Use of ARUs for Rare Species Monitoring

The objective of this project is to deploy emerging technology such as acoustic recording units (ARUs) across oil sands leases to collect and analyze recordings of animal vocalizations to detect rare or hard-to-detect species including amphibians, water birds, bats and other species; for example, Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI) protocol using regional grid sampling is not sufficient to detect species like yellow rail. Erin Bayne (U of A) and his students are working closely with EMCLA to develop a monitoring protocol using ARUs specifically for owls, amphibians, yellow rails and bats. This project entails continued deployment and movement of the 5-station grid throughout an oil sands in situ lease, with the full range of in situ activities from operating facilities to exploration /seismic, to determine presence of these species and potential relationships to disturbance and/or activity levels.

This project resulted in a peer-reviewed article and reports that outline specific results for several different species and monitoring techniques. Examples of significant bioacoustic findings to help inform management and conservation include: (1) large, intact, and possibly remote, wetland complexes may be important areas for remaining rusty blackbird populations in Alberta, and across the breeding range, and should be prioritized for future surveys and (2) nighthawks selection for cold, dry, northern landscapes, pine forests, and avoidance of wetland areas is contrary to results for other biomes, and the strong influence of landscape scale variables emphasizes the importance of landscape scale conservation for highly-mobile species with large home ranges. The nighthawk case study highlighted the value of archived bioacoustic datasets for conservation of understudied species.