How can human-made noise make it harder for wildlife to find food or avoid predators?

Human-made noise pollution significantly disrupts the survival mechanisms of various species by interfering with their reliance on sound for essential life functions. Many animals, including birds, insects, and bats, depend on acoustic signals to navigate their environments, locate prey, and detect threats.1

When anthropogenic noise masks these critical sounds, it creates an existential threat by hindering an animal's ability to find food or successfully avoid predators. This impact is particularly severe for marine life that utilizes echolocation, such as whales and dolphins. In these aquatic environments, chaotic noise from shipping, seismic testing, and naval sonar can travel vast distances, effectively "blinding" these animals to their surroundings and disrupting their ability to hunt or sense danger. By degrading the acoustic landscape, noise pollution forces wildlife to struggle in environments where they can no longer effectively process the sensory information required for survival.1