Scientists have found a new way to monitor wildlife populations by simply recording their voices.
Researchers have announced a new "cyberinfrastructure which enables real-time acoustic recording and subsequent species identification in remote locations around the world," a ScienceDaily press release reported.
The device has been tested in Puerto Rico and South Africa, where it was used to capture the sounds of birds, monkeys, frogs, and even insects.
Scientists have had trouble studying widespread populations of species in the past, but this new invention may allow them to do just that. The device is cheaper, allows researchers to monitor more than one site, and streams the information live.
Researchers at the University of Puerto Rico have created simple hardware and software to monitor the species. The hardware "utilizes cheap and easily obtainable components such as iPods and car batteries, records 144 one-minute recordings per day in remote sites and sends them in real-time to a base station up to 40 km away."
The recordings are then uploaded to the internet and made available to the general public.
The researchers recently used the technology to monitor the well-being of an endangered frog species. The team noticed the frog (Eleutherodactylus juanariveroi), declined significantly in population over a four year period, in the fifth year the calling rate returned to normal.
"To understand the impacts of deforestation and climate change, we need reliable long-term data on the fauna from around the world," Dr. Mitchell Aide, a leader of the study, said. "Traditional sampling methodology, sending biologists to the field, is expensive and often results in incomplete and limited data sets because it is impossible to maintain biologists in the field 24 hours a day throughout the year, and it is impossible to clone expert field biologists, so that they can monitor various sites simultaneously."
Species monitoring and conservation is gaining importance as climate change and deforestation continue to threaten habitats and animal populations.
"Conserving and managing the biodiversity in the world is a major challenge for society, particularly in the tropics. We hope that the tools we have developed will allow researchers, students, managers, and the public to better understand how these threats are impacting species, so that we can make informed conservation and management decisions," Aide said.
