discussion / Acoustics  / 20 July 2024

Auto ID Software for NA Amphibians?

Hi All!

So I'm currently running 4 Wildlife Acoustic Song Meter MiniBats at my beaver research and control sites as a means to measure species richness. 2 units at each site, one set to external microphone for birds and one set to ultrasonic microphone for bats. My recording period is 6 days at each site, and I have 12 total sites, times 4 collection sessions. So there's a decent amount of data and its just me crunching it. I've taken advantage of Kaliedescope Pro's Auto Bat ID function and have been using BirdNET for the bird files to streamline the process and increase consistency in analysis.

My question is, I know I am capturing frog and toad calls, how can I efficiently analyze these calls? It would be a meaningful addition to the species richness calculations as well as (potentially) an indicator water quality impacts on species presence. Is there software for North American species? So far all I've found is an app for Australia (color me envious!).

Any help or insight would be much appreciated. If it helps, this data is being collected in Wisconsin. Thanks!




Vanesa Reyes
@vanereyes
WILDLABS
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
I'm the Bioacoustics Research Analyst at WILDLABS. I'm a marine biologist with particular interest in the acoustics behavior of cetaceans. I'm also a backend web developer, hoping to use technology to improve wildlife conservation efforts.
WILDLABS Team
Inventory Beta Tester
WILDLABS Quiz Master
Inventory editor level 1
Inventory contributor level 1

Hi Cortney,

I recommend exploring the tools developed by Kitzes Lab, such as OpenSoundscape, which can be used for the automatic detection of anurans. Here's a reference paper that might be useful. You might also consider reaching out directly to Justin Kitzes @jkitzes  for more specialized advice.
Also here is a another paper that use BirdNet to automatically detect the bullfrog presence.
Best of luck with your analyses!