Rare Animals Monitoring

To monitor these vocalizing species, the project uses automated recording units (ARUs).

ARUs are sound recorders that can be deployed at remote locations and programmed to record at set time intervals from weeks to months in a variety of different, often remote, habitats. Weighing between three and seven pounds and able to record in temperatures ranging from below zero to +500C, these recorders are mounted on trees or other sturdy posts and offer enormous advantages when monitoring rare or elusive species:

• Increased species detection: Because they can be left in the field for extended periods and can be programmed to record anytime, monitoring owls, amphibians, and rare birds using ARUs provide better estimates of just how many species are in a given site than do traditional surveys.
• More accurate data: ARUs facilitate more accurate species identification than relying exclusively on human interpretation. With a permanent sound recording in hand, experts can verify species IDs, decreasing potential error in identification by observers and the stress of needing to accurately recognize calls in the field.

• Additional data collection: Because ARUs effectively record all other vocalizing species simultaneously, we now have information on other species, such as the rare Sedge Wren that are often found in the same habitat as the Yellow Rail, for example. ARUs can also record huge amounts of data, for example, the ABMI recorded 25 terabytes in one field season alone – that’s two and a half years of continuous sound files! As a result, Alberta ecologists have access to high-quality data on the abundance and location of 170 species of birds, amphibians, and other wildlife.
• Computer based processing: ARUs offer the possibility of computer-based processing. For example, automated song recognition analysis has been developed for the Barred Owl and for Yellow Rails, so that recordings can be searched for “hits” of this target species.
• Methodological standardization: The Rare Animals project team is working with the ABMI and industry partners to integrate ARUs into current monitoring efforts and to standardize methods across these agencies. The advantage of standardized methodologies is that it allows datasets to be pooled and compared between agencies.
• Safety: By limiting the need to send field technicians out at night to collect similar data, ARUs reduce safety and logistical concerns associated with traditional survey methods.

The ABMI Rare Animals project can be used to inform acoustic species management, for example, species at risk monitoring and mitigation programs, reclamation planning and reporting, and conducting census at the lease-level to determine a more accurate species population census. The Rare Animals project is playing an important role in regional species monitoring efforts in the Lower Athabasca and can be used to determine where these rare vocalizing species are found and how best to minimize impact on these species.