Future Trends in Non-Intrusive WNS Monitoring With Sound Data

The direction the WNS research community is moving — continuous thermal-infrared records of entire winters, sonotype-classified passive acoustic streams, and airborne eDNA sampling at entrances — all points the same way: fewer entries, more sensors. This post walks through the next five years of non-intrusive WNS monitoring and where EchoQuilt fits into that stack.

Winter entries have been the backbone of WNS monitoring for more than 15 years, but the cost side of that practice keeps getting documented more sharply. USGS Fort Collins Science Center work on non-invasive surveillance now runs thermal-infrared monitors across whole winters to capture behavior without entering hibernacula. USGS's Science Strategy 2025 through 2029, published as Circular 1560 commits to a continuing adaptive approach to WNS that treats entry-light surveys as one method among several rather than as the default.