Sandra Vehrencamp

I consider myself a behavioral ecologist, with a special focus on birds. My primary appointment is at the Lab of Ornithology, but my campus department is Neurobiology and Behavior. At the Lab of Ornithology, I am a member of the Bioacoustics Research Program. As a group we are studying acoustic communication in a variety of animals from whales to elephants to birds. We also have an engineering team that develops cutting edge recording tools, and a software team that develops custom sound analysis software. These techniques have enabled us to study problems, organisms, and habitats the would otherwise be extremely difficult. For example, I use microphone array recordings to record several interacting male songbirds simultaneously and also compute their locations. We also use interactive sound playback to test responses to alternative vocal strategies.