European Network of Bioacoustic Collections for Taxonomy, Systematics and Conservation

At the first European Workshop on Animal Sound Research and Libraries—hosted by the Fonoteca Zoologica in Madrid between 27–30 September 2006—researchers working with bioacoustic collections agreed to create a unified European network.

The Primary Aim

To foster cooperation among institutions, researchers, and interested amateurs to safeguard animal sound recordings and to optimise their use as a resource for research and nature conservation.

The Need for Preservation

The collection of animal sound recordings is increasingly recognised as a valuable and often non-invasive tool for taxonomy, systematics, and biodiversity research, owing to the species-specificity of bioacoustical signals.

A Race Against Time

In common with other behavioural research, acoustic signals must be collected from living animals, preferably observed in their natural environments. Unlike morphological or molecular characters, behaviours are definitively lost if not documented before species extinction. Amidst the global climate change and biodiversity crises, it is urgent to facilitate the knowledge, preservation, and accurate documentation of acoustic signals in the animal kingdom.

The Risk of Loss

Currently, many animal sound collections are scattered across sound archives, zoological institutions, and private hands. These collections are endangered not only by the evanescence of recording media, but also by the risk of becoming unusable due to insufficient documentation and curation.

Vertebrates vs. Invertebrates

While vertebrate acoustics (mammals, birds, anurans) are relatively well-documented and allow for non-invasive biodiversity monitoring, invertebrate acoustics (such as insects) remain exceptionally species-rich and poorly known. To be fully reliable, signals recorded from insects must be associated with clearly identified voucher specimens. Well-identified reference pairs of acoustic signals and physical specimens are a prerequisite for the future of bioacoustics as a biodiversity monitoring tool.

Network Objectives

In consideration of the challenges above, the Network proposes the following objectives:

To raise awareness of the significant scientific and heritage value of animal sound collections.
To call upon the scientific community and the public to place endangered collections into the hands of institutions with the resources to curate them long-term.
To encourage the digitisation, cataloguing, and preservation of private and dispersed audio collections.
To standardise the metadata associated with bioacoustic recordings and recommend standard terminologies.
To create a database of expert scientists, technicians, and archivists specialised in bioacoustics.
To give recommendations for bioacoustics equipment, software, and their proper use.
To create a network of online reference animal sound banks, providing accession numbers to reference sounds.
To enhance the reliability of acoustic data by providing guidelines for associating sound data with physical voucher specimens in internationally recognised museums.
To effectively liaise with international taxonomic, systematic, biodiversity, and conservation networks.
To offer training and education in bioacoustics methods via summer schools or distance learning.
To establish links between scientists and the public through dedicated websites and software tools.
To encourage the development of suitable algorithms, software, and specialised hardware.
To develop sound monitoring protocols for biodiversity conservation, especially for endangered species.
To promote the use of bioacoustic characters in taxonomy by compiling and annotating relevant bibliographic references.

Adopted in 2006

The charter was formally adopted on 29 November 2006 by participants of the 1st European Workshop on Animal Sound Research and Libraries. (Note: A second workshop followed during the XXI IBAC Conference in Pavia, September 2007).

Signatories

Jose Pedro Amaral (Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal)
Laure Desutter Grandcolas (Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, France)
Xavier Eekhout (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Spain)
Henrik Enghoff (Natural History Museum of Denmark)
Diana Escobar (Institut de Cultura de Barcelona, Spain)
Karl Heinz Frommolt (Museum für Naturkunde, Germany)
Emmanuel Gilissen (Royal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium)
Laura González (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Spain)
Diego Llusia (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Spain)
Paulo Marques (Museu Nacional de História Natural, Portugal)
Rafael Márquez (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Spain)
Anna Omedes (Museu de Ciències Naturals, Spain)
José Manuel Padial (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Spain)
Gianni Pavan (Università degli Studi di Pavia, Italy)
Mario Penna (Universidad de Chile, Chile)
Mercedes Pérez (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Spain)
Gustav Peters (Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Germany)
Maria Angeles Ramos (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Spain)
Richard Ranft (British Library Sound Archive, UK)
Klaus Riede (Zoologisches Forschungsinstitut und Museum Alexander Koenig, Germany)
Fredrik Schwenker (Universität Ulm, Germany)
Gema Solis (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Spain)
Alberto González Talaván (GBIF, Spain)

Note: The second “European workshop on animal sound research and libraries” was hold during the XXI International Bioacoustic Conference in Pavia, 15-18 September 2007.