Payne, Katy (1937–)
Payne, Katy (1937–)
American zoologist. Name variations: Katharine Boynton; Katharine Boynton Payne. Born Katharine Boynton, 1937 in Ithaca, NY; dau. of a professor at Cornell University; m. Roger Payne, 1960; children: 4.
Developer in the field of bioacoustics, the study of animal sounds and communication, particularly whales and elephants, 1st studied music at Cornell University, where she met Roger Payne, who would discover repetitive and melodic communication patterns of humpback and right whales (1966); revealed that whales pass on learned traits of communication which evolve over time like human languages; became research associate and visiting fellow at Cornell (1984); discovered that elephants use infrasonic vocalizations (too-low pitched for humans to hear) to communicate; collaborated with Joyce Poole at Kenya's Amboseli National Park (1985, 1986) to record and study sounds made by elephant group also studied by Cynthia Moss; worked with many meteorologists to evaluate how atmosphere affects infrasound communication used by lions, elephants, and other animals (1998). Writings include Elephants Calling (1992) and Silent Thunder: In the Presence of Elephants (1998).