Outdoor coyote microphone

February 27, 2024 11:37 PM

I want to be able to listen to coyotes howling in my neighborhood (say within a quarter mile) on an outdoor, wireless, battery-powered (rechargeable would be great), rainproof microphone. I want to be able to listen with my Android phone. I want something under about $50. I tried a wireless security cam but the sound isn't good enough (as in it hardly picks up anything). I don't know anything about this subject, do any of you have a recommendation? I guess it could be somewhat unidirectional since I know what direction the coyotes howl from within about a 45 degree angle, but you tell me. Thanks!
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee to Science & Nature (6 answers total)

I'm sorry to say I don't think this product exists.

It's remarkable how much work our brain does, in person, filtering out the sounds we don't want to pay attention to, and bringing focus to the ones we do. The coyotes are likely fairly quiet compared with the ambient noise around your house. Even the best microphone cannot distinguish between the interesting sound you want to pick up, and the dross you don't care about -- it'll pickup the howls as they actually are, mixed among a bed of other nighttime ambiance.

With a good recording and listening setup, you could probably make some nice nighttime ambiance recordings that include -- and maybe even feature- the howls. But with all the signal compression and compromises to make this 1. Wireless 2. Live 3. Rainproof and 4. Heard on a cell phone speaker, I don't think you'll get a satisfactory result.
posted by hovey at 6:31 AM on February 28 [1 favorite]

There is a project called BirdNET-Pi to run an automated birdsong identifier on a Raspberry Pi with a microphone, mounted outdoors, so this doesn't seem totally impossible: https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/classify-birds-acoustically-with-birdnet-pi/

The text file listing the recognized species in the model includes the coyote, in fact, so maybe it would work!
posted by wenestvedt at 6:38 AM on February 28

And it looks like someone wrote a paper on exactly this, just a few months ago: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13364-023-00725-y (which is regrettably behind a paywall)

Abstract

Passive acoustic monitoring has emerged as a scalable, noninvasive tool for monitoring many acoustically active animals. Bioacoustics has long been employed to study wolves and coyotes, but the process of extracting relevant signals (e.g., territorial vocalizations) from large audio datasets remains a substantial limitation. The BirdNET algorithm is a machine learning tool originally designed to identify birds by sound, but it was recently expanded to include gray wolves (Canis lupus) and coyotes (C. latrans). We used BirdNET to analyze 10,500 h of passively recorded audio from the northern Sierra Nevada, USA, in which both species are known to occur. For wolves, real-world precision was low, but recall was high; careful post-processing of results may be necessary for an efficient workflow. For coyotes, recall and precision were high. BirdNET enabled us to identify wolves, coyotes, and apparent intra- and interspecific acoustic interactions. ...

And check out this freely-available paper on hardware used for monitoring species, from 2022: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2210.07685.pdf
posted by wenestvedt at 6:49 AM on February 28 [1 favorite]

I've used the Reolink WiFI video doorbell to record the sounds of owls on my block, and I'm always caught off guard by how well it picks up sound. I'm not sure how it would do with coyotes further away but it think it'd be worth a try.

It's WiFi connected and intended to run off of a wired doorbell transformer, but because it runs off a wide range of power (12v-24v) I think you could grab any kind of 12v rechargeable power pack to hook up.

It's available on Reolink's own site that I linked, as well as Amazon and other retailers.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 7:12 AM on February 28

I know this is only peripherally related, however, for about $100 you can get a game camera that connects to cellular networks to deliver photos and videos. Surely there is a variety (perhaps at a higher price point) that uses the camera's microphone to pick up loud sounds? I have a couple of these cameras on my small, remote property that I sadly do not get to as often as I would like and thus have to enjoy only the occasional glimpses of wildlife when the devices are triggered. One with a sound setting would be amazing!
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 7:18 AM on February 28

Wildlife Acoustics makes acoustic loggers that are the equivalent of trail cams. I have used them for bird and frog calls and they would of course work for coyotes, too. I think most of theirs record to an SD card for download rather than cellular, but browse around.
posted by hydropsyche at 9:15 AM on February 28 [2 favorites]