Time: 6.30 pm Okura Hall, 81 Okura River Road, Okura.
All welcome to join us for hot soup on arrival, and to hear, after a short AGM meeting, a most entertaining, highly recommended speaker, Dr Wesley Webb, lecturer on biodiversity at Unitec.
The sounds of the forest – and beyond!
How and why animals use sounds.
Dr Webb will talk on how animals use sounds for fighting, flirting, group coordination, signaling identity, scaring off predators and more. Some species develop their sounds innately. Others (like humans and songbirds) must learn by listening and imitating—which leads to the interesting phenomenon of dialects.
Dr Wesley Webb will take us on a tour of the astonishing diversity of acoustic communication in animals, including native NZ taonga. He will also reveal some surprises about male and female song dialects in New Zealand bellbirds, the topic of his PhD. Brace yourself for weird and wonderful animal sounds.
We look forward to seeing you on the 11th of August at the Okura Hall.