Christina Perazio

Dr. Perazio has been teaching and mentoring undergraduate animal behavior students for almost a decade. Her door is always open for students and her snack jar is always full! Her teaching interests span introductory animal behavior to upper-level electives such as animal communication, animal cognition, cetology (the behavior and biology of whales and dolphins), and marine bioacoustics and ecosystem conservation. Students can expect to learn, laugh, and push themselves to think critically, ask questions, and participate actively in class discussions daily.

As a behavioral ethologist, Dr. Perazio is interested in the acoustic structure of communication signals, especially for species that communicate across distances, and in particular how anthropogenic noise interacts with the structure of those signals. Her primary field site in the Chocó region of Colombia is home to the breeding grounds of the Southeastern Pacific population of humpback whales. With colleagues, Dr. Perazio leads studies on the frequency structure of humpback whale song across time and in relation to increasing levels of boat noise. Other new research projects for students will also include local work with species such as bats, whose social vocal repertoire is being impacted by terrestrial sources of noise. Students interested in learning more about the WildWaves Lab should feel free to email Dr. Perazio or stop by her office in the Science Hall ABEC suite. 

Awards

• Invited member of the scientific committee. 3rd edition of the Humpback Whale World Congress, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and 4th edition in Tadoussac, Québec, Canada.
• Department of Psychology Excellence in Teaching Award, University at Buffalo. Selected among all Psychology Department adjunct and clinical teaching instructors based on quantitative and qualitative student evaluations from the past academic year.
• Excellence in Teaching Award for Graduate Teaching Assistants, University at Buffalo.
• Nominated for the Debra J. Summers Award for Teaching Excellence and the Excellence in 
  Faculty Mentoring and Advising Award, University of New England (2021 and 2022).
• Frank A. Beach Comparative Psychology Award, Journal of Comparative Psychology Best Paper of the Year for Mercado, E., III & Perazio, C. E. (2021). Similarities in composition and transformations of songs by humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) over time and space. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 135(1), 28-50. 

Publications

Doh., Y., Cazau, D., Lamaj, G., Mercado, E., III, Reidenberg, J. S., Jacobsen, J. K., Perazio, C. E., Ecalle, B., & Adam, O. (2025). Study of non-linearities in humpback whale song units. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 13(2), 215. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse13020215

Mercado, E., III, Ryan, M., Ashour, M., Krsmanovic, G., McAllister, A., Perazio, C. E., & Bruno, J. H. (2024). Cyclical variations in acoustic features within the song sessions of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). Journal of Comparative Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/com0000401

Rey-Baquero, M. P. and Parcerisas, C., Seger, K. D., Perazio, C. E., Botero Acosta, N., Mesa, F., Luna Acosta, A., Botteldooren, D., & Debusschere, E. (2021). Comparison of two soundscapes: an opportunity to assess the dominance of biphony versus anthropophony. Frontiers in Oceanography Ocean Observing: Documenting Ecosystems, Understanding Environmental Changes, Forecasting Hazards. In E. S. Kappel, S. K. Juniper, S. Seeyave, E. Smith, & M. Visbeck (eds). A Supplement to Oceanography, 34(4), 62-65.

Rey-Baquero, M. P., Huertas-Amaya, L. V., Seger, K. D., Botero-Acosta, N., Luna-Acosta, A., Perazio, C. E., Boyle, J. K., Rosenthal, S., &Vallejo, A. C. (2021). Understanding effects of whale-watching vessel noise on humpback whales in the North Pacific coast of Colombia with propagation models of masking and acoustic data observations. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8, 623724. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.623724

Perazio, C. E., Zapetis, M. E., Roberson, D., Botero, N. and Kuczaj II, S. (2018). Humpback 
whale, Megaptera novaeangliae, song during the breeding season in the Gulf of Tribugá, Colombian Pacific. Madagascar Conservation & Development, 13(1), 83-90.