This innovative piece of research work has caused some excitement in ecology circles and is one that opens up new possibilities when it comes to species monitoring using technology and data analysis skills. Funded by Natural England, the research was carried out by Baker Consultants’ Technical Director Carlos Abrahams, and published in a high quality peer reviewed journal. Carlos’ expertise in sound recording and data analysis drove this piece of work, following his previous studies on capercaillie in Scotland. One of the key elements of the paper was the ability to combine the acoustic recordings of target species at a range of locations, with GIS and satellite remote sensing data of the habitats present at each site. This allowed the environmental factors that determine species presence and detectability to be assessed.
We’re really excited by the outcomes of this research, as it makes acoustic survey methods much more viable for landowners, developers and estate managers. Traditional surveying techniques ordinarily rely on huge manpower efforts to regularly visit sites to observe and record target species. With the techniques developed by Carlos, we’re able to monitor the species by gathering larger data sets over longer time-frames, while reducing the manpower costs of data collection. Survey by acoustic recording is also more effective at producing a robust and defensible dataset, as it can be subject to quality assurance processes and the raw data can be stored permanently.
We are continuing to carry out ecological consultancy during the Covid19 lockdown. If you have any surveying or monitoring needs during this period, then please get in touch with us via our contact form on the website, call us on +44 (0)1629 593958 or email us on info@bakerconsultants.co.uk.