In this customer story, members of the IPBio-Biodiversity Research Institute of Sao Paulo set out to uncover the range of animals that call the Atlantic Forest home. Discover how they used wildlife recording to...
The Atlantic Forest is a globally threatened ecosystem with only seven percent of its original extent remaining, placing it on the top five Most Endangered Forests List. Even though the Amazon is much larger, and more publicized, the Atlantic Forest harbors a range of biological diversity similar the Amazon, but its fauna is undervalued, and it is important to understand species composition, habitat use, distribution and behavioral patterns in order to better protect and manage habitats.
Identifying the diverse range of birds, amphibians, mammals, and insects found on the reserve presents a unique challenge! Since 2018, IPBio has been using the Wildlife Acoustics Kaleidoscope Pro analysis software to facilitate species identification. The benefits were apparent immediately.
Kaleidoscope Pro’s clustering technology automatically and efficiently organized and sorted the vocalizations.
This speed of analysis is unprecedented for IPBio and has made the process of developing classifiers, substantially more efficient.
To date, IPBio has collected approximately 1,000 hours (or about 41 days) of audio from 4 sites on the Betary Reserve. In a very short period of time approximately 30 species of birds have been detected, among them the Carpornis melanocephal — a rare bird categorized as "vulnerable" according to the List of Threatened Species of the Brazilian Fauna.
Moreover, several mammalian species were detected, including the black capuchin monkeys and several species of howler monkeys, a mammal commonly found on the Betary Reserve that can be heard clearly from 3 miles away, but is not easy to observe visually.
Several species of amphibians have also been documented, including Caramaschi’s Hatchet-faced tree frog, Bailey’s tree frog and the snouted treefrog.
Over the coming years, IPBio will continue to develop a sound bank and study the seasonal habits of wildlife on our reserve in the Atlantic Forest and then expand to other biomes in Brazil as the organization grows. Read their report in more detail here.
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