That’s what Monica Letamosa was When she first heard of Bell Bird, she was still replacing the battery on her tape recorder. Standing on the floor of the forest, she looks up at the tree and scans its source. Metallic and powerful sounddo not look for birds for 30 minutes. Belbird sings from the treetop, which his colleagues see but does not see: Still, Letamosa smiled. She hears and cares about the ecosystem of the Amistosa biological corridor in Costa Rica.
In nature, living things use sound for almost everything. They appeal to attract peers, communicate their identity, warn of danger, guide the path, and help hunt and defend. For decades, researchers have been tracking species with recorders in hand, and still do so, but they are increasingly using remote recording devices. The study of sounds created by living organisms is known as biological vibrations. Letamosa has been doing this job for ten years.
Using bioacoustic recordings, some birds scream loudly to hear in cities, studying how hatching of sea turtles communicates from the nest and coordinates hatching. And when bioacoustics are combined with other sounds, it is possible to interpret the ecological meaning of the natural sounds of the landscape, such as the collisions of ocean waves. It will enable you to monitor changes in biodiversity, detect threats, and measure the effectiveness of conservation strategies. This broader analysis of sound is known as environmental acoustics. This is exactly what we’re doing in progress here in Costa Rica.
Letamosa has worked for 20 years at the National University of Costa Rica and the Institute for International Conservation and Wildlife Management. She uses bioacoustics and ecology to investigate the sounds of this tiny Central American country, hosting over half a million species.
“From a conservation perspective, the sound is forgotten,” says Letamosa. “Most of the time, we hear more than we see. If there’s a disturbance in the system, it could be possible to detect it faster than other factors, or its lack of it.”
The development of automated recordings has revolutionized bioacoustics and the environment. Now, research groups can hang sensors to record snippets of the day for several months at a time without interfering with wildlife. Letamosa loves this strategy, and is not invasive to animals, making it easier to place your ears in large areas or hard to reach areas, and sometimes helps discover mysterious species.
She prefers to monitor the ecosystem from afar, but Letamosa still needs to go deep into the forest to set up the recorder. The visit to the field is fascinating, but not a Sunday walk. She hiked the miles through mud and branches along with her colleagues Jimmy Balantez and Randall Jimenez. They went up and down an infinite slope. Once she collapsed and broke her rib. However, the work does not end with the installation. You will need to go back to change the battery and memory card. In other countries, solar panels and the internet are used to receive real-time data. In Costa Rica’s dark, damp rainforest, it is still done by hand.
