Voices for Conservation
The premise is simple: when resources are limited, the first step in
conserving biodiversity is deciding what to protect. But in vast,
species-rich areas such as the world's great tropical rainforests,
finding, identifying, and quantifying species could take months and
even years, causing frustrating delays in the race against habitat loss.
During the 1980s, Ted Parker revolutionized the process of
biological inventory by using sound to survey Neotropical birds, an
approach that has proved to be immensely more efficient than using
traditional methods. Described by colleagues as the most gifted field
ornithologist of the 20th century, Parker could identify the
vocalizations of 4,000 bird species and could inventory 80 to 90
percent of any local avifauna from Mexico to southeastern Brazil in
just a few mornings.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Macaulay Library has created numerous audio productions in
recent years to aid conservation biologists who are using Parker's
methods. For example, the three-volume CD "Voices of Amazonian Birds"
and two-volume "Voices of Andean Birds" are helping biologists to
quickly learn the calls of birds and to conduct inventories by sound.
"Ted had the pioneering insight to use sound to assess avian diversity
in important habitats, and he set out to create a resource that would
allow others to do it," says Greg Budney, curator of the Macaulay Library's sound collection.
"That is, in fact, what we're doing today--swinging the doors open to
the Macaulay Library's sound recordings and making them more accessible
than ever before."
You can explore wildlife sounds and video by visiting the Macaulay Library's Animal Behavior Archive.
Related articles:
Lab's New CD to Assist Parrot Conservation. BirdScope, Spring 2002.
270 Voices of Antbirds. BirdScope, Summer 2002.