Toward Multimodal Models of Animal Communication: Insights from New York City Rats

Ralph E Peterson, Dmitry Batenkov, Ahmed El Hady, Emily L Mackevicius

Keywords: bioacoustics, computational ecology, rats

TL;DR: Mapping social-vocal behavior and environment in wild New York City rats

Abstract:

Urban rats thrive in cities worldwide, yet little is known about the communicative
behaviors that support their survival. We conducted fieldwork on free-ranging rats
in New York City, combining thermal imaging and ultrasonic audio recordings
with artificial intelligence techniques for movement and acoustic analysis. Our
approach captures fine-scale locomotion, reconstructs the 3D geometry of foraging
environments such as subways, streets, and parks, and quantifies vocalizations
across ecological contexts. This work sets the stage for a larger scale species-
agnostic proposal to use integrated behavioral analysis systems and multimodal
modeling frameworks to study bioacoustics in the wild.

Submission Number: 26