Thursday, March 4, 2010 Stories Behind the Species: Animals at Risk Presented by Dr. Scott McRobert St. Joseph's University 4:00 - 7:00 PM Lecture at 5:30 PM
"Largest White-Bill'd Woodpecker" Catesby, Mark. The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. London: 1731. We are living in the midst of a mass extinction. While the world is seeking solutions to a complicated series of environmental concerns, everything from global climate change to searches for new sources of energy, few people realize that animal and plant species are disappearing at an alarming rate. And while mass extinctions have occurred before, this is the first time in which the activities of one species, humans, are responsible for elevated rates of extinction of species across the entire planet. In this talk, Dr. Scott McRobert will provide a general overview of the current causes of extinction, and tell stories about amazing animals, some still alive, some lost forever. If weather permits, Dr. McRobert will bring along some endangered species from his lab. Dr. Scott McRobert has been fascinated by animals all of his life and says that his work as a scientist isn’t much different from the things he did as a child. Dr. McRobert received his bachelor’s degree in biology from Juniata College, his master’s degree and Ph.D. in behavioral genetics from Temple University, and studied pheromone biochemistry as a postdoctoral fellow at Montana State University and the University of Hawaii. He is currently a professor of biology at Saint Joseph’s University where he studies animal behavior, ecology and evolution. As part of his work, Dr. McRobert oversees the Biodiversity Laboratory at St. Joe’s, which house hundreds of rare, exotic and highly endangered animal species.
|
|
