What is Animal Bioacoustics?

Animal Bioacoustics is the study of sound in non-human animals. It includes acoustic communication, sound production mechanisms, auditory anatomy and function, sonar, acoustic tracking, and the effects of human-made and environmental noise on animals. Each discipline within the scope of Animal Bioacoustics has opened up exciting new areas of inquiry. Animal Bioacoustics is an interesting, challenging, and rewarding field. Animal Bioacoustics is also highly interdisciplinary. An aspiring professional typically needs to be proficient at one field and familiar with several others. Bioacousticians work in a variety of positions — as professors at universities, as consultants working in environmental compliance, as industrial researchers, as engineers. Many are employed in research at public and private institutions. Many more work at private companies, particularly (in the U.S.) on environmental compliance and mitigation issues.