Communication plays a central role in the organisation of animal societies. Notably, vocalisations are a rapid and efficient means for transmitting many pieces of information simultaneously. The main types of information communicated by animals to conspecifics through sounds include their identity, physical characteristics, physical and mental state, as well as the behavioural context in which the sounds are produced.
I will review each of these types of information using examples from my group’s research on birds (skylarks), as well as on domestic (e.g. goats, pigs and horses) and wild mammals (e.g. Przewalski’s horses, wild boars, zebras and meerkats). Access to this information conveyed in calls, e.g. using AI techniques, can be very useful to monitor animal welfare, both on farms and in zoos. In addition, some of this information (e.g. individuality) can facilitate population monitoring in the wild and hence be useful for species conservation.
The illustration is generated with Chatgpt and is purely decorative
Frist: 24. nov. 2026 kl. 00:00
Associate Professor,
Københavns Universitet
Elodie primary research interests are cognition and vocal communication in mammals and birds. The main aims of my research are understanding how animals use vocal signals to encode information about their identity (e.g. species, group, individual identity), their quality (e.g. body size, dominance status, age) and their affective states (emotions, mood), as well as the impact of such information on conspecifics.
I moved from ETH Zurich to the University of Copenhagen in 2019 to take over the Behavioural Ecology group from Prof. Torben Dabelsteen. Our group focusses on the behaviour of vertebrates. Our main projects combine the topics of acoustic communication, emotions, cognition and social interactions, in order to understand how emotions influence communication and cognition, how emotions are transmitted between individuals and influence social relationships, and how acoustic communication affects social interactions. We are also interested in how our research can be used to improve animal welfare and for conservation purpose.
FOREDRAG • UNF København
Tirsdag d. 24. November 2026
kl. 18.00- 20.30
