COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Researchers trying to track bee activity to find areas where the bee population is declining could soon be using an acoustic system developed by a research team that includes scientists from Missouri universities.

Scientists developed an acoustic listening system to monitor bee activity in a specific area, The Columbia Missourian reported (http://bit.ly/2sqWb9i ). The system's small microphone records the pitch and frequency of a bee's buzzing and sends that information to data storage devices such as an iPad or USB drive.

The goal is to analyze bee activity for several ye...