I am a PhD student specializing in computational approaches to studying animal communication and enhancing wildlife conservation through community-centered design. My research is driven by the intrinsic value of wildlife-human coexistence and fundamental questions about the evolution of language. What can we learn from the communicative behaviors of other species? How can technology and computational linguistics deepen our understanding of animal languages and promote a more sustainable coexistence with wildlife? I have the privilege of being advised by Dr. Rada Mihalcea.

My active projects include:

• Exploring Animal Computational Linguistics: Identifying challenges and opportunities in this emerging interdisciplinary field.
• Investigating the communicaton system of white-faced capuchin monkeys in Taboga, Costa Rica.
• Euphonia App: Creating a collaborative mobile application designed to help verify machine learning predictions for acoustic species identification.

Media Features

How Artificial Intelligence is Helping Us Decode Animal Languages
Spencer Feingold, World Economic Forum, January 5, 2023

Meet the Bee With a Body That’s Half Male, Half Female
Katherine J. Wu, Smithsonian Magazine, April 2, 2020

Climate Change and Urban Development Drive Away Birds in Costa Rica
Irene Rodríguez, La Nación, October 29, 2023
Featured on the cover of Costa Rica’s most-read newspaper. The original title, “Cambio climático y desarrollo urbano ahuyentan las aves de Costa Rica”.

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Molina-Mora, I., Ruíz-Gutierrez, V., Vega-Hidalgo, A., Sandoval, L. (2024). The utility of passive acoustic monitoring for using birds as indicators of sustainable agricultural management practices. Frontiers in Bird Science.

Vega-Hidalgo, Á., Kahl, S., Symes, L., Ruiz-Gutiérrez, V., Molina-Mora, I., Cediel, F., Sandoval, L., & Klinck, H. (2023). A collection of fully-annotated soundscape recordings from neotropical coffee farms in Colombia and Costa Rica [Data set]. Zenodo.

Vega-Hidalgo, Á., Flatt, E., Whitworth, A., & Symes, L. (2021). Acoustic assessment of experimental reforestation in a Costa Rican rainforest. Ecological Indicators, 133, 108413.

Vega-Hidalgo, Á., Añino, Y., Krichilsky, E., Smith, A. R., Santos-Murgas, A., & Gálvez, D. (2020). Decline of native bees (Apidae: Euglossa) in a tropical forest of Panama. Apidologie, 1-13.

Krichilsky, E., Vega-Hidalgo, Á., Hunter, K., Kingwell, C., Ritner, C., Wcislo, W., & Smith, A. (2020). The first gynandromorph of the Neotropical bee Megalopta amoena (Spinola, 1853)(Halictidae) with notes on its circadian rhythm. Journal of Hymenoptera Research, 75, 97.

González, J. P. B., Vega-Hidalgo, A., & Monge-Nájera, J. (2019). Feeding behavior of Costa Rican velvet worms: food hiding, parental feeding investment and ontogenetic diet shift (Onychophora: Peripatidae). UNED Research Journal, 11(2), 85-88.

If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.

— Vincent Van Gogh

30 April 1874