I would like to use audio recordings for determination of individuals. However what is better - to research turnover of individualls annually or for longer period (each two years)? So, main idea is - there are differences in turnover of owls among beech and pine forests?
It is better to determine bird densities in a few separate forests in one year than to study the same forest across two years, because the latter amounts to pseudo-replication of site. But the best option is to study, for example, 3 separate forests across 2 years. Then you have replicated site and year :-)
Sorry Vlad, but I don't understand exactly your question. Is it the turn-over of individual T.O. you want to study or what else?
Sorry for bad question, I edited it. So, I mean turnover in population. I am thinking about the research - if turnover in tawny owl population is similar or different in different forest types.
Ok, Vlad, then the best solution is to record each year for five years all the male T.Os. in a fixed area (e.g. 25 Km2) in three different types of forest (e.g. beech, fir, oak). You may record each owl four times a year in order to highlight if take-over of the territory occured trough the year. Based on visual inspection of the sonagrams of hoots, you may easily recognize different individuals and if the hoot has changed through the study period you may conclude that a territory take over took actually place. Clearly is a hard work, but an "owl's man" should not to be afraid of it. You may refer to my papers on this topic, which are reported in full text in ResearchGate (Individual recognition of T.O. using spectrograms etc, and Turn-over of Scops owls... etc,, also Individually distinct hooting in Pigmy owls) . Good work and good luck.
Many thanks Paolo for answer, I will think about it. Also I have one idea to discuss - what do you think about using of method where on choosed points I will record the voice of males for three years? The distance between the points could be many kilometers. So I found out some turnover rate per number of points. It is only idea - where I could use records of males from this year. I know your papers very well - it is a base for study territory of owls.
Yes, your idea may work, providing you have a good point sample (e.g. 10) per each forest (I don't know if you have such a large extent of different forest in Slovakia, but I suppose so) to be regularly checked (say at least 2 times per year) for 3 years. That's right.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Zoology
- Ornithology