The Elephant Listening Project’s mission is to develop techniques that use acoustic signals to monitor the health and structure of large mammal populations in order to further their conservation. In many natural ecosystems, animals can be extremely difficult to observe visually, complicating the process of estimating and tracking changes in population size, health, and the use of habitat. This is particularly true in the remaining tracts of tropical forest around the world. However, many species use acoustic signals (vocalizations, mechanical) for communication, and these can be monitored remotely and used to study aspects of their ecology. The tools and analysis methods we are developing are broadly applicable. Our current focus is on the threatened forest elephants of Central Africa. In addition to training African biologists to use acoustic monitoring methods, we also teach U.S. residents in the methods of acoustic analysis and in their application to real-world systems.

Many of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet are located in tropical countries where the extraction of natural resources represents a major proportion of the country’s GDP. While continued extraction is critical for improving the health and education of local human populations, it also threatens many animal populations and, indeed, entire ecosystems. Tropical rainforest habitats present particular challenges because many animals are difficult to observe and study. However, in these habitats, many species use conspicuous acoustic signals for communication and our project seeks to develop the tools and methods needed to eavesdrop on these communication systems in order to study animal populations. Our primary focus is on the African forest elephant, a species under extreme threat from poaching for ivory and an increasingly lucrative international bush-meat trade. We have only poor estimates of their population sizes through most of their range, and almost no information on population trends, movements, and habitat use. But their low-frequency vocalizations carry extremely far through the forest, and are easily recorded. Conservation initiatives aimed at forest elephants will simultaneously conserve highly diverse ecosystems and other critically threatened species such as lowland gorilla and chimpanzee.

Using technology developed by the Bioacoustics Research Program at Cornell, we have been using autonomous recording devices to listen in on the vocalizations of elephants (and other species) in the forests of Gabon, Central Africa. Recording continuously for three months or more at a time, we are gathering data on the use of preferred resources in the forest mosaic and how this use is affected by human activities, particularly logging and poaching. We are completing a study of the effects of oil exploration on elephant activity in a key national park on the coast of Gabon, and we are developing collaborations with logging companies to census and monitor elephant populations within their concessions in order to inform their management decisions.

In 2006 a foreign oil company began seismic studies in one of Gabon’s national parks, acting on a permit granted by the government. There was almost no oversight of their operation and considerable ecological damage appeared to have been done during the operation. This project represented the first effort to obtain quantitative data of impacts of the exploration on threatened species, and our presence contributed to a successful effort to draw up new field protocols for exploration work that continued in 2007. These changes to operational procedures benefited not only wildlife in the national park, but also the experience of ecotourists visiting the park. It is likely that the protocols, and particularly the government’s recognition that such oversight is critical in the sphere of international opinion, will influence on-the-ground practices of other extractive operations in Gabon and elsewhere in Central Africa. Logging concessions ‘manage’ huge areas of intact forest in Gabon and their activities may be critical for the long-term survival of many animal populations. We are working with two large companies who are applying for ‘sustainable practice’ certification in the European Union. Our activities not only provide some scientific basis for the implementation of new operational protocols, but also contribute to awareness that conserving biodiversity must be an important component of the management plans of extractive operations throughout the world.

international conservation