Bioacoustic Analysis Research Articles

The taxonomic status of recently described Isophya taxa from Serbia (Tettigoniidae, Phaneropterinae)

During recent decades, increasing research of the taxonomy of the genus Isophya resulted in taxonomic descriptions of several new species. The delimitation of these species is mainly based on oscillographic song analysis of the male song in combination with morphological characters, such as the shape of male cerci, tegmina and ovipositor. In the present paper, we used an integrative taxonomic approach in order to resolve the status of four recently described Isophya taxa from Serbia. Based on our molecular and bioacoustic analyses, all analyzed taxa belong to a single species: Isophya modestior. The majority of the morphological characters used to differentiate the taxa showed strong intra- and interpopulational variability, proving that describing new species within the genus Isophya should not rely on morphological characters alone, but needs to consider bioacoustic analyses as the main tool and a larger series of specimens.

Seasonal and diurnal marine mammal presence in the proposed marine protected area of Southampton Island, Hudson Bay, Nunavut as revealed by passive acoustic monitoring

Marine protected areas contribute to mitigating the effects of human activities on marine ecosystems. The waters of Southampton Island, Nunavut, Canada are under consideration to become a marine protected area, but baseline information of marine mammal presence and habitat use is lacking. This study represents the first passive acoustic monitoring of marine mammals in this area, with data collected in 2018 and 2019. Bioacoustics analyses and generalized linear models were used to investigate species seasonal and temporal vocalization trends; infer behavior and habitat use from vocal cues; and explore vocal activity correlation with sea ice. Over a diel period, bearded seals ( Erignathus barbatus (Erxleben, 1777)) and walruses ( Odobenus rosmarus (Linnaeus, 1758)) were found to increase their vocal activity at night, whereas belugas ( Delphinapterus leucas (Pallas, 1776)) mainly vocalized during daytime. Seasonally, bearded seals were recorded only during their breeding season at sea ice break-up, while walruses vocalized consistently throughout the open-water period outside their breeding season. Beluga vocal trends suggest their use of the area as a migratory corridor during sea ice break-up and freeze-up. Finally, bowhead whales ( Balaena mysticetus Linnaeus, 1758) were recorded later than expected, concurrently with the onset of their mating vocal displays during the fall migration at sea ice freeze-up.

Extensive data engineering to the rescue: building a multi-species katydid detector from unbalanced, atypical training datasets.

Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is a powerful tool for studying ecosystems. However, its effective application in tropical environments, particularly for insects, poses distinct challenges. Neotropical katydids produce complex species-specific calls, spanning mere milliseconds to seconds and spread across broad audible and ultrasonic frequencies. However, subtle differences in inter-pulse intervals or central frequencies are often the only discriminatory traits. These extremities, coupled with low source levels and susceptibility to masking by ambient noise, challenge species identification in PAM recordings. This study aimed to develop a deep learning-based solution to automate the recognition of 31 katydid species of interest in a biodiverse Panamanian forest with over 80 katydid species. Besides the innate challenges, our efforts were also encumbered by a limited and imbalanced initial training dataset comprising domain-mismatched recordings. To overcome these, we applied rigorous data engineering, improving input variance through controlled playback re-recordings and by employing physics-based data augmentation techniques, and tuning signal-processing, model and training parameters to produce a custom well-fit solution. Methods developed here are incorporated into Koogu, an open-source Python-based toolbox for developing deep learning-based bioacoustic analysis solutions. The parametric implementations offer a valuable resource, enhancing the capabilities of PAM for studying insects in tropical ecosystems. This article is part of the theme issue 'Towards a toolkit for global insect biodiversity monitoring'.

Vocal repertoire of Microhyla nilphamariensis from Delhi and comparison with closely related M. ornata populations from the western coast of India and Sri Lanka.

