Elephant biologist and science writer Caitlin O'Connell discusses her new book, Wild Rituals

Renowned elephant biologist, writer, and documentary filmmaker Dr. Caitlin O'Connell will be joining us for a presentation and book signing. After giving a broad overview of why all social animals engage in ritual, she will discuss the major themes in her 2015 book, Elephant Don, as well as her most recent book, Wild Rituals. She will draw parallels between how elephants and humans experience similar social and environmental pressures. These parallels will be discussed in light of her long-term elephant field work in Namibia. She will review known elephant characters and family histories and show how visual, tactile and vocal rituals serve to strengthen relationships, coordinate action, and mediate stressors imposed by outside influences.

Biography
Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell is an Instructor at Harvard Medical School, studying the elephant’s low frequency ear and hearing, funded by NIH. She is also a Faculty Affiliate of the Harvard Center for the Environment and Research Affiliate of Stanford’s Center for Conservation Biology. She has been studying elephant society in the wild in Namibia for over thirty years and has written dozens of scientific articles and eight popular books on her research. She has won many awards, including a National Geographic research grant to study seismic communication in elephants, resulting in numerous scientific publications. In 2007, she was awarded “Outstanding Young Alumna” by her Ph.D. alma mater, University of California, Davis in recognition of her elephant communication discoveries. The Smithsonian documentary about her research on male elephant society won the CINE Golden Eagle award in 2013. Prior to her position at Harvard, she was a consulting Assistant Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine, where she developed a vibrotactile hearing aid inspired by the elephant’s vibrotactile sense. Dr. O’Connell-Rodwell is the co-founder and CEO of the elephant nonprofit, Utopia Scientific, and runs a long-term elephant field site in Namibia where she returns every summer with a team of experts and Namibian students. She is a Fellow of the Explorer’s Club and her books have been translated into French, Dutch, Chinese and Korean. She is currently Writer/Director/Producer of an independent feature documentary about her work on elephant dominance hierarchies, that she is co-Producing with her husband.