Serena Frazee, PhD Student
Department of Integrative Biology
Oregon State University
Corvallis, Oregon • United States
Tenrecs are small, enigmatic mammals found only in Madagascar. Although one study in 1965 reported that tenrecs use echolocation, the behaviour has received little scientific attention since. Frazee’s project will revisit this question using acoustic monitoring, audio analysis, morphological study, and genomic comparison.
Fieldwork will take place in Ranomafana National Park, a rainforest landscape within one of the world’s most remarkable biodiversity hotspots. Using a Song Meter Mini Bat 2 and Kaleidoscope Pro software, Frazee will record wild tenrec species to test whether they echolocate, how they produce and perceive sound, and how their vocalisations compare with those of other echolocating mammals.
The project will also explore echolocation as an example of convergent evolution. Echolocation has evolved independently in several mammalian lineages, including bats, cetaceans, shrews, tree mice, and tenrecs. By comparing tenrecs with other echolocators at both the acoustic and genomic levels, this research may help reveal how complex behaviours evolve across distantly related species.
All data from the project, including annotated genomes, phylogenetic trees, and audio recordings, will be made publicly available to support future research. Frazee’s work will also help expand attention to tenrecs, an understudied mammal group facing habitat loss, hunting, and conservation data gaps.
Researcher Bio
Serena Frazee is a third-year PhD student in the Integrative Biology Department at Oregon State University. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Lewis and Clark College (graduating summa cum laude) and completed an honors thesis on species delineation and genetic diversity in Trogloraptor spiders. Serena specializes in evolutionary biology in wild systems, particularly the application of phylogenetic tools to explore questions about evolutionary history and conservation.
Awarded: 1 x Song Meter Mini 2 Bat (AA); 1 x Kaleidoscope Pro License
Agostina Igarza, PhD Student
Grupo de Investigaciones Herpetológicas de Río Cuarto
Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto (UNRC)
Río Cuarto, Córdoba • Colombia
The American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) is considered one of the world’s most damaging invasive species. In central Argentina, bullfrogs are rapidly expanding through the Ctalamochita River basin, threatening native amphibians through predation, competition, disease transmission, and acoustic interference.
Igarza’s project will use passive acoustic monitoring across at least 60 sites in southwestern Córdoba to map the bullfrog’s spread and assess how its low-frequency calls alter native soundscapes. A key focus of the research is understanding how rivers and streams act as dispersal corridors—an understudied pathway for bullfrog invasions worldwide.
By recording amphibian communities across multiple subbasins, the project will generate high-resolution distribution and risk maps, identify areas of greatest ecological vulnerability, and help determine where eradication and long-term monitoring efforts should be prioritized.
The results will be shared with government agencies, municipalities, local NGOs, and schools to support evidence-based conservation action and public awareness. The project will also provide research opportunities for students, helping build long-term capacity for herpetological bioacoustics in Argentina. Ultimately, Igarza and her collaborators aim to turn acoustic data into practical tools for protecting native amphibians and managing invasive species in one of central Argentina’s most important watersheds.
Researcher Bio
Agostina Igarza is an Argentine biologist with research experience in herpetology, mammalogy, and ornithology. She is an early-career researcher and a PhD student at the National University of Río Cuarto in Argentina, specializing in animal behaviour, communication, and acoustic ecology. She was awarded a doctoral fellowship from the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and has participated in both national and international research projects related to biodiversity conservation and ecological assessment. Agostina is among the first women in Argentina to work in herpetological bioacoustics, contributing to the development of acoustic methods for the study and conservation of amphibians.
Awarded: 12 x Song Meter Micro 2; 1 x Kaleidoscope Pro License
Dr. Jiraporn Teampanpong
Associate Professor, Faculty of Forestry
Department of Conservation • Kasetsart University
Chatuchak, Bangkok • Thailand
Khao Yai National Park is part of Thailand’s Dong Phayayen–Khao Yai World Heritage Site and is one of the country’s most visited protected areas, attracting more than one million visitors each year. While tourism brings people closer to nature, it also creates noise and disturbance that affects wildlife, habitat quality, and visitor experience.
