Vocal individuality as a potential long-term monitoring tool for Western Screech-owls, <i>Megascops kennicottii</i>

Tripp, Tania M.; Otter, Ken A.

doi:10.1139/z06-055

Cited by 40 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Individual distinctness of anuran vocalisations can be used as a non-invasive bioacoustic tool in biological conservation to census threatened populations (Tripp and Otter, 2006). This tech nique can be particularly relevant for species with small populations and/or low reproduction rates and could be used to monitor populations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual variation in the advertisement calls of a Neotropical treefrog (Scinax constrictus)

Gambale

Signorelli

2014

Amphib Reptilia

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A bstract. Studies of the variability of signals at different levels are important to resolve issues related to the evolution of a species' recognition system. We analysed the variation within males, among individuals, and among three breeding seasons in the advertisement calls of Scinax constrictus, a Neotropical hylid frog endemic to the Cerrado of Brazil. We assessed the influence of different temperature ranges and different body condition ranges over a three-year period of breeding season on the acoustical features of the advertisement calls of 62 individuals. Air temperature had negative relationship with call duration and note number. Body condition had a negative relationship with the dominant frequency and positive effects on pulse number and note duration. The acoustic parameters of S. constrictus were stable across breeding seasons. Temporal parameters were highly variable within individuals, whereas the dominant frequency was the most stereotyped property of advertisement calls. Individuals of S. constrictus have sufficient among-male variability, especially for temporal parameters (call duration, number of notes, and note duration), to permit discrimination between conspecific calling males at a reproductive site by statistical analysis. The results highlight the informativeness of non-invasive bioacoustic features for population-level studies and biological conservation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual variation in the advertisement calls of a Neotropical treefrog (Scinax constrictus)

Gambale

Signorelli

2014

Amphib Reptilia

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“…The individual call repertoire, variation, plasticity and change over time might be underestimated (Narins et al 2000;Jansen et al 2016b) and knowledge on the effective signal space of individuals, populations or species might be of taxonomic relevance. Automated recorders and signal processing are helpful in bioacoustical monitoring approaches (e.g., Terry et al 2005;Tripp & Otter 2006;Bardeli et al 2010;Laiolo 2010;Blumstein et al 2011) and thus in ecological studies and conservation. There are several recent works using modern passive recording devices for the estimation of biodiversity in holistic approaches (e.g., Sueur et al 2008b;Blumstein et al 2011;Depraetere et al 2012;Gasc et al 2013;Potamitis 2014; for a review see Obrist et al 2010).…”

Section: Automated Recording and Signal Recognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The use of bioacoustics in anuran taxonomy: theory, terminology, methods and recommendations for best practice

Köhler

Jansen

Rodríguez³

et al. 2017

Zootaxa

464

410

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Vocalizations of anuran amphibians have received much attention in studies of behavioral ecology and physiology, but also provide informative characters for identifying and delimiting species. We here review the terminology and variation of frog calls from a perspective of integrative taxonomy, and provide hands-on protocols for recording, analyzing, comparing, interpreting and describing these sounds. Our focus is on advertisement calls, which serve as premating isolation mechanisms and, therefore, convey important taxonomic information. We provide recommendations for terminology of frog vocalizations, with call, note and pulse being the fundamental subunits to be used in descriptions and comparisons. However, due to the complexity and diversity of these signals, an unequivocal application of the terms call and note can be challenging. We therefore provide two coherent concepts that either follow a note-centered approach (defining uninterrupted units of sound as notes, and their entirety as call) or a call-centered approach (defining uninterrupted units as call whenever they are separated by long silent intervals) in terminology. Based on surveys of literature, we show that numerous call traits can be highly variable within and between individuals of one species. Despite idiosyncrasies of species and higher taxa, the duration of calls or notes, pulse rate within notes, and number of pulses per note appear to be more static within individuals and somewhat less affected by temperature. Therefore, these variables might often be preferable as taxonomic characters over call rate or note rate, which are heavily influenced by various factors. Dominant frequency is also comparatively static and only weakly affected by temperature, but depends strongly on body size. As with other taxonomic characters, strong call divergence is typically indicative of species-level differences, whereas call similarities of two populations are no evidence for them being conspecific. Taxonomic conclusions can especially be drawn when the general advertisement call structure of two candidate species is radically different and qualitative call differences are thus observed. On the other hand, quantitative differences in call traits might substantially vary within and among conspecific populations, and require careful evaluation and analysis. We provide guidelines for the taxonomic interpretation of advertisement call differences in sympatric and allopatric situations, and emphasize the need for an integrative use of multiple datasets (bio-acoustics, morphology, genetics), particularly for allopatric scenarios. We show that small-sized frogs often emit calls with frequency components in the ultrasound spectrum, although it is unlikely that these high frequencies are of biological relevance for the majority of them, and we illustrate that detection of upper harmonics depends also on recording distance because higher frequencies are attenuated more strongly. Bioacoustics remains a prime approach in integrative taxonomy of anurans if uncertainty due to possible intraspecific variation and technical artifacts is adequately considered and acknowledged.

