Seminars in Hearing Research

Date:  August 31, 2023

Place:  Nelson Hall  Room 1215 (located on University St right across from Lyles-Porter).

Time:  12:00 - 1:00 pm

Title:  "The duck project.  Huh?  What duck project?  Glad you asked…” 
Speaker:  Jeff Lucas
Abstract:  Next to chickens, Pekin ducks are one of the most important sources of poultry-derived meat.  Duck rearing obviously requires keeping relatively large numbers of ducks in relatively small areas.  This arrangement can result in various levels of physiological stress, which has impacts on animal welfare and also on productivity.  Our project on this topic has three phases. The first is to characterize the vocal system of Pekin ducks, something that surprisingly hasn’t been done before.  The second is to use the duck vocal system as a preliminary source of information about stress. This includes determining whether there is environment-dependent call syntax and whether the spectral properties of calls vary with the environment. ‘Environment’ includes both social environment and several types of ‘enrichment’. The third is to see if we can identify vocal elements that might be broadcast to the ducks to mitigate stress.   

This year’s SHRP schedule is available here: https://purdue.edu/TPAN/hearing/shrp_schedule

Titles and abstracts of all SHRP talks are here: https://purdue.edu/TPAN/hearing/shrp_abstracts

*Please note new location and time.  There will not be a hybrid option this year.

Talks will either be held in-person only or via Zoom only for long-distance speakers.

Christine Reidy

Senior Administrative Assistant, Bindley Bioscience Center

BIND, 1203 W. State Str., West Lafayette, IN 47907