Dr. Teampanpong’s project will use passive acoustic monitoring to examine how ecoacoustic and soundscape indices change across areas with different levels of tourism activity. The research will investigate which acoustic measures best indicate changes in biodiversity, habitat quality, and human disturbance.
A central goal is to identify acoustic thresholds—points at which visitor use begins to degrade soundscapes or affect biological activity. These thresholds could help park managers move beyond traditional physical carrying capacity models and adopt more holistic, science-based approaches to visitor management.
Project results will be translated into practical tools for Khao Yai National Park, including recommendations for visitor capacity limits, quiet zones, spatial zoning, and timing restrictions during sensitive biological periods. If adopted, this framework could be scaled to other protected areas in Thailand, helping park managers balance recreation, conservation, and biodiversity monitoring through soundscape-informed decision-making.
Researcher Bio
Dr. Jiraporn Teampanpong (Tan) is a full-time associate professor in natural resource management in the Department of Conservation, KUFF. She holds BSc and MSc degrees in Environmental Science, graduating with second-class honors. Driven by her passion for conservation, she joined the Wildlife Conservation Society-Thailand, where she researched the country’s first wildlife corridor pilot project along the Tenasserim Range. In 2008, Tan received a Royal Thai Government scholarship to pursue a PhD in Conservation Biology at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, completing her dissertation on hornbill conservation in the Southern Tenasserim Western Forest Complex Corridor. Her current research focuses on biodiversity conservation and management in protected areas, human dimensions of wildlife, and soundscape ecology, with a long-term goal of establishing Thailand’s first acoustic laboratory for biodiversity monitoring.
Awarded: 8 x Song Meter Mini 2 (AA)
Dr. Sandra Lai
Postdoctoral Researcher
Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR)
Rimouski, Quebec • Canada
Wildlife Acoustics is pleased to support Dr. Sandra Lai of Université du Québec à Rimouski for The Polar Nightwatch Project, an effort to monitor Arctic predators at the northern tip of Ellesmere Island.
Fieldwork will take place around Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert, the northernmost permanently inhabited place on Earth. This High Arctic polar desert is home to a simple but remarkable terrestrial community, including Arctic Wolves, Arctic Foxes, Ermines, Arctic Hares, Collared Lemmings, Peary Caribou, and Muskoxen.
Winter ecology in the High Arctic remains poorly understood because conventional wildlife monitoring becomes extremely difficult during the polar night, when the region experiences complete winter darkness from mid-October to mid-February. Dr. Lai’s project will evaluate whether passive acoustic monitoring can provide a reliable, non-invasive means of detecting Arctic predators year-round.
Research will pair acoustic recorders with camera traps during summer to compare detection methods and build a reference library of predator vocalisations. Selected recorders will remain deployed through the polar night to test whether acoustic monitoring can capture predator presence and activity during the harsh winter months.
Results will support a biodiversity management plan for CFS Alert and contribute baseline data for detecting ecological change in the Last Ice Area, a region expected to retain summer sea ice longer than other parts of the Arctic. Recordings will also be used in public outreach through the Expedition Alert Exhibition in Ontario.
Researcher Bio
Dr. Sandra Lai is a carnivore researcher specializing in the ecology of canids and small felids, particularly in the High Arctic, high mountains, and semi-deserts. Her research focuses on understanding how species cope with extreme environments, addressing knowledge gaps about their behaviours and adaptive mechanisms, and informing strategies for biodiversity conservation. She has worked on winter movements, social organisation, behaviour of Arctic foxes on Bylot Island, Arctic hare migration and polar desert biodiversity on Ellesmere Island, and ecology and conservation of the endangered Ethiopian wolf. She also collaborated on a passive acoustic monitoring of birds in the Arctic and conducted a pilot study on Ethiopian wolf vocalisations in Ethiopia.
