Monitoring canopy bird activity in disturbed landscapes with automatic recorders: A case study in the tropics

Type Article
Date 2020-05
Language English
Author(s) Ducrettet Manon1, Forget Pierre-MichelORCID2, Ulloa Juan SebastianORCID1, 6, Yguel Benjamin3, Gaucher Philippe4, Prince KarineORCID5, Haupert Sylvain7, Sueur Jerome1
Affiliation(s) 1 : Sorbonne Univ, Inst Systemat Evolut Biodiversite ISYEB, Museum Natl Hist Nat, CNRS,EPHE, 57 Rue Cuvier, F-75005 Paris, France.
2 : Museum Natl Hist Nat, CNRS, Mecanismes Adaptatifs & Evolut MECADEV, 1 Ave Petit Chateau, F-91800 Brunoy, France.
3 : Sorbonne Univ, Ctr Ecol & Sci Conservat CESCO, CNRS, Museum Natl Hist Nat, 57 Rue Cuvier, F-75005 Paris, France.
4 : Univ Guyane, Lab Ecol Evolut Interact Syst Amazoniens, USR 3456 CNRS, Cayenne, France.
5 : UCB Lyon 1, Biometrie & Biol Evolut LBEE, 43 Bd 11 Novembre 1918, F-69100 Villeurbanne, France.
6 : Inst Invest Recursos Biol Alexander von Humboldt, Av Circunvalar 16-20 Venado Oro, Bogota, DC, Colombia.
7 : Sorbonne Univ, UMR 7371, UMR S 1146, Lab Imagerie Biomed,CNRS,INSERM, Paris, France.
Source Biological Conservation (0006-3207) (Elsevier Sci Ltd), 2020-05 , Vol. 245 , P. 108574 (9p.)
DOI 10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108574
WOS© Times Cited 16
Keyword(s) Biodiversity monitoring, Tropical forest, Ecoacoustics, Human activity
Abstract

Tropical forests are facing threats that may affect the dynamics of seed dispersers which participate in the forest regeneration. To implement appropriate conservation programs, it appears necessary to monitor seed dispersers and to estimate their response to local changes. Here, we used non-invasive ecoacoustic methods to monitor the activity of a canopy bird, the White-throated toucan, Ramphastos tucanus, a major seed disperser and flagship species of the Amazonian forest. We deployed nine acoustic recorders over 29 days along a road that connects French Guiana to Brazil. We used template matching to automatically detect the vocalizations of R. tucanus. This method, which can easily be repeated with limited human expertise, detected 1748 recordings with R. tucanus vocalizations. A GLMM analysis was applied to test for a possible effect of habitat type and human activity, while accounting for time of the day and rainfall. The number of vocalizations varied according to time of the day with peaks at dawn and dusk. The number of vocalizations did not differ significantly among sites, they were not affected by habitat type, and they were only marginally influenced by human activity. These results indicate that the vocal activity of a key conservation species can be monitored automatically in a non-invasive way. The species targeted, R. tucanus, does not seem to be significantly impacted by the road and local human activity. This might be related to the mobility of the species, which can easily cross the road, as well as low local forestry pressure.

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Ducrettet Manon, Forget Pierre-Michel, Ulloa Juan Sebastian, Yguel Benjamin, Gaucher Philippe, Prince Karine, Haupert Sylvain, Sueur Jerome (2020). Monitoring canopy bird activity in disturbed landscapes with automatic recorders: A case study in the tropics. Biological Conservation, 245, 108574 (9p.). Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108574 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00657/76860/