Investigating Acoustic Similarities of Auditory Elephant Deterrents to Optimize Current Techniques

Abstract

One of the primary reasons elephants are endangered is human-elephant conflict (HEC), the opposition that occurs between elephants and the humans living nearby. The violence that erupts in settings of HEC, such as crop fields, often results in both human and elephant deaths as both species struggle to coexist. Many methods are being researched to mitigate HEC, including playing audio playbacks that trigger flight responses in elephants near crop fields and reduce chance of contact and destruction. Habituation to these stimuli creates the demand for a greater number and more types of auditory deterrents, but it would be unethical and inefficient to immediately jump to tests with crop fields without first verifying these playbacks are at least somewhat effective. Thus, this paper aims to analyze currently used auditory deterrents to determine if any acoustic similarities exist between them, and create a generalization for what characteristics make up an effective auditory deterrent. The results will help optimize current playbacks and help create a threshold of characteristics to use before future testing, to reduce habituation and human-elephant conflict.