Awarded: 6 x Song Meter Mini 2 (Li-ion); 1 x Kaleidoscope Pro License
Dr. Mirjam Knörnschild
Humboldt University Berlin & Museum for Natural History
Berlin • Germany
Dr. Mirjam Knörnschild’s project focuses on a small, ecologically vital forest fragment in Italy that is surrounded by intensive agriculture.Once part of the Silva lupanica forest, this remnant now provides year-round roosting for the common noctule (Nyctalus noctula) and greater noctule (Nyctalus lasiopterus). Its value is high because so little of this lowland forest remains.
The study delivers the first year-round bioacoustic monitoring of an Italian forest fragment that supports both maternity and hibernation roosts for these vocal bats. By acoustically covering the entire site and pairing recordings with regular roost checks, the project directly links vocal behaviour to life-history stages. This approach tracks not only echolocation but also the timing and variety of social vocalisations through pup rearing, dispersal, courtship, migration, and hibernation.
This work addresses a key gap in bat bioacoustics. Echolocation calls are widely used to detect bats, but social vocalisations are less standardised and harder to interpret. Dr. Knörnschild’s team aims to clarify when these calls occur, what they signal, and how patterns differ between the two noctule species over the year.
The results have clear conservation value. Identifying peak social activity can guide forestry and other disturbance-prone work in small forest remnants like this one. The project will deliver a curated reference library and annotated dataset of noctule social calls. This resource may help researchers interpret passive acoustic surveys more reliably and support AI-assisted tools that advance bat monitoring from presence data to behavioural insight.
Awarded: (4) Song Meter Mini 2 Bat Li-ion; (1) Kaleidoscope Pro License
About Mirjam Knörnschild, PhD
Mirjam Knörnschild is a Professor of Evolutionary Ethology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science). She is an internationally recognised expert on bat acoustic communication, and her research examines bat behaviour, communication, and cognition, with an emphasis on how vocal signals function in social contexts and how they vary across life-history stages. Mirjam combines long-term observational and experimental field studies with bioacoustic monitoring and quantitative analyses to link acoustic behaviour to ecology, phenology, and conservation-relevant questions. A recurring goal of her work is to develop robust, reproducible methods that make bat monitoring more informative, moving from simple activity measures toward interpretable behavioural indicators.
Chamika Gallage, MPhil Candidate
University of Kelaniya
Colombo • Sri Lanka
The Serendib Scops Owl (Otus thilohoffmanni) is one of the world’s most range-restricted and least-studied nocturnal bird species. Chamika Gallage’s project aims to change that by creating the first integrated, landscape-scale assessment of the ecology, distribution, and conservation needs of the Scops Owl in Sri Lanka’s lowland rainforests.
Chamika plans to generate ecological data on the owl through acoustic monitoring, field surveys, and habitat modeling. He will use passive acoustic monitoring by deploying Song Meter Micro 2 recorders across the Sinharaja Forest Reserve to capture the calling activity of the owl and other sympatric nocturnal birds. He will then analyse the recordings to create a validated call reference library for GIS-based habitat suitability and climate vulnerability modeling.
Most evidence-based conservation planning for the owl is limited due to a lack of data. Through this study, Chamika will develop a Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) model to connect biodiversity conservation with sustainable livelihoods for long-term protection of the owl. The results will help inform government agencies and planning authorities on conservation zoning, buffer-zone management, and landscape-level planning.
Additionally, his project will help guide biodiversity-friendly land-use practices around the rainforests by designing home gardens that function as supplementary habitats and ecological corridors.
Awarded: (20) Song Meter Micro 2; (2) Kaleidoscope Pro License; Accessories
About Chamika Gallage, MPhil Candidate
Chamika is an MPhil researcher at the University of Kelaniya (UoK), Sri Lanka, specializing in ecology, conservation, and spatial analysis, with a focus on species distribution modeling and ecosystem services. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Conservation and Management from the UoK. His current research investigates the ecology and conservation of Sri Lanka’s endemic Serendib Scops Owl using acoustic monitoring.