Advertisement calls in frogs have evolved to be species-specific signals of recognition and are therefore considered an essential component of integrative taxonomic approaches to identify species and delineate their distribution range. The species rich genus Microhyla is a particularly challenging group for species identification, discovery and conservation management due to the small size, conserved morphology and wide distribution of its members, necessitating the need for a thorough description of their vocalization. In this study, we provide quantitative description of the vocal behaviour of Microhyla nilphamariensis, a widely distributed south Asian species, from Delhi, India, based on call recordings of 18 individuals and assessment of 21 call properties. Based on the properties measured acrossed 360 calls, we find that a typical advertisement call of M. nilphamariensis lasts for 393.5± 57.5 ms, has 17 pulses on average and produce pulses at rate of 39 pulses/s. The overall call dominant frequency was found to be 2.8 KHz and the call spectrum consisted of two dominant frequency peaks centered at 1.6 KHz and 3.6 KHz, ranging between 1.5-4.1 KHz. Apart from its typical advertisement call, our study also reveals the presence of three 'rare' call types, previously unreported in this species. We describe variability in call properties and discuss their relation to body size and temperature. We found that overall dominant frequency 1 (spectral property) was found to be correlated with body size, while first pulse period (temporal property) was found to be correlated with temperature. Further, we compare the vocal repertoire of M. nilphamariensis with that of the congener Microhyla ornata from the western coast of India and Sri Lanka and also compare the call properties of these two populations of M. ornata to investigate intra-specific call variation. We find statistically significant differentiation in their acoustic repertoire in both cases. Based on 18 call properties (out of 20), individuals of each locality clearly segregate on PCA factor plane forming separate groups. Discriminant function analysis (DFA) using PCA factors shows 100% classification success with individuals of each locality getting classified to a discrete group. This confirms significant acoustic differentiation between these species as well as between geographically distant conspecifics. The data generated in this study will be useful for comparative bioacoustic analysis of Microhyla species and can be utilized to monitor populations and devise conservation management plan for threatened species in this group.

Development of the hyolaryngeal architecture in horseshoe bats: insights into the evolution of the pulse generation for laryngeal echolocation

BackgroundThe hyolaryngeal apparatus generates biosonar pulses in the laryngeally echolocating bats. The cartilage and muscles comprising the hyolarynx of laryngeally echolocating bats are morphologically modified compared to those of non-bat mammals, as represented by the hypertrophied intrinsic laryngeal muscle. Despite its crucial contribution to laryngeal echolocation, how the development of the hyolarynx in bats differs from that of other mammals is poorly documented. The genus Rhinolophus is one of the most sophisticated laryngeal echolocators, with the highest pulse frequency in bats. The present study provides the first detailed description of the three-dimensional anatomy and development of the skeleton, cartilage, muscle, and innervation patterns of the hyolaryngeal apparatus in two species of rhinolophid bats using micro-computed tomography images and serial tissue sections and compares them with those of laboratory mice. Furthermore, we measured the peak frequency of the echolocation pulse in active juvenile and adult individuals to correspond to echolocation pulses with hyolaryngeal morphology at each postnatal stage.ResultsWe found that the sagittal crests of the cricoid cartilage separated the dorsal cricoarytenoid muscle in horseshoe bats, indicating that this unique morphology may be required to reinforce the repeated closure movement of the glottis during biosonar pulse emission. We also found that the cricothyroid muscle is ventrally hypertrophied throughout ontogeny, and that the cranial laryngeal nerve has a novel branch supplying the hypertrophied region of this muscle. Our bioacoustic analyses revealed that the peak frequency shows negative allometry against skull growth, and that the volumetric growth of all laryngeal cartilages is correlated with the pulse peak frequency.ConclusionsThe unique patterns of muscle and innervation revealed in this study appear to have been obtained concomitantly with the acquisition of tracheal chambers in rhinolophids and hipposiderids, improving sound intensity during laryngeal echolocation. In addition, significant protrusion of the sagittal crest of the cricoid cartilage and the separated dorsal cricoarytenoid muscle may contribute to the sophisticated biosonar in this laryngeally echolocating lineage. Furthermore, our bioacoustic data suggested that the mineralization of these cartilages underpins the ontogeny of echolocation pulse generation. The results of the present study provide crucial insights into how the anatomy and development of the hyolaryngeal apparatus shape the acoustic diversity in bats.

