Many species produce sound as a means of communication, emitting calls or songs to broadcast information to others in the surrounding area. In this blog post, Diego Llusia, Camille Desjonquères, and Sara Víllen-Peréz discuss their research on recording animal calls and how these soundtracks can be used to help monitor the impacts of climate change.
Hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus). Credit: Veronica Zamora-Gutierrez.
Ecologists have started looking into drones as new tools for wildlife surveys, but how can drone disturbance be minimized in order to produce accurate wildlife counts? In this post, Kayla Kuhlmann describes a drone practice to reduce disruption during acoustic bat surveys as featured in the paper “Miniaturization eliminates detectable impacts of drones on bat activity”, recently published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution.
Mexican greater funnel-eared bat (Natalus mexicanus). Credit: Veronica Zamora-Gutierrez.
Bat Conservation International (BCI), founded in 1982, aims to conserve bats and their habitats through a combination of education, conservation, and research. Bats worldwide contribute towards controlling pests, create rich fertilizer for landowners, and pollinate fruit and flowers. BCI introduced International Bat Appreciation Day to increase awareness about bats and what they do for our environment.
In this post, associate editor Chloe Robinson will be summarising the various MEE published methods for bat monitoring and how technological developments have allowed us to further look and listen into the lives of these incredible creatures.
Gould’s toucanet Selenidera gouldii display involves dancing, but also lots of vocalisation. Credit: Oliver Metcalf.
Acoustic indices are increasingly being used when analysing soundscapes to gain information on biodiversity. However, inconsistent results and lack of consensus on best practices has hampered their application in conservation and land‐use management contexts. In this post, Oliver Metcalf talks about his Methods in Ecology and Evolution article ‘Acoustic indices perform better when applied at ecologically meaningful time and frequency scales’, where he highlights the need to calculate acoustic indices at ecologically appropriate time and frequency bins to reduce signal masking effects.
In this post, three of our Associate Editors with expertise in acoustic monitoring, Sarab Sethi, Camille Desjonquèresand Lian Pin Koh, select their favourite MEE papers in this field.
Hello! This is my first post as Blog Editor for Methods in Ecology and Evolution and I’m thrilled to be starting with an exciting, thought-provoking topic in the wake of Halloween. But first, let me introduce myself. I currently work as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Project Manager in the Hajibabaei Lab at the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics (University of Guelph, ON, Canada) and my undergraduate and postgraduate degrees are both from Swansea University (UK). My research background is largely focused around the application of environmental DNA (i.e. free DNA found in natural environments) to detect and monitor aquatic species and answer ecological questions through both single-species detection and DNA metabarcoding.
Don’t have a subscription to the journal? No need to worry – this month’s issue has TEN articles that are free to access for absolutely anyone. You can find out about all 10 below.
Scientists from international conservation charity ZSL (Zoological Society of London), Imperial College London and conservationists from the Rotokare Scenic Reserve Trust used acoustic monitoring devices to listen in on the ‘conversations’ of New Zealand’s endemic hihi bird, allowing them to assess the success of the reintroduction without impacting the group.
For the first time ZSL scientists were able to use the calls of a species as a proxy for their movement. A happy hihi call sounds like two marbles clanging together in what is known as the ‘stitch’ call. Scientists saw the calls change from an initial random distribution to a more settled home range – marking the hihi reintroduction and the new method a success. Continue reading “‘Eavesdropping’ Technology used to Protect one of New Zealand’s Rarest Birds”
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