Date of Award

2008

Publication Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

M.Sc.

Department

Biological Sciences

Keywords

Biology, Ecology.

Supervisor

Mennill, Daniel (Biological Sciences)

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

Automated sound recorders offer benefits for monitoring wild animals, but produce expansive audio datasets. I examined the use of automated recorders to monitor bottomland forests in Florida for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. I compared manual versus automated scanning methods of reviewing long audio recordings for target sounds. The automated method required less time to scan and review a 24-hour sound recording, but made more false positive identifications and was less comprehensive than the manual scanning method. Overall, the manual method proved better suited to projects requiring the identification of all target sounds within an acoustic dataset. From recordings collected in 2006 and 2007, I isolated and analyzed 304 putative kent calls and 157 putative double knocks matching Ivory-billed Woodpecker sounds. These acoustic data suggest that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers persist in Florida, although the paucity and diel patterning of the putative sounds suggest that automated recorders were not near active roost or nest sites.

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