Long-term monitoring of cane-toads using acoustic sensors: poster abstract

Abstract

Cane-toads (Bufo marinus) are introduced to Australia to negate the insect pests. However, cane-toad population is out of control, and has highly affected native frog species for its great reproductive capacity. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor cane-toads and control their population. Recent advances in acoustic sensors make it possible to monitor cane-toads over long periods. In this paper, we present a novel approach to analyze cane-toad calls for long-term monitoring. Specifically, recorded acoustic data is first transformed into spectrogram using short-time Fourier transform. Then, cane-toad calls are recognized with an oscillation detector. Next, recognized cane-toad calls are annotated for further analysis. Initial analysis of our method demonstrates promising results, with 71.36% true positive rate. With the oscillation detector, cane-toad calling activity is investigated over the whole year.