Wild Systems Lab

Field technology for
understanding wildlife.

We build acoustic recorders, monitoring systems, and ecological datasets for people working with nature. From hardware to field research to published analysis.

What we do

Systems, research, and analysis

Wild Systems Lab works across three connected areas — building field technology, running research projects, and analysing acoustic data for conservation.

Systems

Acoustic recorders and field hardware

The Demeter acoustic recorder is designed for short-term, repeatable wildlife surveys — accessible enough to deploy across many sites simultaneously without specialist equipment.

View all systems

Research

White papers and field findings

We publish research on acoustic monitoring methods, soundscape analysis, and ecological data from our field deployments. Open, practical, and reproducible.

Browse research

Analysis

Bird, bat, and acoustic data analysis

We analyse recordings from our recorders and third-party devices, producing site reports, species inventories, and long-term monitoring summaries.

Analysis services

Featured product

Demeter acoustic recorder

Demeter is a purpose-built acoustic recorder for wildlife surveys. Designed for bird dawn chorus surveys, bat transects, and soundscape recording — compact enough to deploy across many sites at once.

It combines a high-sensitivity microphone, low-power electronics, and a weatherproof enclosure with a straightforward configuration workflow.

Bird monitoring Bat detection Continuous recording Available now
Demeter recorder image

Featured project

Wild Churchyard Project

Churchyards are some of the most biodiverse habitats in the British landscape — old grassland, mature trees, undisturbed hedges, and centuries of low-intensity management.

We are deploying Demeter recorders across participating churchyards to build the first systematic acoustic picture of what lives in these spaces, and to help churches understand and protect their wildlife.

Churchyard photography
12+ Field deployments
3,200+ Hours of audio analysed
47 Species recorded
8 Research publications

From the lab

Latest research and field notes

We publish white papers, field methods, and findings from our monitoring deployments.

Who we work with

For everyone working with nature

Our tools and research are used by a range of organisations and individuals who want to understand wildlife in their landscape.

Churches and churchyards

Understand what wildlife uses your churchyard and build evidence for conservation management decisions.

Landowners and estates

Long-term acoustic monitoring for farms, woodland, and private nature reserves — baseline surveys and ongoing tracking.

Ecologists and surveyors

Professional-grade recorders and analysis support for licensed ecological surveys, EIA work, and habitat assessments.

Community conservation

Accessible tools and guided methods for wildlife groups, parish councils, and volunteer-led recording schemes.

Researchers and universities

Open datasets, reproducible methods, and hardware that can be customised for experimental field deployments.

Conservation organisations

Programme-level monitoring at scale — multiple sites, consistent methodology, aggregated data and reporting.

Get started

Ready to start monitoring?

Whether you want to buy a Demeter recorder, commission an analysis, or discuss a research collaboration — we'd like to hear from you.