History
A brief history of Bioacoustics
It is with the appearance of sound recording techniques that the study of animal sound communication entered the realms of science. The invention of mechanical devices recordings made possible the first bird voices recordings in the late 19th century, and these were still being used as late as 1951, when Pierre Rougeot recorded on a wax cylinder the curious courtship display of the Lyre-tailed Honeyguide Melichneutes robustus in Gabon. At that time magnetic sound recording was already possible, but only with heavy and generator-powered machines.
In fact, modern bioacoustics started with the availability of lighter and self-powered magnetic recorders. It was only at the beginning of the 1960s that high-fidelity models, namely the Nagra-III and Uher 4000-S, became available; they were not so light, nor cheap, and needed a parabola-mounted microphone to be efficient, but they opened opportunities long sought after by naturalists, ornithologists and herpetologists in the first place. Such novelty in a field of zoology engendered high expectations, some of which were later frustrated, but at the end of the decade bioacoustics was fully established as a new field of scientific research.
The decade of the 1970s was a period of the revision of the possibilities and limitations of bioacoustics and of the organisation of its structures. Several aims of research, such as the resolution of taxonomic problems, were reconsidered, but new approaches were introduced, notably physiological and ecological ones. Very important for the development of bioacoustics was the establishement of natural sound archives, and the gathering of other scientists, especially some entomologists, physiologists and musical acousticians. Neurobiologists will join latter. So, bioacoustics was born in the 60's, structured in the 70's and represents today an extremely diversified and multidisciplinary field of research, maintaining however a strong unity: its goal to understand animal sound communication.
IBAC |
month |
year |
city |
country |
I | October | 1971 | Kinross | Scotland |
II |
September |
1972 |
Als |
Denmark |
III |
October |
1973 |
Rouen |
France |
IV |
November |
1975 |
Jersey |
UK |
V |
September |
1977 |
Bramslevgaard |
Denmark |
VI |
October |
1979 |
Vadstena |
Sweden |
VII |
September |
1981 |
Sussex |
UK |
VIII |
September |
1983 |
Songli |
Norway |
IX |
September |
1985 |
Texel |
Netherlands |
X |
September |
1987 |
Florac |
France |
XI |
September |
1989 |
Cambridge |
UK |
XII |
September |
1991 |
Osnabruck |
Germany |
XIII |
April |
1994 |
Mols |
Denmark |
XIV |
October |
1995 |
Potsdam |
Germany |
XV |
October |
1996 |
Pavia |
Italy |
XVI |
October |
1997 |
College
Station, Texas |
USA |
XVII |
April |
1999 |
Chartres |
France |
XVIII |
September |
2001 |
Cogne |
Italy |
XIX |
August |
2003 |
Belém,
PA |
Brazil |
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Last modification: Jul, 16, 2003