Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell is Co-founder/CEO of Utopia Scientific
and an instructor in the Department of Otolaryngology at
Stanford University in California. Research in the O’Connell-
Rodwell laboratory focuses on communication through vibrations
in large mammals. In a previous blog, I discussed Dr. O’Connell-
Rodwell’s research as presented in a feature podcast from The
American Physiological Society. Her research on elephant
communication sparked quite a bit of conversation. Therefore, I
decided to invite Dr. O’Connell-Rodwell to be interviewed, and
she agreed. Here is an excerpt from our exchange. Dr. Dolittle:
In your podcast interview you mention using estrus calls. Given
elephant social structure, could it also be possible to use baby
calls to lure females in? Or do females only respond to the
calls of their own young? Dr. O’Connell-Rodwell: Interesting
question. Baby elephants cannot produce infrasound until a
certain point in time, the precise moment of which is still
undetermined, and something that th