Anurans from the upper basins of the Rio Grande and Rio Preto: eastern portion of the Serra da Mantiqueira Environmental Protection Area, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

The Neotropical zone stands out for having the greatest richness of amphibians in the world. About 625 species of anurans are known on Atlantic Forest. The southeastern mountainous regions of Brazil called Serra do Mar and Serra da Mantiqueira, are very important areas for the diversity of anurans in the country because they shelter remaining strata of the Atlantic Forest that have several endemic species. The present study aims to expand the knowledge about the Serra da Mantiqueira anurans, specifically from the Rio Preto and Rio Grande upper basins. The study area comprised 10 sample centers. We realized 38 campaigns, lasting two days each. During this period, we used active search as visual and auditory cues. The passive search was comprised of pitfall traps. Bioacoustic analyses were used to determine the cryptic species. The sufficiency of the sampling effort was estimated through the accumulation curve using Bootstrap and Jackknife-1 as estimators. During the study 55 species were found, 40 of them in the basin of the Rio Preto, and 44 in the basin of the Rio Grande. Twenty-nine species were found in both areas. The Hylidae family was predominant, followed by Leptodactylidae. In addition to species of the Atlantic Forest, the place houses typical components of the Cerrado biome and altitudinal swamps with unexpected sympatries. This inventory expands the area of occurrence of Scinax duartei, a species considered threatened. Although adjacent to the oldest national park in Brazil, the composition of anuran species of this area was unknown until then.

Machine learning reveals that climate, geography, and cultural drift all predict bird song variation in coastal Zonotrichia leucophrys

Abstract Previous work has demonstrated that there is extensive variation in the songs of White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) throughout the species range, including between neighboring (and genetically distinct) subspecies Z. l. nuttalli and Z. l. pugetensis. Using a machine learning approach to bioacoustic analysis, we demonstrate that variation in song is correlated with year of recording (representing cultural drift), geographic distance, and climatic differences, but the response is subspecies- and season-specific. Automated machine learning methods of bird song annotation can process large datasets more efficiently, allowing us to examine 1,913 recordings across ~60 years. We utilize a recently published artificial neural network to automatically annotate White-crowned Sparrow vocalizations. By analyzing differences in syllable usage and composition, we recapitulate the known pattern where Z. l. nuttalli and Z. l. pugetensis have significantly different songs. Our results are consistent with the interpretation that these differences are caused by the changes in characteristics of syllables in the White-crowned Sparrow repertoire. This supports the hypothesis that the evolution of vocalization behavior is affected by the environment, in addition to population structure.

Global birdsong embeddings enable superior transfer learning for bioacoustic classification

Automated bioacoustic analysis aids understanding and protection of both marine and terrestrial animals and their habitats across extensive spatiotemporal scales, and typically involves analyzing vast collections of acoustic data. With the advent of deep learning models, classification of important signals from these datasets has markedly improved. These models power critical data analyses for research and decision-making in biodiversity monitoring, animal behaviour studies, and natural resource management. However, deep learning models are often data-hungry and require a significant amount of labeled training data to perform well. While sufficient training data is available for certain taxonomic groups (e.g., common bird species), many classes (such as rare and endangered species, many non-bird taxa, and call-type) lack enough data to train a robust model from scratch. This study investigates the utility of feature embeddings extracted from audio classification models to identify bioacoustic classes other than the ones these models were originally trained on. We evaluate models on diverse datasets, including different bird calls and dialect types, bat calls, marine mammals calls, and amphibians calls. The embeddings extracted from the models trained on bird vocalization data consistently allowed higher quality classification than the embeddings trained on general audio datasets. The results of this study indicate that high-quality feature embeddings from large-scale acoustic bird classifiers can be harnessed for few-shot transfer learning, enabling the learning of new classes from a limited quantity of training data. Our findings reveal the potential for efficient analyses of novel bioacoustic tasks, even in scenarios where available training data is limited to a few samples.

