Towards an Acoustic Biotelemetry System for Animal Behavior Studies

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Abstract
We tested an acoustic biotelemetry system for monitoring detailed behaviors of Indian crested porcupines (Hystrix indica). Sounds of feeding, drinking, sniffing, walking, threat huffs, moving in dense vegetation, and digging were recorded from captive porcupines and leash-led subjects in the field. Briefly trained observers (n = 7) correctly identified 82 .+-. 12% (SE) of individual behaviors by sound, and had very accurate (93%) identifications of feeding and walking events. Power and spectrographic properties of porcupine sounds indicate that several behaviors are suited to automatic classification by computer logarithms. A prototype collar-mounted transmitter and receiver system built by the Cedar Creek Bioelectronics Laboratory, University of Minnesota, enabled us to detect usable sound signals .ltoreq. 1 km in the field. We conclude that acoustic biotelemetry is a potentially powerful tool for field animal research.