In the verdant and melodious depths of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where the songs of birds match the murmur of leaves, several Indigenous people affirm the results of research that emerged in July. Biodiversity scientists, intrigued by the human perception of nature, launched a study titled, “Perceived biodiversity: Is what we measure also what we see and hear?” The idea behind it was simple: In one phase, participants were asked to listen to sounds recorded in forests with varying levels of diversity, and in another phase, participants were shown images of natural environments. The goal? To find out what people perceive when they see or hear different levels of biodiversity and to what extent actual biodiversity and perceived biodiversity are consistent. Intriguing, isn’t it? To unravel this mystery, the researchers studied 48 participants in each group who were exposed to visual cues (57 photos taken in forests with varying levels of biodiversity) or audio cues (16 10-second recordings from natural environments) and then categorized the images and sounds based on the amount of biodiversity they perceived. Kevin Rozario, one of the authors, explained in a voice message to Mongabay: “We simply told them, ‘Look at these images, listen to these sounds. Tell us what you see and what you hear.’ And they began to compare freely, using their memories and experiences.” A forest in Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo. Community members living near Virunga say they are able to discern information about animals, time, weather and…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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