Singing Whales, Deep-Rumbling Elephants: What Their Sounds Reveal about their Minds

Bioacoustics researcher Katy Payne, founder of the Elephant Listening Project, talked about large-mammal communication July 13, 2016 as part of the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions' free summer events series. With sound and video, the presentation illustrated Payne's groundbreaking research into the acoustic behavior of elephants and whales, who use sound in a variety of ways to support their complex, far-flung societies. Founded in the mid-1980s as part of the Bioacoustics Research Program of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Elephant Listening Project focused its early work on the variety and social functions of elephants’ calls in four African countries. Its top priority now is conservation, and remote acoustic monitoring in Central Africa has the potential to reveal poaching activities as well as the presence and condition of endangered elephant populations.