Mockingbird research of Dave Gammon, Elon professor of biology, gets a nod in an article about the use of birdsong as a crosswalk signal.
The vocal mimicry research of Elon Biology Professor Dave Gammon recently received a shout-out in a news article published on Audubon.org by science journalist Greg Uyeno.
For decades, many cities have used bird-like crosswalk signals as an aid for the visually-impaired. Chirps and cuckoo noises have been particularly popular, but these kinds of signals are now being phased out. As Gammon points out in the article, mimicking birds, such as mockingbirds, might learn to imitate the crosswalk signals, which would lead to potential confusion for pedestrians.
“They have an acoustic template,” he says. “When sounds fit in that template, they’re much more likely to imitate.”
You can read the article and listen to the actual bird-like crosswalk signals at Audubon.org