Detecting and Tracking the Positions of Wild Ungulates Using Sound Recordings
Monitoring wild ungulates such as deer is a highly challenging issue faced by wildlife managers. Wild ungulates are increasing in number worldwide, causing damage to ecosystems. For effective management, the precise estimation of their population size and habitat is essential. Conventional methods u...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/3/866 |
| _version_ | 1797406355739377664 |
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| author | Salem Ibrahim Salem Kazuhiko Fujisao Masayasu Maki Tadanobu Okumura Kazuo Oki |
| author_facet | Salem Ibrahim Salem Kazuhiko Fujisao Masayasu Maki Tadanobu Okumura Kazuo Oki |
| author_sort | Salem Ibrahim Salem |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Monitoring wild ungulates such as deer is a highly challenging issue faced by wildlife managers. Wild ungulates are increasing in number worldwide, causing damage to ecosystems. For effective management, the precise estimation of their population size and habitat is essential. Conventional methods used to estimate the population density of wild ungulates, such as the light census survey, are time-consuming with low accuracy and difficult to implement in harsh environments like muddy wetlands. On the other hand, unmanned aerial vehicles are difficult to use in areas with dense tree cover. Although the passive acoustic monitoring of animal sounds is commonly used to evaluate their diversity, the potential for detecting animal positions from their sound has not been sufficiently investigated. This study introduces a new technique for detecting and tracking deer position in the wild using sound recordings. The technique relies on the time lag among three recorders to estimate the position. A sound recording system was also developed to overcome the time drift problem in the internal clock of recorders, by receiving time information from GPS satellites. Determining deer position enables the elimination of repetitive calls from the same deer, thus providing a promising tool to track deer movement. The validation results revealed that the proposed technique can provide reasonable accuracy for the experimental and natural environment. The identification of deer calls in Oze National Park over a period of two hours emphasizes the great potential of the proposed technique to detect repetitive deer calls, and track deer movement. Hence, the technique is the first step toward designing an automated system for estimating the population of deer or other vocal animals using sound recordings. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T03:25:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2cd7d1b9546948f28842432277471f81 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T03:25:13Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-2cd7d1b9546948f28842432277471f812023-12-03T15:03:12ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202021-01-0121386610.3390/s21030866Detecting and Tracking the Positions of Wild Ungulates Using Sound RecordingsSalem Ibrahim Salem0Kazuhiko Fujisao1Masayasu Maki2Tadanobu Okumura3Kazuo Oki4Faculty of Engineering, Kyoto University of Advanced Science, 18 Yamanouchi Gotanda-cho, Ukyo-ku, Kyoto 615-8577, JapanInstitute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, JapanFaculty of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Fukushima University, 1 Kanayagawa, Fukushima 960-1296, JapanWildlife Management Office Inc., 922-7 Komiya-cho, Hachiouji, Tokyo 192-0031, JapanFaculty of Engineering, Kyoto University of Advanced Science, 18 Yamanouchi Gotanda-cho, Ukyo-ku, Kyoto 615-8577, JapanMonitoring wild ungulates such as deer is a highly challenging issue faced by wildlife managers. Wild ungulates are increasing in number worldwide, causing damage to ecosystems. For effective management, the precise estimation of their population size and habitat is essential. Conventional methods used to estimate the population density of wild ungulates, such as the light census survey, are time-consuming with low accuracy and difficult to implement in harsh environments like muddy wetlands. On the other hand, unmanned aerial vehicles are difficult to use in areas with dense tree cover. Although the passive acoustic monitoring of animal sounds is commonly used to evaluate their diversity, the potential for detecting animal positions from their sound has not been sufficiently investigated. This study introduces a new technique for detecting and tracking deer position in the wild using sound recordings. The technique relies on the time lag among three recorders to estimate the position. A sound recording system was also developed to overcome the time drift problem in the internal clock of recorders, by receiving time information from GPS satellites. Determining deer position enables the elimination of repetitive calls from the same deer, thus providing a promising tool to track deer movement. The validation results revealed that the proposed technique can provide reasonable accuracy for the experimental and natural environment. The identification of deer calls in Oze National Park over a period of two hours emphasizes the great potential of the proposed technique to detect repetitive deer calls, and track deer movement. Hence, the technique is the first step toward designing an automated system for estimating the population of deer or other vocal animals using sound recordings.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/3/866wild ungulatesanimals counttracking animalsdeerOzesound recognition |
| spellingShingle | Salem Ibrahim Salem Kazuhiko Fujisao Masayasu Maki Tadanobu Okumura Kazuo Oki Detecting and Tracking the Positions of Wild Ungulates Using Sound Recordings Sensors wild ungulates animals count tracking animals deer Oze sound recognition |
| title | Detecting and Tracking the Positions of Wild Ungulates Using Sound Recordings |
| title_full | Detecting and Tracking the Positions of Wild Ungulates Using Sound Recordings |
| title_fullStr | Detecting and Tracking the Positions of Wild Ungulates Using Sound Recordings |
| title_full_unstemmed | Detecting and Tracking the Positions of Wild Ungulates Using Sound Recordings |
| title_short | Detecting and Tracking the Positions of Wild Ungulates Using Sound Recordings |
| title_sort | detecting and tracking the positions of wild ungulates using sound recordings |
| topic | wild ungulates animals count tracking animals deer Oze sound recognition |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/3/866 |
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