Katharine Boynton Payne is a researcher in the Bioacoustics Research Program at the Laboratory of Ornithology

Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a member-supported unit of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York which studies birds and other wildlife. It is housed in the Imogene Powers Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity in Sapsucker Woods Sanctuary...

 at Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

. In 1999, she founded the lab's Elephant Listening Project.

Career

Initially a researcher of whale

Whale

Whale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...

s with her then husband Roger Payne

Roger Payne

Roger Searle Payne is a biologist and environmentalist famous for the 1967 discovery of Whale song among Humpback whales. Payne later became an important figure in the worldwide campaign to end commercial whaling.Payne studied at Harvard University and Cornell...

, Payne turned to investigating elephant

Elephant

Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...

s after observing them at a Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

 zoo. In 1984, she and other researchers discovered that elephants make infrasonic calls to one another at distances as high as ten kilometers. The calls aided in travel and mating. Payne founded the ELP to use these calls as a means of measuring the behavior of elephants and the size of the elephant population. Payne was featured in the 1984 PBS series, The Voyage of the Mimi

The Voyage of the Mimi

The Voyage of the Mimi was a thirteen-episode American educational television program depicting the crew of the Mimi exploring the ocean and taking a census of humpback whales...

, starring a young Ben Affleck

Ben Affleck

Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...

.

In 2004, Payne's initial recordings of elephants were selected as one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

 to be added to the National Recording Registry

National Recording Registry

The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, which created the National Recording...

.

External links

• Elephant Listening Project
• ELP bio
• "Listening to Elephants" - Radio Expeditions
  Radio Expeditions
  The Radio Expeditions series is a joint production of National Public Radio and the National Geographic Society. Radio Expeditions uses interviews, narration, and on-location recording to bring listeners to exotic locations around the world. The show's focus is on nature, diverse cultures, and...
  
  , National Public Radio, Oct. 31, 2002.
• "Whale Songs and Elephant Loves" - Speaking of Faith
  Speaking of Faith
  On Being is a weekly public radio program about "religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas", produced by American Public Media...
  
  , American Public Media
  American Public Media
  American Public Media is the second largest producer of public radio programs in the United States of America after NPR. Its non-profit parent, American Public Media Group, also owns and operates radio stations in Minnesota, California, and Florida. Its station brands are Minnesota Public Radio,...
  
  , Feb. 1, 2007