Acoustic Monitoring Detection Part - I

ADVANCED LEC

06WILDLIFE TECHNIQUES

University of Rio Grande Donald P. Althoff, Ph.D.

Why Acoustic Monitoring?

• Some species are _______________—and therefore difficult to detect when active

• Some species reside in _________________—and therefore difficult to detect

• 24/7 (or 12/7…6/7) is not feasible with just “human” observation—therefore _________________________ to “detect” with high degree of precision and accuracy offers a reasonable alternative

• _________________!!!!!

What Improvements in Last 5-10 Years Relative to Acoustic Monitoring Equipment?

• Equipment becoming more ______________ (aka weather-resistant)

• Higher capacity _____________ (think memory cards...from 516K a decade ago to 16-32 gigs+ now)

• Advances in programmability for ______________ monitoring over a 24-hour cycle, 7-day week, etc.

• Advances in ________________…for data processing and species ID

What Species to Acoustic Monitor/Study?

• Bats--most obvious

• Birds

• Mammals

• Frogs/Toads

What Are Some Major Challenges Remaining?

• _______________ Species ID (think bats)

• Matching calls with __________________________ (think bats, birds, and mammals)…what do the vocalizations mean?

• _________ of field units

• __________________ required to process/verify massive data files generated

Basics: How Individual Can We Get?

• Bats

• Birds

• Mammals

• Anurans

As of today…..____ individual animal ID

As of today….._________ individual males based on song quality

As of today…..____ individual animal ID

As of today…..____ individual animal ID

Birds: Individual Variation Adelaide’s Warblers(Puerto Rico)

See handout

Stuff to chase….

• https://www.aba.org/birding/v41n3p18w1.html individual variation in a bird’s song…something we can investigate with acoustic recordings: slowdown, visualize, analyze

• Etc.

Not all Acoustic Monitoring is Ultrasonic (see “range” next slide)

• _______ - yes

• Most others (frogs, flying squirrels, birds, etc.) are in ranges we (or most humans) can detect without aid of “special” equipment. These are usually stored as “______” files that do not require special software to listen to.

• Regardless of file type, __________ does require special software

Sound Basics

INFRA SOUND Human ULTRA SOUND

Over 20 kHz2 - 20 kHz

Key Points : “Some” SUMMARY COMMENTS

• We are just scratching the surface on use of acoustic monitoring in WILDLIFE studies and/or monitoring

• Has ________________ if we can a) figure out what we are recording and/or listening tob) for species ID (think bats mostly), recognize limitations of auto ID software (we’ll explore this more)c) have trained (or willing to learn) biologists/technicians to use analysis softwared) can continue to see cost reductions in equipment cost

(we’ll explore this more)• Major advantage: _________________