The soundscape of swarming: Proof of concept for a noninvasive acoustic species identification of swarming Myotis bats

, indicating the predominantly swarming species at the time of recording. We verified our results by correctly classifying the second set of previously identified call sequences with an accuracy of 100%. In addition, our acoustic species classification corresponds well to the existing knowledge on swarming phenology at the hibernaculum. Moreover, we successfully classified call sequences from a different hibernaculum to species level and verified our classification results by capturing swarming bats while we recorded them. Our findings provide a proof of concept for a new noninvasive acoustic monitoring technique that analyses "swarming soundscapes" by combining classical acoustic parameters and LFCCs, instead of analyzing single calls. Our approach for species identification is especially beneficial in situations with multiple calling individuals, such as autumn swarming.