What 'woof' means: OSU hosts animal communication event

Scientists hear presentations and trade international ideas on animal communication

By: Gail Cole

Posted: 8/13/08

There is more behind the chirping of birds, barking of dogs and other animal sounds than we think.

The science behind animal communication will be discussed this week at the Acoustic Communication by Animals conference at LaSells Stewart Center. The event began on Tuesday, Aug. 12 and will conclude on Friday, Aug. 15.

The conference is sponsored by OSU and the Acoustical Society of America as well as several other organizations in the natural sciences.

According to the media release for the event, organizers are expecting about 250 presentations by researchers and scholars in the field of acoustics and animal communication.

The four-day conference will host various presentations by scholars in the many sub-fields of animal communication. Posters outlining the presented topics are on display around LaSells, and a large book of the abstracts of the study is available to attendees.

Some of the topics presented include the analysis of territorial defense communication of song sparrows, the effects of human-produced sound on various animals and the repetition of sounds made by South Pacific humpback whales, among many others.

According to its website, the ASA is an organization that discusses and studies acoustical sound, and is made up of scholars from various disciplines.

OSU was volunteered to be the location of the conference by Dave Mellinger, an organizer of the conference and an associate professor at OSU's Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport.

"We wanted to hold it on the West Coast," said Whitlow Au of the University of Hawaii and president elect of the ASA. "In this case, Dave stepped up."

The first conference on animal acoustic communication was held in 2003 at the University of Maryland.

The conference attracted attendees from a variety of fields of study and careers.

"From my agency's perspective, we really want to learn more about the science of the impacts of noise of species," said Diana Whittington, a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and attendant of the conference.

Whittington said she and her department would use the information gathered at the conference to gain a better understanding of the reports provided by outside sources on the communication and effects of noise on wildlife.

"This is my first [conference] related to acoustics," she said. "It's very exciting to learn about the new technologies and detect the individuality in noises."

The presence of young people was very important to conference organizers.

"A lot of the participants are relatively young, less than 30," Au said. "The kind of meeting like this is very important, especially for students."

"A lot of funding was provided for students to come here, so that allows them to meet with a lot of the experts," said Charles Schmid, executive director of ASA.

Au and Schmid believe greater communication between the disciplines is the goal of the conference.

"We've been pretty heavy on the physical acoustics, and not as many biologists as we would like," Schmid said of the field of animal acoustics. He said that communication between the disciplines is important because of the physical, biological and psychological aspects of animal communication.

According to Schmid, an example of animal communication related to physics is how sound travels through the air to the animal, an example of biology is how the animal processes the sound, and an example of psychology is how the animal interprets the sound.

"In a situation like this where everyone is together, you find [communication] happening," said Au.

Au also commented on how grateful he was to hear one of Tuesday's presentations from a woman from South America who attended because of outside financial support.

"If she wouldn't have come, a lot of us wouldn't have realized she has done this type of work," said Au.