Ithaca College

Bruce Thompson (Physics), Nik Batruch '08, together with Peter Wrege and Liz Rowland of the Bioacoustics Program at Cornell University, have published a paper entitled "Use of Acoustic Tools to Reveal Otherwise Cryptic Responses of Forest Elephants to Oil Exploration" in the December 2010 issue of Conservation Biology.

In response to oil exploration pressures in Loango Park, Gabon, elephants do not seem to flee but instead shift their activity to the nocturnal hours to avoid contact.

Sound and earth vibration sensors and recording systems were deployed in Loango Park in March 2007 and operated until February 2008. The resulting terabytes of data were analyzed to correlate the elephant calling activity with seismic exploration blasting and motor noise. Additionally, poaching activity was measured by identifying gun shots in the recordings. Acoustic monitoring of animals that communicate acoustically reveals changes in behavior that would be overlooked by more traditional, visually based methods. The paper was originally published on line on 27 July 2010.