Contributing to the taxonomic inventory of green-colored rain frogs: A new species of the Pristimantis lacrimosus group (Anura: Strabomantidae) from the southern Cordillera Azul, central Peru

Abstract We studied the taxonomic status of a population of Pristimantis from the southern Cordillera Azul, Departamento Huánuco, central Peru. A phylogenetic analysis based on the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene revealed that it represents a lineage within the Pristimantis lacrimosus species group, being the closest relative of a species of uncertain taxonomic status from a lowland rainforest in central Peru (Panguana), and P. pulchridormientes from the Tingo Maria National Park. However, the focal lineage is divergent from all nominal species in the P. lacrimosus group for which respective data are available by >7.9% uncorrected pairwise distance in the 16S rRNA gene fragment. An integrative taxonomic approach, including morphological and bioacoustic analyses, provided multiple lines of evidence for the focal specimens belonging to an unnamed evolutionary lineage at the species level that we describe and name herein. The systematics of Peruvian populations associated with the P. lacrimosus group are discussed, particularly highlighting problematic taxa with uncertain taxonomic status and unknown relationships. We point to scientific challenges and actions needed to achieve a better taxonomic resolution of this species-rich clade of frogs.

A New Species of Pseudopaludicola Miranda-Ribeiro, 1926 (Anura, Leptodactylidae) from Tocantins State, Brazil.

The number of described species of Pseudopaludicola has increased at unprecedented rates over the past two decades. This increase was mainly driven by the sampling effort in regions historically neglected and the use of evidence from bioacoustic, genetic, and morphological datasets combined. Here, we describe a new species of Pseudopaludicola from a transitional zone between Amazonia and Cerrado in western Tocantins State as revealed through morphological, molecular, and bioacoustic analysis. Pseudopaludicola javae sp. nov. is distinguished from its congeners by its small size; knobbed terminal phalanges; smooth upper eyelids and heel; relatively short hind limbs; smooth, whitish, and subgular inflated vocal sac with few melanophores around the jaw; and advertisement call composed of an irregular series of multipulsed notes with 10-17 nonconcatenated pulses separated by intervals of 3-55 ms, emitted at a rate of 27-51 pulses/sec. The new species occurs in four Tocantins municipalities, all in the Araguaia-Tocantins interfluve. We also provide the first records of Pseudopaludicola jazmynmcdonaldae outside the type locality (Caseara Municipality, Tocantins State), extending its distribution nearly 245 km southward from Caseara. Pseudopaludicola javae sp. nov. is the second species of Pseudopaludicola described recently from western Tocantins.

Fourier Transform Driven Bioacoustics for Frequency-Based Pest Deterrence in Sustainable Agriculture

The focus of this research is on using bioacoustics for frequency-based pest deterrence in sustainable agriculture, with the Fourier transform as the driving force. The critical need for new and improved methods of pest control in agricultural settings is addressed. This study, which makes use of cutting-edge technology, investigates how the Fourier Transform might be used as a useful instrument in the fight against pests. This research makes use of a cutting-edge algorithm for pest control; it's based on Fourier Transform bioacoustic analysis. By using the "Insect Bioacoustic Signals (IBS) Dataset," this study reveals the algorithm's effectiveness in recognising and managing pests, as indicated by a remarkable classification accuracy of 93%. This study makes important contributions to the growing body of sustainable agriculture knowledge and has far-reaching consequences for the agricultural sector. A revolutionary new method of pest control is presented, with the potential to increase agricultural output and sustainability while decreasing crop losses. Specialised tools and libraries such as the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) method from the NumPy toolkit for spectral analysis, Scikit-learn for machine learning approaches, and Librosa for audio signal processing, were used in this work to produce these encouraging outcomes. In conclusion, this research highlights the promise of bioacoustics based on the Fourier Transform to usher in a new era of environmentally responsible farming by effectively discouraging pests.

