Theses and Dissertations Collection

Using animal vocalizations to determine the population of wildlife is a developing field. Finding out what the population is and whether it is increasing or decreasing helps government agencies determine what actions need to be taken to help conservation of endangered species. Surveys can be done by actively playing animal vocalizations and listening for responses but relies on researcher experience to correctly identify the species and whether it has been counted already. Statically placed recording devices in animal habitats can record nearby sounds but will only record animals that vocalize nearby. Placing a recording device onto the animals will record all the sounds it makes but also those of conspecifics it interacts with. This method has challenges such as a lower battery life, limited processing power and needs to minimize interfering with the animals’ everyday activities. This thesis aims to design a device addressing these challenges that can be attached to the back of the Ridgway’s Rail, a water bird that lives along the Southern Californian coastline and record the vocalizations it makes to help with population counting.