Distant Early Warning Systems in the Forest: Alarm Calling and Communication Networks

By Micki Long

Our November presenter, Erick Greene, is a professor in the Division of Biological Sciences and in the Wildlife Biology Program at The University of Montana.  He grew up in Quebec, Canada, with twin passions for music and nature.  Erick dropped out of high school and lived for a year in the Galapagos Islands, helping with studies on Darwin’s Finches.  He then worked on seabirds 800 miles north of the Arctic Circle with the Canadian Wildlife Service.  He returned for undergraduate studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he studied biology, music, and mathematics, and then received a PhD from Princeton University.  

Erick and his family now call Montana home, having lived here for 30 years.  He has been able to combine his interests in wildlife biology and music by studying how animals use sounds to communicate with each other.  These studies in bioacoustics show that animals convey a fantastic amount of information with their vocalizations.  

Animals use sounds to communicate many different types of information to each other, such as defending territories, attracting and assessing mates, keeping in contact with others in their social groups, and warning about danger.  Birds and mammals are exceptionally good at detecting predators, and they produce a wide variety of important alarm calls.  These alarm calls can be used by individuals of their own species and many other species in complex communication networks.  We know little about how different species participate in these communication networks, nor how far and fast information travels.  Dr. Greene and his students have been investigating these amazing communication networks with a wide variety of experimental approaches.  We conducted much of this research right here in the Bitterroot Valley.  In this presentation, Dr. Greene will give an overview of the astounding “infoscapes” and talk about how animals share information about predators with each other. 

Special thanks to Dr. Greene for his willingness to present this month instead of in January, the original plan.

You are invited to a Zoom meeting. 

When: Nov 15, 2021 07:00 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada) 

Register in advance (by 5 PM on 11/15) for this meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAuce2gqj4vGN3o7eHgQ2QzMQcXG4ii_z2u

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.