Dena J. Clink

Research Associate

My main research interests are primate behavior, ecology and conservation. At the Cornell Lab, I aim to develop tools that can be used to improve conservation efforts of vocal primates across the globe.

Beyond the Lab

I have conducted field research on nonhuman primates in Argentina, Bolivia, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Recent Publications

Vu, T. T., D. V. Phan, T. S. Le, and D. J. Clink (2024). Investigating hunting in a protected area in Southeast Asia using passive acoustic monitoring with mobile smartphones and deep learning. Ecological Indicators 167:112501.
Kershenbaum, A., C. Akçay, L. Babu-Saheer, A. Barnhill, P. Best, J. Cauzilille, D. Clink, A. Dassow, E. Dufourq, J. Growcott, A. Markham, et al. (2024). Automatic detection for bioacoustic research: A practical guide from and for biologists and computer scientists. Biological Reviews.
Cauzinille, J., B. Favre, R. Marxer, D. Clink, A. H. Ahmad, and A. Rey (2024). Investigating self-supervised speech models' ability to classify animal vocalizations: The case of gibbon's vocal signatures. Interspeech 2024. ISCA, pp. 132–136.
Erb, W. M., W. Ross, H. Kazanecki, T. M. Setia, S. Madhusudhana, and D. J. Clink (2024). Vocal complexity in the long calls of Bornean orangutans. PeerJ 12:e17320.
Lakdari, M. W., A. H. Ahmad, S. Sethi, G. A. Bohn, and D. J. Clink (2024). Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients outperform embeddings from pre-trained convolutional neural networks under noisy conditions for discrimination tasks of individual gibbons. Ecological Informatics 80:102457.
Clink, D. J. (2024). Isochronous rhythms: Facilitating song coordination across taxa? Current Biology 34:R201–R203.
Vu, T. T., P. F. Doherty, H. T. Nguyen, D. J. Clink, M. D. Nguyen, H. T. Dong, S. M. Cheyne, T. T. Giang, D. V. Phan, N. T. Ta, and D. V. Tran (2023). Passive acoustic monitoring using smartphones reveals an alarming gibbon decline in a protected area in the central Annamite Mountains, Vietnam. American journal of primatology 85.
D'Agostino, J., S. Spehar, A. Abdullah, and D. J. Clink (2023). Evidence for Vocal Flexibility in Wild Siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus) Ululating Scream Phrases. International Journal of Primatology:1–22.
Vu, T. T., T. C. Nguyen, P. F. Doherty Jr, H. T. Nguyen, D. J. Clink, M. D. Nguyen, H. T. Dong, and T. T. Giang (2023). Using mobile smartphones and bioacoustics to monitor endangered bird species. Ibis n/a.
Kennedy, A. G., A. H. Ahmad, H. Klinck, L. M. Johnson, and D. J. Clink (2023). Evidence for acoustic niche partitioning depends on the temporal scale in two sympatric Bornean hornbill species. Biotropica n/a.
Clink, D. J., I. Kier, A. H. Ahmad, and H. Klinck (2023). A workflow for the automated detection and classification of female gibbon calls from long-term acoustic recordings. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 11.
Lau, A. R., M. Zafar, A. H. Ahmad, and D. J. Clink (2022). Investigating temporal coordination in the duet contributions of a pair-living small ape. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 76:91.
Clink, D. J., I. A. Comella, J. S. Tasirin, and H. Klinck (2022). Tarsier islands: Exploring patterns of variation in tarsier duets from offshore islands of North Sulawesi. American Journal of Primatology n/a:e23410.
Comella, I., J. S. Tasirin, H. Klinck, L. M. Johnson, and D. J. Clink (2022). Investigating note repertoires and acoustic tradeoffs in the duet contributions of a basal haplorrhine primate. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 10.
Clink, D. J., A. R. Lau, S. Kanthaswamy, L. M. Johnson, and K. L. Bales (2021). Moderate evidence for heritability in the duet contributions of a South American primate. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 35:51–63.
Clink, D. J., M. Zafar, A. H. Ahmad, and A. R. Lau (2021). Limited evidence for individual signatures or site-level patterns of variation in male northern gray gibbon (Hylobates funereus) duet codas. International Journal of Primatology 42:896–914.
Fournet, M. E. H., M. Silvestri, C. W. Clark, H. Clink, and A. N. Rice (2021). Limited vocal compensation for elevated ambient noise in bearded seals: implications for an industrializing Arctic Ocean. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 288.
Clink, D., T. Groves, A. H. Ahmad, and H. Klinck (2021). Not by the light of the moon: Investigating circadian rhythms and environmental predictors of calling in Bornean great argus. PLoS ONE 16:e0246564.
Clink, D. J., and A. R. Lau (2020). Adherence to Menzerath’s Law is the exception (not the rule) in three duetting primate species. Royal Society Open Science 7.
Clink, D. J., and H. Klinck (2020). Unsupervised acoustic classification of individual gibbon females and the implications for passive acoustic monitoring. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13520
Clink, D. J., J. S. Tasirin, and H. Klinck (2020). Vocal individuality and rhythm in male and female duet contributions of a nonhuman primate. Current Zoology 66:173–186.
Sethi, S. S., N. S. Jones, B. D. Fulcher, L. Picinali, D. J. Clink, H. Klinck, C. D. L. Orme, P. H. Wrege, and R. M. Ewers (2020). Characterizing soundscapes across diverse ecosystems using a universal acoustic feature set. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2004702117
Clink, D. J., A. Hamid Ahmad, and H. Klinck (2020). Gibbons aren’t singing in the rain: Presence and amount of rainfall influences ape calling behavior in Sabah, Malaysia. Scientific Reports 10.
Clink, D. J., A. Hamid Ahmad, and H. Klinck (2020). Brevity is not a universal in animal communication: Evidence for compression depends on the unit of analysis in small ape vocalizations. Royal Society Open Science 7.
Lau, A. R., D. J. Clink, and K. L. Bales (2020). Individuality in the vocalizations of infant and adult coppery titi monkeys (Plecturocebus cupreus). American Journal of Primatology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.23134
Clink, D. J., A. R. Lau, and K. L. Bales (2019). Age-related changes and vocal convergence in titi monkey duet pulses. Behaviour. https://doi.org/10.1163/1568539X-00003575
Clink, D. J., R. A. Charif, M. C. Crofoot, and A. J. Marshall (2018). Evidence for vocal performance constraints in a female nonhuman primate. Animal Behaviour 141:85–94.
Dena Clink
Center K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics
Projects Conservation Science
Email djc426@cornell.edu

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