Cracking the language of animals - a lecture with a panel of experts
An exclusive event for RSB members exploring animal communication
Details
When? Wednesday 30 September 2026, 16:00 to 17:00
Members Only This is a members-only event
Where? Online (Zoom)
CPD Approved This event is approved for CPD
An exclusive event for RSB members exploring animal communication
This webinar will explore how new technologies and interdisciplinary approaches are transforming our understanding of animal communication. From building open, collaborative research foundations and uncovering how animals perceive and understand vocal signals, to using AI to translate animal behaviour into real-world insights, the session brings together leading researchers working at the intersection of behaviour, neuroscience and machine learning.
About our speakers
Dr Emma N. Cahill is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Bristol. Her research investigates the neural mechanisms underlying learning, memory, and emotion. Using ultrasonic vocalisations and other behavioural measures, she studies how rodents communicate social and emotional information. These findings have broad relevance for understanding the biological basis of emotion, social cognition, and neuropsychiatric disorders. Dr Cahill leads an interdisciplinary research programme that integrates behavioural, pharmacological, and neuroscientific methods, with collaborations across academia, industry, and animal welfare research to advance both fundamental science and translational applications.
Julie Elie is a computational neuroethologist who studies how animals communicate, combining behavioural research, neuroscience, and machine learning to analyse complex datasets. After completing her PhD in France on vocal and social networks in zebra finches, where she showed that these birds form meaningful social relationships, she moved to UC Berkeley for postdoctoral research on zebra finch communication and vocal recognition. She later studied vocal learning in Egyptian fruit bats before returning her focus to zebra finches. Today, as an Associate Project Scientist at UC Berkeley, she investigates how zebra finches perceive the meaning of vocalisations and engage in vocal dialogue with one another.
Marie Gibbons is the founder and CEO of VeriBark, an AI animal communication platform currently focused on translating canine body language and vocalisations using multimodal AI and an ethogram built from more than 600 peer-reviewed studies. Before founding VeriBark, Marie spent 20 years working across veterinary medicine, animal behaviour, biotechnology and cultivated meat. Her current work focuses on using AI to help people better understand animal communication, while also building datasets that could one day help researchers identify new patterns in how animals communicate.
Talk Outlines
Building the foundations for animal communication research - Dr Emma N. Cahill
This talk will discuss how open science approaches can accelerate animal communication research. Using rodent ultrasonic vocalisations (USVs) as an example, Dr Emma N. Cahill will highlight the importance of creating shared, accessible datasets and online repositories that enable researchers to compare findings, improve reproducibility, and develop new analytical tools. The talk will outline how collaborative data-sharing infrastructure can help build a stronger foundation for understanding animal communication across laboratories and disciplines.
From sound to meaning: how animals perceive and understand their own language - Julie Elie
Zebra finches are social songbirds that use a variety of sounds to communicate. As with many species, ethologists have classified these sounds into call types according to behavioural contexts. Here, researchers have asked the songbirds if they agree with this human organization of their vocal repertoire. Beyond the response to their first question, they also found evidence that when zebra finches hear the call of another zebra finch, they have a mental representation of its meaning. Birds don't just react — they actually understand what they're hearing.
From ethograms to everyday life: translating animal communication with AI - Marie Gibbons
Animal communication research has generated decades of knowledge, but much of it remains inaccessible in everyday human-animal interactions. This talk will explore how VeriBark is using multimodal AI and established canine ethograms drawn from hundreds of peer-reviewed studies to translate that science into real-world interpretation, while accounting for factors such as morphology, context and the visibility of individual signals.
The talk will also cover what we've learned from analysing user-submitted videos, how feedback and expert review can improve the system, and the next step: using a growing dataset of naturalistic animal behaviour to look for subtle patterns or signal combinations that may not yet be represented in existing ethograms. Ultimately, we hope to expand this approach across species and use better understanding of animal communication to help strengthen empathy between humans and animals everywhere.
Chair
Professor Tim Coulson FRSB, FRS, FBES - RSB Council member, Author, and Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford.
Who should attend?
This talk would be of interest to scientists, students, and those interested in animal communication, human-animal interaction, and the use of machine learning in animal behaviour research.
Cost and booking
This event is free to attend and is open exclusively to RSB members, including those with paid membership applications awaiting election. If your application is still being processed and you would like to attend, please get in touch and we will add you to the guest list.
Special requirements
If you have accessibility requirements, please let us know during your booking using the additional information options, and we will do what we can to accommodate your needs.
Continuing Professional Development
This event is approved by the Royal Society of Biology for the purposes of CPD and can be counted as 3 CPD points.
Contact
For event, booking and website queries, please contact Lucy Eckersley at events@rsb.org.uk or on 020 3925 3445.Code of Conduct
By its Royal Charter, the Royal Society of Biology (RSB) has the powers to promote, establish and support standards of professional skill and conduct. The RSB is committed to ensuring equal opportunities in the life sciences, and supports diversity throughout the pipeline. We proactively promote a culture of inclusivity within our discipline and the broader STEM community. It is vital at any RSB event or meeting, that everyone attending is free from any form of harassment or discrimination, feels comfortable and safe, and has the opportunity for an enjoyable experience.