OpenSoundscape: An open‐source bioacoustics analysis package for Python

Abstract Landscape‐scale bioacoustic projects have become a popular approach to biodiversity monitoring. Combining passive acoustic monitoring recordings and automated detection provides an effective means of monitoring sound‐producing species' occupancy and phenology and can lend insight into unobserved behaviours and patterns. The availability of low‐cost recording hardware has lowered barriers to large‐scale data collection, but technological barriers in data analysis remain a bottleneck for extracting biological insight from bioacoustic datasets. We provide a robust and open‐source Python toolkit for detecting and localizing biological sounds in acoustic data. OpenSoundscape provides access to automated acoustic detection, classification and localization methods through a simple and easy‐to‐use set of tools. Extensive documentation and tutorials provide step‐by‐step instructions and examples of end‐to‐end analysis of bioacoustic data. Here, we describe the functionality of this package and provide concise examples of bioacoustic analyses with OpenSoundscape. By providing an interface for bioacoustic data and methods, we hope this package will lead to increased adoption of bioacoustics methods and ultimately to enhanced insights for ecology and conservation.

Bioacoustics of Tettigoniidae (Insecta, Orthoptera) Distributed in Hakkari (Eastern Anatolia) Province

In this study, the male calling songs of sixteen species belonging to the Tettigoniidae family distributed in Hakkari were recorded in the field studies and bioacoustic analyses were performed. The bioacoustic analysis of two genera (Kurdia and Novadrymadusa) documented first time with present study and in total six species (Bradyporus (Callimenus) latipes, Isophya hakkarica, Kurdia uvarovi, Novadrymadusa karabagi, Psorodonotus hakkari, and Squamiana supericola) were presented first time. The bioacoustic analyses of seven species (Conocephalus (Anisoptera) fuscus, Pezodrymadusa indivisa, Polysarcus zacharovi, Tettigonia armeniaca, Tettigonia caudata, Tettigonia viridissima, and Uvarovistia satunini) were examined for the first time from Hakkari populations. In addition, in this study, the bioacoustic analyses of three species (Apholidoptera kurda, Saga hakkarica, and Uvarovistia zebra) distributed in Hakkari were re-evaluated in this study on new individuals. As a result of the findings, it has been determined that the male calling song of sixteen species belonging to the Tettigoniidae family are species-specific, have a simple calling song type, and morphological species hypotheses are also supported by bioacoustic data (male calling song).

Bioacoustic Analysis for Help Identify Andestimate Distribution of Anura Due to the Effects of Ecotourism in the CA-TWA Region of Telaga Warna

Indonesia is a country with very high biodiversity and is known as Mega Biodiversity. In Indonesia found about 450 species of Anura representing about 11% of all species in the world, and 28 species ofwhich 28 live in West Java. Anura animals have a pattern of calling behavior that is essential for mating: males produce call-up behavior that attracts females and, in some species, represents the extent of their territory. Research on frogs and toads is considered necessary considering the absence of more detailed data on the bioacoustics of these frogs, especially in the West Java area, so that variations and patterns of anura sounds are known in the Telaga Warna Nature Reserve and Nature Park (CA-TWA) area and can make scientific contributions in information on variations and sound patterns owned by anura animals in terms of anura conservation in Indonesia. This research was conducted from month March-December 2018, located in Telaga Warna Nature Reserve and Nature Park, Bogor, West Java. Call the recording every 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. each night during the sampling period. The number of anura species in the villa and swamp areas is more abundant than the lake area, and the presence of Pearl maroon frogs (nyctixalus margaritifer) found in the villa and lake areas, while the Bufo melanotictus type that likes to live in the lake area. It can be seen that the villa and swamp areas are still maintained vegetation by looking at the medium density of the canopy. Steeper slope conditions help the flow of nutrients from the soil due to the erosion process and settle in flat to gentle areas. The density of the canopy in the area helps maintain the surface temperature of the land with a stable land surface temperature ranging from 15 – 21 0C.

A new species of barred frog, Mixophyes (Anura: Myobatrachidae) from south-eastern Australia identified by molecular genetic analyses.

