Field work - - -
Together with my local counterparts, I have created an identification catalogue of around 300 females. We have recently begun to work on males, and have already counted up to 100. This is quite a bit higher than the population that was expected to live in this relatively small reserve, generating a lot of local curiosity and interest in our work.
We audio- and video- record calls whenever they occur, including infrasonic sounds. One of my long-term goals is to maintain demography at this site. We have begun to record births, growth, and deaths. No continuous dataset like this exists for Asian elephants so far.
- - - Other work
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I study wild, free-ranging Asian elephants in Udawalawe National Park (UWNP), Sri Lanka. This park, roughly 325 sq. Km, is home to one of the highest densities of Asian elephants anywhere in Asia. Despite their size, we know very little about these intelligent social mammals. My primary interest is to describe their social structure and vocal communication. I also hope to explore the ecological factors that have shaped both Asian elephant society and its communication system. Both males and females can be found in groups, but as male groups don't appear to be very stable, it is the females and calves that I concentrate on.
Data is gathered by spending the whole day (10-12 hours!) in the field, usually driving or looking for shade near a grazing, bathing, playing, or sleeping group of elephants. We do this several times a week, and have been monitoring continuously since June 2006. We mark locations of all sightings via GPS and try to follow animals we recognize for as long as they stay visible.
I am collaborating with Sharon S. Glaeser from Portland State University to compare my recordings of wild elephants to those of captive ones at the Oregon Zoo. We have found apparent repertoire disparities among the two demographics. These comparisons could help zoos enrich the lives of their charges, while shedding light on the functions of these calls among their wild relatives.