:: Environmental Program: The Last Noah's Ark ::

BIOACUSTIC

Introduction

    Bioacustic is an activity that has application in the animal's behavior studies, in the species monitoring and mainly those that are threatened of extinction, helping the species identification and raising in a certain place, and it also can be a really valuable environmental education instrument.
    The effective application of Bioacustic just was possible in a good level with the technological development, because this Science needs the use of sophisticated sound recorders, microphones and computers programs of good quality and this just happened in some decades.
    The Bioacustic studies have been developed in many animal classes as birds, amphibians, mammals, insects and reptiles. In fact, by the sound inveigling of bats and rats it is possible knowing its occurrence in a place, because they normally live in the dark, and this method is called ecolocalization. This way also happens to cetaceans that have in the Bioacustic a very important way of identifying and comprehension of their complex communication.
    In relation to the birds, by their variable vocalization way, Bioacustic is fundamental for the knowledge of their big activities gamma, behavior and communication.
    The graphic representation of the sound is a powerful instrument of species' identification, because it shows small differences between species' sounds that are alike to human ears.
    Inclusive, by the studies of the animals sounds manifestations is possible identifying new species and comparing voices standards between them, so Bioacustic is a necessary help in the studies of s lot of branches of natural sciences.

Equipment

    The equipment for Bioacustic studies can be divided, generally, in: recorders, microphones and computer programs for sound edition.
    - Recorders: among the recorders there are the tape ones (Sony TC5.000, Marantz PMP), of cylinder (Nagara e Uhar), DAT (digital), Mini-disc (digital) as Sony MZ-R50 that records with CD quality.
    - Microphones: among microphones there are the famous Sennheisers (ME67, com K8). Also the similar ones as AT815. They are all potent directional microphones, capable of catching the sound in good distances, making easier the field work. There are also the parables that are used a lot, because it captivates the sounds perfectly.
    - Edition Computer Sotwares: the Canary program is the most used one, but there are also another ones that are less sophisticated that comes together to the original programs and that can work the sound in a very satisfactory way.

Hints for good nature recordings

   Firstly is very important being prepared with adequate equipment for the work that will be done. If it is the recording of birds vocalization it is essential the usage of directional microphones. For recording whales and dolphins an hydrophone is used.
    Having the right equipment, we are going to start the sounds captivating that are intended, being always careful to the not desirable noise interfering in the work, and we also must walk carefully, for not frightening the animal. This means that most part of the time we must be stopped or walk in silence and wearing clothes with colors that are alike the environment, green in the forest and kaki in the field. We must remember that most of the birds and mammals have excellent vision.
    Having the recordings, the second step is using them in the proposed studies, putting them in sonograma way, filing them in an easy way for founding. In the files must be the animals' name, place, date, the recording author, the file number and the recorder format. Ex.: Hyla faber, PN Itatiaia-RJ,10-99,AS,456,D
    The files must have a lot of minutes, but a variation must be done with just some segunds and with small resolution, because for sending a file by e-mail, it must not have more than 300K. Besides, being small, it can be added in sites.
    We recommend that the files are put in a way that makes possible an easy usage. For this it is really important creating files by animal classes, families etc. It is also good a file by alphabetical order, making easier finding a certain species quickly.

Conclusion

So, Bioacustic is a Science that has been developed a lot and has been bringing help in a lot of elucidation about animal's communication, behavior and identification. Besides, by its popularization and divulgation is possible making people conscious about environmental preservation, because with better animal's knowledge it is possible developing effective environmental education programs.
Besides being a science, Bioacustic's results can and must be used in the very important environmental education process.

Links

Equipment

General

Laboratories/ Bioacustic Archieves

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