Abstract
Digital acoustic recording devices allow for recording of vocal activity of animals over long time periods and therefore open new perspectives for monitoring. In this paper results of a bioacoustic monitoring of birds in a wetland restoration area in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in Northeastern Germany are presented. Ninety minutes of sound recordings were made daily from March 29 until May 30 2012 using a four-channel recording setup. The recording schedule was mainly designed for nocturnal birds but also included dawn and dusk choruses. By listening to the recordings, supported by spectrographic visualization, 61 bird species could be detected. Despite the fact that most of the recordings were made during the night, no period of absolute silence was detected. The occurrence data allow some conclusions on the state of the bird species, e.g., breeding bird, resting during migration, or guest only. The bioacoustic monitoring revealed the occurrence of rare nocturnal birds such as Little Crake (Porzana parva), Spotted Crake (Porzana porzana) and Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus). For the Eurasian Bittern (Botaurus stellaris) data on vocal activity and population size could be obtained. The study has shown that automated acoustic recordings can be applied for long-term monitoring of bird populations in remote areas.
Zusammenfassung
Informationsgehalt akustischer Langzeitaufzeich-nungen: Anwendung bioakustischer Verfahren zum Monitoring von Vögeln in Feuchtgebieten während der Brutzeit
Digitale Aufzeichnungsgeräte erlauben, die Lautaktivität von Tieren über lange Zeiträume aufzuzeichnen, und eröffnen damit neue Möglichkeiten für Monitoringaufgaben. Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden die Ergebnisse eines bioakustischen Monitorings von Vögeln in einem Moor-Renaturierungsgebiet in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern erörtert. Vom 29. März bis 30. Mai 2012 wurden mit einem Vierkanalrecorder täglich 90 Minuten aufgezeichnet. Das Aufzeichnungsregime war auf die Erfassung von nachtaktiven Vögeln ausgerichtet, schloss aber das morgendliche und abendliche Vogelkonzert auch mit ein. Durch ein durch spektrographische Visualisierung unterstütztes Abhören der Tonaufzeichnungen wurden insgesamt 61 Vogelarten festgestellt. Ungeachtet des Umstandes, dass die meisten Aufnahmen nachts gemacht wurden, war auf keiner Aufnahme wirkliche Stille zu vernehmen. Die Nachweise auf den Tonaufzeichnungen ermöglichten, den Status der Vogelart einzuschätzen, ob es sich um wahrscheinliche Brutvögel, rastende Tiere oder Nahrungsgäste handelte. Das akustische Monitoring erbrachte Nachweise seltener nachtaktiver Vogelarten wie Kleines Sumpfhuhn (Porzana parva), Tüpfelsumpfhuhn (Porzana porzana) und Sumpfohreule (Asio flammeus). Für die Rohrdommel (Botaurus stellaris) konnten auf akustischem Weg Daten zu Rufaktivität und Bestandsgröße erhoben werden. Die Studie hat gezeigt, dass automatische akustische Aufzeichnungen für ein Monitoring von Vogelpopulationen in schwer zugänglichen Gebieten gut geeignet sind.
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Acknowledgements
The continuous bioacoustic recording at the Polder Große Rosin is realized in cooperation between the association of the “Naturpark Mecklenburgische Schweiz und Kummerower See” and the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. The project is funded by the “Norddeutschen Stiftung für Umwelt und Entwicklung”. Special thanks to Dietmar Schriever who built the metallic construction of the recording unit. I am grateful to Wolfgang Wiehle, Gerald Lordan, Dietmar Frömdling and Dagmar Langrock for assistance during field work. Thanks to David Lazarus for language support and the reviewers for helpful comments.
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Communicated by M. Naguib.
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Frommolt, KH. Information obtained from long-term acoustic recordings: applying bioacoustic techniques for monitoring wetland birds during breeding season. J Ornithol 158, 659–668 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-016-1426-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-016-1426-3