Anne Savage, Conservation Biologist at Disney's Animal Kingdom directs the scientific and guest programs of the Wildlife Tracking Center. Dr. Savage has been funded by the National Science Foundation, World Wildlife Fund, National Geographic Research and Exploration, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and many national and international agencies for her various studies in animal behavior and conservation biology.

Dr. Savage received her B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is an adjunct faculty member in the department of zoology at the University of Florida and the department of biology at the University of Central Florida. Prior to joining Disney's Animal Kingdom, Dr. Savage was the Director of Research at the Roger Williams Park Zoo and an adjunct faculty member in the department of biology at Brown University.

Along with Anne Savage, Kirsten Mya Leong will help to answer your questions.
Kirsten Mya Leong has worked in research and education at zoos, national parks, and museums for over 10 years, including the Roger Williams Park Zoo, the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoological Park, the Providence Children's Museum, and the Florida Museum of Natural History, and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Parks and Wildlife Management at Isalo National Park in Madagascar. She received a Bachelor of Science with honors in Biology and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Brown University, and a Master of Science in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation and Graduate Certificate in Environmental Education and Communications from the University of Florida. In addition to conservation biology and management of human/wildlife conflict, her interests include education programming and exhibit design. She currently works as a Research Associate at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Fred asks:
Hello, I really enjoyed this episode of SAF. Do elephants use sound as a weapon against opposing elephant groups? Are there any other animal species that use low frequencies similar to elephants? (I know that whales use similar frequency range).

Savage and Leong's response:
Elephants use sound as a way to monitor the location of other elephant herds. Because infrasonic calls travel long distances, it is very likely that other elephant herds are listening to what is being said by other herds or individual elephants. This allows elephants the opportunity to space themselves appropriately to avoid conflict or move toward a vocalizing elephant in order to investigate what might be of interest. There are several species that use infrasound to communication. There aresome interesting studies that have shown that hippos, rhinos and even giraffes and okapi are capable of producing infrasonic vocalizations. Thank You, Fred

Kay asks:
I was wondering how to find out more about what you do. I have been thinking about doing your kind of animal studies someday, but I have no idea where to start. Can you tell me anything about it?

Savage and Leong's response:
Studying animal behavior is truly an exciting and rewarding field!!!

It requires a lot of patience and hard work, and it is very similar to detective work at times! You can spend years studying a particular species and analyzing the data before you are really able to put the pieces together and make a discovery. However, when you do it is really one of the most exciting times of your life!!! It is important to have a strong background in science. You will need a lot of math (statistics) and good understanding of biology and psychology to get started. But, it is also important to have strong written and oral communication skills, because scientists spend quite a bit of their time writing and talking about their results. The Animal Behavior Society has a web site that talks about careers and colleges that offer programs that might be of interest to you.

Ben asks:
First, has anybody studied large cats to see if they make any infrasonic vocalizations (such as purring); second, is there any indication of cross-species infrasonic communication, such as between elephants and crocodiles (and perhaps lions?). ``Communication,'' of course, is a loaded term, so an example: will an elephant avoid a pond if it hears infrasound from a large crocodile?

Savage and Leong's response:
That's a very interesting question. To my knowledge, the large cats do not produce infrasound. There has been some work looking at how they use their vocalizations in the wild to communicate but there is nothing written that indicates that they produce infrasound. I'm also not aware of any infrasonic cross-species communication between animals, however there is a wealth of information that shows that many primates and birds will respond to the alarm calls of each other. Since alarm calls tend to be loud and short in duration for most species, it is quite common that animals will pay attention when they hear this general class of calls. That's quite a handy thing, in case there happens to be a predator lurking nearby! It's actually something that people experience too. Think about what you do when you hear a dog bark. We tend to pay attention and wonder what has disturbed the dog. It's a similar phenomenon in animals, they will listen to calls of other species just to get an idea of what might be happening nearby.