Vibration as a Communication Channel Symposium
Computers and
hardware such as the geophone, used to listen for footfalls in the jungles of
Vietnam, now allow researchers to answer increasingly sophisticated questions
about how animals send and receive signals.
Scientists have known for some time that leafcutter ants use vibration
to recruit foragers, or to signal for help when buried alive, but the use of
vibration in animal communication is much more ubiquitous than previously
thought. It occurs in insects, frogs, kangaroo rats, elephants and bison.
This symposium hosted by the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB)
at its annual meeting, January 3-7, 2001, in Chicago will bring together ten
scientists and engineers from the U.S. and Austria for the first meeting to
share research on vibration signals. Talks will describe use of vibration in
predator defense, prey detection, recruitment to food, mating behavior, and
maternal/brood social interactions, as well as synthetic signals sent back to
animals, and channels through which signals are gathered and processed. The speakers are males and females from all
academic ranks, engineers and biologists, field and lab specialists. The symposium is co-sponsored by the
National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Animal Behavior Society (ABS).
In
addition to the symposium, poster and paper sessions will be available for
students and others with interests in vibration. A reception hosted by the SICB's Division of Animal Behavior will
encourage informal discussions with the symposium speakers.
SYMPOSIUM PROGRAM
8:00-8:40 am Vibration and animal communication: a review Peggy S. M. Hill
Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
The University of Tulsa
8:40-9:20 Exploring
the possibility of low-frequency
Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell
seismic communication in elephants and Center for Conservation Biology
other large mammals Stanford University
9:20-10:00 Why
do desert rodents drum their feet?
Janet Randall
Professor of Biology
San Francisco State University
10:00-10:20 BREAK
10:20-11:00 Vibrational communication and the ecology Reginald Cocroft
of group-living insects Assistant Professor of Biology
University of Missouri-Columbia
11:00-11:40 Vibration sensitivity and prey-localizing Philip Brownell
behavior of sand scorpions Professor of Zoology
Oregon State University
LUNCH
1:00-1:40 Do white-lipped frogs use seismic signals for Edwin R. Lewis
intraspecific communication? Professor in the Graduate School
Electrical Engineering/ Computer Sciences
University of California-Berkeley
1:40-2:20
Talking back:
sending soil vibration signals
John R. Shadley
to lekking prairie mole cricket males Professor of Mechanical Engineering
The University of Tulsa
2:20-3:00
Good vibrations:
seismic signal use by
Peter Narins
fossorial mammals Professor of Physiological Science
University of California-Los Angeles
3:00-3:20 BREAK
3:20-4:00 Vibration
and behavior: the shaky world of spiders Friedrich
Barth
Institut für Zoologie
Universität Wien
4:00-4:40
Mating
behavior in leafhoppers and treehoppers:
Randy
Hunt
involvement of vibrational signals in male-male Assistant Professor of Biology
Indiana University Southeast
4:40-5:00 Summary
and Discussion
Peggy
Hill
For further information, please contact Dr. Peggy Hill at
918-631-2992, or by e-mail <peggy-hill@utulsa.edu>.