Mixophyes are large ground-dwelling myobatrachid frogs from eastern Australia and New Guinea. Several of the species found in mid-eastern and south-eastern Australia are listed as threatened, due largely to declines presumably caused by the amphibian disease chytridiomycosis. Given the wide distribution of several of these species and that their distributions cross well-known biogeographic boundaries that often correspond to deep genetic breaks or species boundaries among closely related vertebrates, we undertook a molecular genetic assessment of population structure across the range of each species to determine the presence of undescribed species. Of the four species of Mixophyes subject to molecular population genetic analyses, one, the Stuttering Frog (Mixophyes balbus), showed a level of diversity consistent with the presence of two species. Morphometric, meristic and bioacoustic analyses corroborate these distinctions, and a new species is described for the populations south of the Macleay River valley in mid-eastern New South Wales to east Gippsland in Victoria. Applying the IUCN Red List threat criteria the new species meets the conservation status assessment criteria for Endangered 2B1a,b because its extent of occupancy and area of occupancy are below the threshold value and it has declined and disappeared from the southern two thirds of its distribution over the past 30 years.

Dinarippiger gen. nov. (Tettigoniidae: Bradyporinae: Ephippigerini), a new saddle bush-cricket genus for Ephippiger discoidalis Fieber, 1853 from the Dinaric karst.

A new genus of the tribe Ephippigerini, Dinarippiger Skejo, Kasalo, Fontana et Tvrtković gen. nov., is described based on the characters of occiput coloration, tegmina coloration, cerci and pronotum shape. The new genus is morphologically intermediate between the genera Ephippiger Berthold, 1827 and Uromenus Bolívar, 1878, and presently includes only Dalmatian Saddle Bush Cricket, Dinarippiger discoidalis (Fieber, 1853) comb. nov., hitherto known as Ephippiger discoidalis Fieber, 1853. The species inhabits NE Italy (mainly Carso Triestino), SW Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Montenegro, i.e., islands and karst habitats along the eastern Adriatic coast, with isolated findings in Albania and Italy. Its prominent variation in size and coloration has already produced many synonyms (= limbata Fischer, 1853, = limbata var. major Krauss, 1879, = limbata var. minor Krauss, 1879, = selenophora Fieber, 1853, = sphacophila Krauss, 1879), which may suggest that what is currently regarded as a single species could represent a complex of distinct species with restricted distributions. This study also presents an annotated distribution map and a bioacoustic analysis of D. discoidalis comb. nov. Further research, especially adopting molecular methods, is necessary to assess possible cryptic diversity within the genus Dinarippiger gen. nov. and elucidate its evolutionary history.

Manual Versus Semiautomated Bioacoustic Analysis Methods of Multiple Vocalizations in Tricolored Blackbird Colonies

Abstract Bioacoustic monitoring can reveal aspects of animal behavior because many species vocalize in association with certain behaviors. Despite this, bioacoustics remain infrequently used to monitor animal behavior because of lack of knowledge of how vocalizations relate to behavior and the challenge of efficiently analyzing the large acoustic data sets necessary to capture relevant behaviors. Vocalizations and associated behaviors have been previously established for the colonial tricolored blackbird Agelaius tricolor, but efficient analysis of the acoustic data remains a challenge. Previous work with tricolored blackbird acoustic data relied on manually listening to recordings, which is not practical on large scales. Using software to automatically detect vocalizations of interest has potential to reduce analysis time. However, automated detection is prone to errors often caused by faint vocalizations, overlapping calls, and background noise. Thus, incorporating components of manual and automated analysis of acoustic data sets remains essential. To address these challenges, we deployed autonomous recording units at three tricolored blackbird colonies in California from 2019 to 2021 and analyzed acoustic data using a manual and a semiautomated analysis method. Specifically, we used tricolored blackbird male song, male chorus, female song, hatchling call, nestling call, and fledgling call to determine the approximate timing of breeding stages and number of breeding attempts, or pulses, for each colony. We found that using a semiautomated approach was more time efficient than manual analysis, while using comparable numbers of recordings and obtaining equivalent information from the colonies. The odds of correct detections of vocalizations using the semiautomated method were generally lower for fainter vocalizations and colonies with high background noise. Overall, the semiautomated approach had tolerable rates of recall, precision, false positives, and false negatives. Our methodology adds to a growing body of literature addressing acoustic analyses, especially for colonial species and where questions of breeding phenology are important.

Two new species of Eleutherodactylus from western and central Mexico (Eleutherodactylus jamesdixoni sp. nov., Eleutherodactylus humboldti sp. nov.).

