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Visualization of a chorus structure in multiple frog species by a sound discrimination device

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Abstract

We developed a sound discrimination device to identify and localize the species of nocturnal animals in their natural habitat. The sound discrimination device is equipped with a microphone, a light-emitting diode, and a band-pass filter. By tuning the center frequency of the filter to include a dominant frequency of the calls of a focal species, we enable the device to be illuminated only when detecting the calls of the focal species. In experiments in a laboratory room, we tuned the sound discrimination devices to detect the calls of Hyla japonica or Rhacophorus schlegelii and broadcast the frog calls from loudspeakers. By analyzing the illumination pattern of the devices, we successfully identified and localized the two kinds of sound sources. Next, we placed the sound discrimination devices in a field site where actual male frogs (H. japonica and R. schlegelii) produced sounds. The analysis of the illumination pattern demonstrates the efficacy of the developed devices in a natural environment and also enables us to extract pairs of male frogs that significantly overlapped or alternated their calls.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Y. Bando and K. Itoyama for valuable comments on the development of the sound discrimination device, T. Ishimaru for editing the demonstration videos of our field recording, Y. Bando for providing the data of inter-call intervals in male R. schlegelii from his previous study, and N. Hirohashi and M. Yoshida in Marine Biological Science Section, Shimane University, Japan, for their kind support with field recording. We also appreciate two anonymous reviewers providing valuable comments that greatly helped us to improve the quality of the manuscript.

Funding

This study was partially supported by Konica Minolta Science and Technology Foundation to H.A. and I. A., JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research (No. 16K12396), Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (No. 18K18005) and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (No.20H04144) to I.A., and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) (No. 2422006) to H.G.O.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University, Suita, Japan

    Hiromitsu Awano

  2. Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Hiromitsu Awano & Ikkyu Aihara

  3. Graduate School of Systems and Information Engineering, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

    Masahiro Shirasaka

  4. Hylable Inc., Tokyo, Japan

    Takeshi Mizumoto

  5. Institute for Human-Robot Co-Creation, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan

    Hiroshi G. Okuno

Authors
  1. Hiromitsu Awano
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  2. Masahiro Shirasaka
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  3. Takeshi Mizumoto
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  4. Hiroshi G. Okuno
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  5. Ikkyu Aihara
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Contributions

HA, TM, HGO and IA designed the research; HA developed the device; MS and IA performed the laboratory experiments; HA and IA prepared and performed the field recording; HA, MS and IA analyzed the data; HA, MS, TM, HGO, and IA wrote the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ikkyu Aihara.

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Conflict of interest

We declare we have no competing interests.

Ethical approval

The field recording in this study was performed in accordance with the guideline of the Animal Experimental Committee of University of Tsukuba.

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Awano, H., Shirasaka, M., Mizumoto, T. et al. Visualization of a chorus structure in multiple frog species by a sound discrimination device. J Comp Physiol A 207, 87–98 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-021-01463-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-021-01463-9

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