🦉 Introduction

The Demeter is a compact, field-ready acoustic recorder built for wildlife monitoring. It can operate in two modes: trigger mode for detecting and recording ultrasonic bat calls, and continuous mode for capturing bird song and other ambient sounds. With multiple frequency options and a built-in scheduling function, Demeter gives you the flexibility to tailor recordings to your survey needs while maximizing battery life and storage. This guide will help you prepare, configure, and deploy your device effectively.

Technical Overview

Demeter supports a wide range of sampling rates and frequency bands, making it suitable for both ultrasonic bat echolocation studies and audible-range bird recordings. The trigger mode uses onboard detection algorithms to activate recording only when a call of interest is present, conserving space and power. In continuous mode, recordings are stored in standard formats for later analysis. The device includes configurable gain settings, automatic time-stamping, and GPS compatibility for accurate georeferencing of data. Its scheduling function allows you to define precise start and stop times, or daily routines, ensuring efficient use of storage and battery resources during long deployments.

Example Use Cases

A bat ecologist might deploy Demeter at woodland edges, caves, or flight corridors to monitor bat activity overnight, relying on trigger mode to capture echolocation calls without filling storage with silence. A bird researcher, on the other hand, could configure continuous daytime recording to build a dataset of dawn chorus activity, species richness, or seasonal changes in vocal activity.

Working With Your Data

Recordings made with Demeter can be processed using established analysis tools. For bats, audio files can be passed through pipelines such as the BTO Acoustic Pipeline, which automatically identifies and summarizes bat activity from ultrasonic calls. For bird recordings, software like BirdNET can be used to detect and classify species from continuous sound files. By combining Demeter’s flexible recording options with these tools, researchers can efficiently turn raw audio into ecological insights and long-term monitoring datasets.

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