The subgenus Syrrhophus (genus Eleutherodactylus) contains >40 species of small, direct-developing frogs that occur at low to moderate elevations from Texas through Mexico and into Guatemala and Belize, with two species in western Cuba. Morphological conservatism and phenotypic convergence have made species delimitation challenging and resulted in a complicated taxonomic history. Since 2015, molecular systematic work has uncovered eleven new species from western Mexico and one from eastern Mexico, but current taxonomy still underestimates species level diversity and there is confusion surrounding the validity and boundary of several species. We used phylogenetic analysis of 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) sequences, multivariate statistical analysis of morphological data, and bioacoustic analysis of male advertisement calls to discover two additional unnamed species of Eleutherodactylus from Central and Western Mexico. We describe those species here. Eleutherodactylus (Syrrhophus) humboldti sp. nov. is described from the Quaternary Valle de Bravo volcanic field of the Eje Neovolcánico in Central Mexico. This species is sister to E. maurus and is 3% divergent in 16S. Eleutherodactylus (Syrrhophus) jamesdixoni sp. nov. is described from the Sierra Madre Occidental of western Mexico. This species is sister to E. nitidus and is 3% divergent. We provide color photographs, advertisement call recordings, and molecular diagnoses of these new species and their sister species to aid future workers.

Sperm whale acoustic ecology investigations using Jeffrey Nystuen‘s Passive Aquatic Listeners

When Jeffrey Nystuen invented the Passive Aquatic Listener (PAL) for quantifying rainfall and wind speed using underwater sound spectra, he considered all biological sounds in the recordings as noise. Using this noise data, I built a doctoral thesis, comprised of three published papers. None of this would have happened without Jeff’s continuous encouragement and support. Here, we present results from analyzing (1) five years (2007–2012) of PAL recordings from Ocean Station PAPA (OSP) in the offshore Gulf of Alaska; and (2) 19 months of PAL data from two sites, Pylos and Athos Stations (in the Hellenic Trench and North Aegean Trough respectively), in the Greek Seas, investigating the acoustic ecology of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus). Results of the bioacoustic analysis revealed the year-round presence of sperm whales at OSP and the Ionian Sea, with higher detections during the warm seasons. The sperm whale time series from OSP was correlated with in situ and remotely-sensed oceanographic variables to improve our understanding of global-warming-driven changes in the pelagic ecosystem of the NE Subarctic Pacific. Results from the Hellenic Trench emphasize the risk from increased shipping noise and contribute to the conservation efforts for the small, endangered sperm whale population in an understudied region.

Study of Nisi Chicken Diversity Based on Morphometric Analysis and Bioacoustic Analysis

— This study aims to obtain data on the diversity of nisi chickens based on morphometric analysis of body weight bioacoustic analysis of the crowing sound. The number of studies that link morphometric analysis with bioacoustic analysis is one of the reference sources used as a reference in conducting this study. In the future, it is hoped that this research will be one of the contributions of knowledge for further research or similar research. The parameters used in the analysis are neck length for morphometric analysis and bioacoustic parameters using the number of crowing syllables, crowing duration, and wave frequency. The data generated from the morphometric analysis were then analyzed statistically for the average test using ANOVA which was analyzed together with the data generated from the Cold Edit Pro software to conclude the resulting data. The parameters observed were the number of crowed syllables, crowing duration, wave frequency, and crowing frequency. The results showed that the duration of the crowing of the nisi chicken ranged from 1.922 seconds to -2.064 seconds with an average duration of 1.9837 seconds. The results of morphometric analysis of neck length obtained that the average neck length of 30 chicken samples was 10.25 cm with the shortest range being 10.0 cm and the longest being 10.8 cm. The results of sound analysis for the wavelength frequency of the crowing of the nisi chicken ranged from 698.10 Hz - 786.22 Hz with an average wavelength of 733.89 Hz. For the number of syllables produced from the crowing sound, uniform results are obtained in the form of 7 syllables. The results of the analysis using ANOVA obtained an F count of 0.001447 smaller than F table 1.656383. The conclusion in this study is that the neck length morphometric analysis does not affect the bioacoustic analysis so that the diversity of nisi chickens analyzed shows uniformity.