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“…Gilbert, McGregor & Tyler 1994; Jones & Smith 1997; Peake et al. 1998; Galeotti & Sacchi 2001; Tripp & Otter 2006). Acoustic signatures have been used to noninvasively individually identify or census a wide variety of birds and mammals including African wild dogs ( Lycaon pictus , Hartwig 2005), titi monkeys ( Callicebus oenanthe , Aldrich, Molleson & Nekaris 2008), kingfishers ( Halcyon sancta, Saunders & Wooller 1988), owls ( Otus scops , Galeotti & Sacchi 2001; Aegolius acadicus brooksi, Holschuh & Otter 2005; Megascops kennicottii, Tripp & Otter 2006), flycatchers ( Empidonax traillii extimus, Fernandez‐Juricic, del Nevo & Poston 2009), and corncrakes ( Crex crex , Terry, McGregor & Peake 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre‐screening acoustic and other natural signatures for use in noninvasive individual identification

Pollard

Blumstein

Griffin

2010

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Summary1. Common ecological tasks, such as wildlife monitoring, adaptive management, and behavioural study, often make use of natural signatures (e.g. animal calls or visual markings) to identify individual animals noninvasively. However, there is no accepted method for pre-screening candidate natural signatures to select which signatures are the best-suited for this purpose. In this paper, we suggest a pre-screening checklist and focus on the challenge of assessing a candidate signature's individuality. 2. Individuality is critical, as the use of low-individuality natural signatures can lead to misidentification of individuals and therefore bias estimation of population parameters and population response to management actions. An information-based metric of individuality could assist researchers with selecting suitable signatures by allowing comparison among candidate signatures and providing an estimate of how many individuals may be reliably discriminated using a particular signature. 3. Before an individuality metric can be used to pre-screen natural signatures, the metric must first be calculated from preliminary sampling and must be robust to typical sampling concerns. We used field-collected animal vocalizations as well as simulations to test how robust the metric is to variation in sampling design. 4. We found that the metric is fairly robust to the number of animals sampled and the number of sessions (e.g. calling bouts) analysed, but that it is sensitive to the number of observations per session. 5. Synthesis and applications. Managers and researchers could save time and energy and improve the accuracy of estimates (such as abundance, survival, or population response) based on individual identification by first pre-screening candidate natural signatures for their individuality. As long as the number of observations per session is controlled, the relative values of the individuality metric can be meaningfully compared. The metric can thus be used as a tool to estimate relative individuality and so facilitates a difficult step in choosing a natural signature for noninvasive individual identification. We include instructions on how to calculate and interpret the individuality metric.

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Vocal individuality as a potential long-term monitoring tool for Western Screech-owls, Megascops kennicottii

Cited by 40 publications

References 23 publications

Individual variation in the advertisement calls of a Neotropical treefrog (Scinax constrictus)

Individual variation in the advertisement calls of a Neotropical treefrog (Scinax constrictus)

The use of bioacoustics in anuran taxonomy: theory, terminology, methods and recommendations for best practice

Pre‐screening acoustic and other natural signatures for use in noninvasive individual identification

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