Real-time acoustic monitoring facilitates the proactive management of biological invasions

Abstract

Biological surveillance at an invasion front is hindered by low population densities and, among animals, high mobility of target species. Using the barred owl (Strix varia) invasion of western North American forests as a test case, we tested real-time autonomous recording units (the ecoPi, OekoFor GbR, Freiburg, Germany) by deploying them in an area known to be occupied by the target species. The ecoPi passively record audio, analyze it onboard with the BirdNET algorithm, and transmit audio clips with identifiable sounds via cellular network to a web interface where users can listen to audio to manually vet the results. We successfully detected and lethally removed three barred owls, demonstrating that real-time acoustic monitoring can be used to support rapid interventions at the forefront of an ongoing invasion in which proactive management may be essential to the protection of an iconic native species, the spotted owl (S. occidentalis). This approach has the potential to make a significant contribution to global biodiversity conservation efforts by massively increasing the speed at which biological invasions by acoustically active species, and other time-sensitive conservation challenges, can be managed.