An ARU being installed and  tested by BRP staff in the  Pearl River area of  Louisiana, January 2002.							Installed ARU and battery

For terrestrial deployments, ARUs are housed in inexpensive compact weather-proof plastic containers. The microphone is placed at the bottom of the housing, in a vibration-isolating mount, behind an integral bug/wind screen. At present, the battery is mounted separately, with an interconnecting cable.

Technically, these terrestrial ARUs function in the same manner as those used in our marine pop-up units. For more information on data acquisition, recording life, and data capacity, click here.

Below: The "guts" of ARU, programmed and prepared for deployment

This device is revolutionizing conservation efforts around the world where monitoring is either time-intensive or physically difficult. We have several major efforts underway using ARUs:

• The first terrestrial use of ARUs was in Namibia in 1999 to study how far elephant vocalization could be heard under different weather conditions.
  

• The Elephant Listening Project continued our terrestrial efforts in 2000, with deployment of 16 ARUs (11 in Ghana, 5 in Central African Republic). Remotely gathered acoustic data from several hundred kilometers of African rainforest, areas where they are famous for being impossible to monitor, are being assessed for the presence, numbers, and positions of forest elephants.
  

• A 3-year BRP project focusing on Black-capped Vireos and Golden-cheeked Warblers deployed 27 units in 2002 to document singing patterns in several intensive study areas at Fort Hood, TX. The goal is to develop a detailed "dictionary" for translating note usage and singing tempo into information regarding breeding status. Read more.
  

• ARUs have proven crucial in the on-going search for Ivory-bill Woodpeckers in various locations where they used to be numerous. They are also being deployed in several other bird surveys across the country.

Call 607-254-2408 for leasing information.