An overview of passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) of terrestrial vertebrates and its significance, applications and challenges in urban and natural environments

Amidst a global biodiversity crisis and unprecedented levels of species loss, effective environmental monitoring is more important than ever, but traditional methods are often labour intensive and subjective. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is rapidly establishing itself as an important non-invasive, scalable and cost-effective tool for surveying sonant fauna in both natural and urban environments. While key challenges remain, particularly around standardisation, data analysis in complex soundscapes, and logistical difficulties in remote study locations, the future for PAM looks bright, with rapid advancements in the field of AI and novel open-source hardware solutions driving progress.