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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 46(2)

A pilot study to encode calls from the northern yellow-bellied glider

Sigrid Heise-Pavlov A * , Colby Prokop B and Louisa Goss C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Centre for Rainforest Studies at The School for Field Studies, Yungaburra, Qld 4884, Australia.

B University of Richmond, 410 Westhampton Way, Richmond, VA 23173, USA. Email: colby.prokop@richmond.edu

C Williams College, 880 Main Street, Williamstown, MA 01267, USA. Email: lbg2@williams.edu

* Correspondence to: sheise-pavlov@fieldstudies.org

Handling Editor: Ross Goldingay

Australian Mammalogy 46, AM23026 https://doi.org/10.1071/AM23026
Submitted: 25 January 2023  Accepted: 20 February 2024  Published: 12 March 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Australian Mammal Society.

Abstract

As one of the most vocal marsupials in Australia, conservation of the yellow-bellied glider (Petaurus australis brevirostrum) (YBG) could benefit from the extraction of more information from their calls during acoustic monitoring. This pilot study investigates the variability of syllable components of full calls and identifies acoustic parameters that underlie variability in recorded calls from wild YBGs in North Queensland, Australia. Full calls with three syllables and with two syllables were distinguished. Using batch correlations and principal component analyses (PCAs), it was found that syllable two and syllable three show high variability in their duration and that maximum frequency is the strongest contributing sound parameter to the observed variability. However, because data collection was done in wild populations, the identity of call emitters remained unknown during call analyses, demanding further studies. Further subdivision of calls, and investigation into further acoustic parameters, could aid in decoding sexual, seasonal and individual-based meanings of calls.

Keywords: acoustic components, conservation, habitat protection, individual identification, non-invasive census method, Petaurus australis brevirostrum, vocal signatures, yellow-bellied glider northern population.

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