Desert Fauna Detection and Tracking System

ABSTRACT: Acoustic monitoring is very often the most cost-effective approach for the many species that vocalize. Highly time- and cost-intensive animal monitoring tasks include field observation, search for signs of species of interest, periodic field visits to service monitoring equipment, and post-recording data analysis. A uniquely capable solar-powered field recording system with wireless internet access through the cellular infrastructure for remote control and data download removes the need for periodic trips to the field for data recovery and supports real-time alerts. Microphone arrays coupled with accurate, field-proven localization algorithms based on breakthrough recent research can track animals by their calls and make spatial activity maps that guide biologists directly to locations of interest. Next-generation species and call-type detection and classification algorithms based on call spectro-temporal features or on more advanced speech recognition research will quickly sift through days of recordings to identify the acoustic events of interest to the biologist, with tremendous overall time savings. BENEFIT: Many sensitive or threatened species are fundamentally difficult to track or monitor. Since many of these animals use species-specific calls or songs to locate each other, acoustic detection is likely the best way to track them. Conservational Scientists and Wildlife Biologists all over the world are in need of a better solution to study these species more efficiently. Technological limitations of commercially available bioacoustic monitors have prevented widespread use and limited the growth of a market for such products. Features such as automatic call detection, call localization, and solar powered"place and forget"monitors with wireless data access would together drastically reduce all of the time-intensive tasks associated with tracking wildlife, thus greatly expanding the market as well as providing a superior solution. Government agencies including NPS and FWS devote millions of dollars in funding to study and preserve wildlife, especially migrating birds. The DoD and DIO have demonstrated a need for a more cost efficient solution to meet Endangered Species Act and Sikes Act requirements. The FWS projected birdwatching trip-related expenditures to be over $12 billion in 2006 indicating vast potential for worldwide commercialization within the ecotourism market.