Do urban residents recognise the sounds of cicada species in their neighbourhood?

Abstract

Urban residents often lack opportunities to interact with the natural environment. Daily nature experiences are crucial for conservation as they can influence people's attitudes toward conservation activities. Animal sounds and songs provide urban residents opportunities to experience nature, including those who rarely have the chance to visit green spaces. In Japan, people have long been familiar with the sound of cicadas, which can even be experienced in densely populated urban areas. However, urban residents may not be aware of animal sounds in their neighbourhoods, as they lose experience with and knowledge of plants and animals. This study examined urban residents' experiences of nature from a soundscape perspective by examining the relationship between the presence of cicada species in urban neighbourhoods and residents' experiences with their sounds, along with the influence of various socioeconomic attributes, including the knowledge of species names. We conducted a cicada presence-absence survey using sounds and a questionnaire survey on the frequency of sound experiences during the summer of 2020 in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo. The results of the cicada survey indicated that five cicada species were present at the study site; their observation frequencies in descending order were Graptopsaltria nigrofuscata, Hyalessa maculaticollis, Platypleura kaempferi, Meimuna opalifera, and Tanna japonensis. In descending order, the species sounds experienced most frequently by the questionnaire respondents were H. maculaticollis, M. opalifera, G. nigrofuscata, P. kaempferi, and T. japonensis. These results indicated that people did not always recognise the species in the neighbourhood. The presence of sounds in neighbourhood environments, knowledge of species names, childhood and current nature experience frequencies, and nature relatedness were positively related to the frequency of cicada sound experiences. These results suggest that urban residents' experience of nature is shaped by a variety of social factors, including ecological knowledge, in addition to the presence of species of interest.