Desert Fauna Detection and Tracking System

ABSTRACT: The Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Air Force Instruction 32-7064 require the Department of Defense (DoD) to manage the natural resources of each military reservation within the United States and to provide sustained multiple uses of those resources. Edwards AFB complies by preparing and implementing an Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan (INRMP). The primary purpose of the INRMP is to use adaptive ecosystem management strategies to protect and administer the base"s natural resources in concert with the military mission. Preventing sensitive species from becoming listed species greatly lessens the impacts to the mission. The only way to convince the US Fish and Wildlife Service that listing is not necessary under the ESA is to have good data. ISCA proposes a disruptive concept and technology for autonomous audio detection, identification and tracking using rugged distributed, smart sensor nodes. ISCA SONOSCAPE SYSTEM builds on technology that our group of specialists has developed over the years, and are today"s gold standard in bioacoustics. The ultimate goal of this SBIR is to provide DOD installations and other federal agencies the tools to better understand the demography of sensitive species to prevent listing and lessen the controls and restrictions on the mission. BENEFIT: Current detection and cataloging of fauna requires specialists to spend countless hours to collect field data. The human presence in the field decreases the likelihood that species will be detected, especially reclusive and rare ones. The proposed passive ISCA SONOSCAPE SYSTEM will provide automation of audio monitoring systems for desert fauna detection and thus provide users with continuous field monitoring data without additional cost of time, money and resources needed for direct observation surveys. Activity maps showing individuals or species location over the area allow for better accounting of the fauna present in the target area, and thus allow for better management of activities. The ISCA SONOSCAPE SYSTEM will provide DOD installations and other federal agencies the tools to better understand the demography of sensitive species to prevent listing and lessen the controls and restrictions on the mission. The ISCA SONOSCAPE SYSTEM proposed automation is badly needed for the management of fauna around the world as well as to determine characteristics of the soundscape in urban and rural areas, a market estimated to be huge.