Dr. Georgiana Crețu
Federation Open Landscape
Transylvania • Romania
Dr. Georgiana Crețu’s project in Podișul Hârtibaciului, Romania, addresses protected-area management that is still guided by biodiversity inventories more than a decade old. While this landscape comprises 11 areas that form a rare ecological patchwork of traditional grasslands, old-growth forests, and historical fortified churches, administration is rigidly divided.
Georgiana’s study will update the region’s biodiversity inventory and build the case for a more unified, functional protection model. Using GIS, passive acoustic monitoring, and video capture, Dr. Crețu and colleagues are documenting large carnivores, bats, saproxylic insects, key bird populations, and the corridors that connect Natura 2000 sites.
This work is especially compelling because of its practical reach. While the project will generate better ecological data, it will also use that evidence to support stricter habitat protection, update management plans, and strengthen local conservation action. Acoustic and visual records may even serve as legal evidence when habitat destruction is detected.
More broadly, Georgiana’s project will provide a proof of concept for modernizing biodiversity monitoring in Romania. By treating the Hârtibaciu Plateau as one connected ecological system rather than a patchwork of separate sites, it pushes conservation toward a landscape-scale approach—one that better reflects how species actually live, move, and persist.
Awarded: (4) Song Meter Mini 2 Bat AA; (2) Song Meter Micro 2; (1) Kaleidoscope Pro License; Accessories
About Georgiana Crețu, PhD
Georgiana is a chiropterologist with over 15 years of experience in the research, monitoring, and conservation of bat species in Romania. She has coordinated and implemented inventory, mapping, and conservation status assessment studies in numerous Natura 2000 sites and protected natural areas, including Piatra Craiului National Park, Făgăraș Mountains, Apuseni Natural Park, and Retezat National Park. Georgiana has collaborated with research institutes, NGOs, and environmental consultancy firms across Romania and France to help develop management plans and impact studies. Her expertise includes acoustic monitoring, ultrasound analysis, environmental assessments, biodiversity management, and conservation education.
Titir Roy, PhD Candidate
Department of Biology, IISER Pune
Pune, Maharashtra • India
What are the characteristics of mating vocalisations in the Mugger crocodile (Crocodylus palustris), and how can they be used to help conservation of the reptile? Titir Roy’s project attempts to answer this question by capturing the first systematic acoustic references for mating in the species, generating foundational data to support long-term acoustic monitoring.
To establish how human-crocodile contact affects crocodile breeding patterns, passive acoustic monitoring will be conducted at two sites in India: Petli in the Charotar region, where there is little to no human-crocodile conflict, and Vrijai in the Vadodara district of central Gujarat, where there is high human-crocodile interaction. By comparing the vocalisations in these two areas, Titir aims to see how human interaction affects mating in the Mugger crocodile.
The current lack of information on these vocalisations prevents understanding of how communication affects the Mugger crocodile’s mating patterns and how environmental and anthropogenic disturbances may interfere with these patterns. Using bioacoustics to identify periods of high reproductive activity, Titir’s project will help prioritize protection during critical breeding windows.
Awarded: (1) Song Meter Mini 2 Li-ion; (1) Kaleidoscope Pro License; Li-ion Batteries
About Titir Roy, PhD Candidate
Since 2018, Titir Roy’s research has focused on the neurobiology of acoustic communication in Zebra Finches at the IISER, Pune. During her dissertation, Titir investigated the role of the HVC nucleus in song initiation by pharmacologically manipulating neural pathways and analyzing resulting changes in song structure. She is a PhD student studying female courtship behaviour and song preference using behavioural playback assays combined with electrophysiological recordings from the caudal mesopallium. Her work integrates neural data, computational acoustic analysis, and controlled song manipulation to understand how auditory processing guides mate choice. Titir aims to extend this mechanistic framework to conservation bioacoustics, examining how environmental change may affect vocal communication and reproductive success.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Faunatech acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
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