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TH: Sonic [bird] banding



 ---------- Forwarded message ----------
 Date: Sat, 14 Dec 1996 05:19:13 -0800
 From: David Doyle <kingfshr@northcoast.com>
 Subject: WILDLIFE ECOLOGY Digest (WED) #32
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Topic #24
From: rscalf@A.CRL.COM (Rusty Scalf)
Subject:	Sonic Banding

A year ago I heard an idea that I've not heard since.   Sonic Banding.

Goes like this:

Assumption--- Every individual bird has a unique voice and therefore
unique sonograph.   We know that seabird parents can locate their
young amid screaming denizens in colonies by voice.  They must be
distinctive.

How about developing recording and sonograph technology to the
point where an indeterminate number of individuals can be recorded
and their sonagraphs archived. Say Wilson s Warblers in Alaska.
Someone can then go back to the same areas the next spring and record
territorial fidelity without a mistnet.

If even the chip note is distinctive, someone even more adventurous
might go to Latin American and record hundreds of Wilson s Warblers
hoping that some fast computer can match one of the chips to an Alaska
bird.

How does this register on the Sci-Fi index relative to the
resurrection of Passenger Pigeons?

Rusty Scalf
Emeryville, CA
rscalf@a.crl.com
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End of WILDLIFE ECOLOGY Digest (WED) #32
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