on Indian Ocean humpback dolphins (Sousa plumbea) was featured in a news article titled “What underwater sounds tell us about marine life” published by Mongabay.

13 December 2018: BRP Student Volunteer Montana Stone’s (Cornell Class of 2019) work on Javan rhinos was featured in a Cornell Chronicle story titled “Undergrad’s project part of effort to save Javan rhinos“. Montana is using SWIFT recording units to collect data on vocal behavior of Javan rhinos.

11 December 2018: Dr. Holger Klinck, Director of Bioacoustics Research Program was featured in a Microsoft News article titled “11 changemakers chosen as recipients of Microsoft and National Geographic AI for Earth Innovation Grants“.

9 November 2018: BRP scientist Dr. Aaron Rice was featured in a www.newswise.com article titled “Florida ban on offshore drilling protects marine life, but threats remain from across state waters“.

2 October 2018: BRP scientist Dr. Michelle Fournet’s work is featured in a Discover Magazine blog titled “Humpback Whale Calls Persist Across Generations“.

27 September 2018: BRP scientist Dr. Michelle Fournet‘s work on humpback whale sounds was featured in an Inverse.com article titled “New Whale Recordings Reveal Purpose of a Language, Unchanged Since 1976“.

24 September 2018: Beginning on September 29  the research work of BRP Scientist Dr. Laurel Symes will be the subject of a three-part series on KBOO radio.  The sound that are the focus of this research are featured in a surround sound event at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI).

9 August 2018: Work of Elephant Listening Project is highlighted in the story “Can sound help save a dwindling elephant population? Scientists using AI think so.” on news.microsoft.com.

25 April 2018: Groundbreaking work of Elephant Listening Project is featured in nature.org blog titled “Six Ways Sound Data Is Changing Conservation” by Justine E. Hausheer.

11 April 2018: Scientists, Stefan Kahl and Holger Klinck, talk (in German) about the innovative BirdNet project in a radio interview on Deutschlandfunk. You can listen to the interview here.

01 March 2018: BRP announces Integrated Sound Recording and Analysis Workshops for June 2018 in the Sierra Nevada, California. Further details here.

17 January 2018: BRP scientist Holger Klinck was featured in the New Zealand Herald Article “Seismic surveys could be hurting penguins – experts.” The article draws attention to the negative effects of of seismic surveys on penguins and other marine life.

15 November 2017: BRP scientist Aaron Rice was interviewed for a podcast called “CurrentCast” that focuses on Great Lakes issues. You can listen to the podcast and additional materials here.

2 November 2017: BRP scientist Holger Klinck was featured in the New Zealand Herald article “Seismic blasts: A nailgun in your kitchen for 3 months” raising awareness of potential negative impacts of airgun surveys in the South Taranaki Bight on local blue whales.

25 October 2017: BRP’s Raven Insect Exhibit was highlighted in Cornell Chronicle’s story – Insectapalooza swarms campus Oct. 28.

8 October 2017: The documentary Sonic Sea featuring Chris Clark won two Emmy awards: Outstanding Nature Documentary and Outstanding Music and Sound.

2 October 2017: The PNAS paper High-intensity urban light installation dramatically alters nocturnal bird migration co-authored by Holger Klinck was featured in many news outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, and the LA Times.

30 September 2017: Aaron Rice was featured in NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday: What Would Aliens Make Of NASA’s Voyager?

29 September 2017: The documentary Sonic Sea featuring Chris Clark won the Best Science in Nature Film award at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival.