bioacoustics

Acoustic monitoring and occupancy analysis: cost-effective tools in reintroduction programmes for roroa-great spotted kiwi

Monitoring the response of wildlife populations to conservation management, such as translocations, is crucially important for assessing its effectiveness. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is an emerging tool for monitoring cryptic and elusive species and is increasingly used in the management of kiwi. Inferences from data collected by PAM can be largely improved by occupancy analysis. By modelling occupancy, we overcome the issue of incomplete detectability, which would otherwise lead to underestimating actual site occupancy.

Using paired acoustic sampling to enhance population monitoring of New Zealand’s forest birds

Large-scale bird monitoring can provide valuable insights about drivers of population change across different spatial and temporal scales. Yet, challenging terrain and survey costs hinder the collection of data needed to estimate absolute abundance or population densities for New Zealand’s forest birds. Acoustic sampling is being used more frequently to increase efficiency in avian monitoring and paired sampling facilitates robust density estimation from acoustic data.