Last night I presented a webinar on "Wasps: The Astonishing Diversity of a Misunderstood Insect" to the Athol Bird & Nature Club. Here is the embedded recording from Youtube if you would like to view it. I cannot guarantee an indefinite duration for the link. Thank you.
Showing posts with label presentations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label presentations. Show all posts
Thursday, January 12, 2023
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Bug Eric 2020 Outlook
This blog has slowed down considerably as I turn my attention to Sense of Misplaced blog to address larger social, environmental, and justice issues. However, I am still actively engaging in entomology activities. That will be more evident this calendar year.
I may be coming to a location near you this spring, summer, or fall. I have been invited to give a keynote address for The Biggest Week in American Birding the evening of Tuesday, May 12, 2020 at Maumee Bay Lodge and Conference Center in Oregon, Ohio (near Toledo), courtesy of the Black Swamp Bird Observatory. The topic will be “Birding and Bugwatching in the Age of Animal Decline.”
I will be participating in a panel discussion on the “insect apocalypse” at the North American Prairie Conference in Des Moines, Iowa the evening of Monday, July 20, 2020. More details will be forthcoming.
Last but not least, I will be a keynote speaker for the autumn Roan Mountain Naturalists’ Rally at Roan Mountain State Park, Tennessee, the evening of Saturday, September 12, 2020. I will also be leading a field trip in the park that afternoon before the presentation.
Colorado Springs will be participating in the City Nature Challenge for the second consecutive year, April 24-27, recording image and/or audio observations in iNaturalist. April 28-May 3, experts will be identifying the images and recordings submitted.
This summer the City of Colorado Springs has seen fit to schedule two more bioblitzes. The first is a public event at Stratton Open Space, June 19-22. Many organizations will have informational tables at the “base camp,” and science teams ranging from entomology to mycology to botany will be on hand recording observations that will be entered into iNaturalist.
The second bioblitz will be for science teams only, at Jimmy Camp Creek Park, July 18-19.
The most exciting news is that I am now under contract to complete two books this year, for publishers who must remain anonymous and on subjects that I cannot reveal. Watch this space for updates as I am permitted to share them.
Soon I will be adding another tab at the top of this blog’s home page that will link to more of my insect-related writings online. Please comment if you find any of the links anywhere on my blog are broken. I continue to moderate comments on my posts at least once per week.
Thank you again for your support and encouragement. Have a great 2020 and make sure you get outdoors as often as you can.
Sunday, November 1, 2015
To Handle or Not Handle
I have had occasion to make presentations to groups using live animals, and it has always been a bit of a quandary as to whether to handle specimens in the context of a demonstration, television interview, or other public situation. Here is what I have decided: Rarely will I handle animals.
Most contemporary naturalists either love the late great Steve Irwin for his contagious enthusiasm, or despise him for what they consider reckless behavior. There is no question that he has set a standard, good or bad, for recruiting the public to an appreciation of all forms of wildlife, beyond the cute and cuddly. We should aspire to his goal of changing phobias into fascination, but perhaps we should consider techniques other than "seize and show."
I had an epiphany at some point in my own career whereby a voice in my head said that if I start handling animals in front of other people, it suddenly becomes all about me, and anything about the animal becomes lost in the perception of my own "bravery." Well, I'd rather be a coward, then. I believe in preserving respect for the creature by leaving it in peace.
Are there any exceptions? Sure. Presenting live animals to groups is a challenge because many creatures go into hiding in their cage or enclosure, and are thus not visible, at least to a large audience. Removing the creature for better visibility is occasionally necessary; but, I can often maneuver a captive insect or spider onto the lip of its vessel, or onto a twig, or other prop where the organism can still "decide" where to go, or settle into a resting position.
The safety of both the person and the animal should be a major consideration, too. I do not want any audience member to go home thinking they can handle an animal, whether or not it is venomous or otherwise poses a risk. Handling animals means walking a fine line between being assertive enough to diminish risk to yourself, and gentle enough to avoid injuring the animal.
I recall when, as a zookeeper, I was asked to step outside my comfort zone and carry around a potto (a primitive primate related to a loris) on a pole at an after-hours zoo event. One of the regular keepers had to put the potto on the stick for me; and I almost had it escape when, after hours of being an inert lump it suddenly came to life as we returned to the building where it was housed. I thought it was going to leap up on the roof!
Ok, enough about me. See what I mean? We need to set aside our own ego when presenting animals to the public. These days, with advances in technology, we can capture videos of animals in the wild, exhibiting natural behaviors, and literally project *that* to the audience. There is also no substitute for getting your audience out into the field and showing them organisms in the context of a natural ecosystem, rather than a cage.
This, in my opinion, is what we should be shooting for: get people outdoors whenever possible, and point out animals going about their lives. Birders are perhaps the naturalists we should be looking at for a new model of animal demonstrations. The usual vehicle for recruiting new birders is the field trip. What a concept! Bird banding stations here in Colorado are increasingly allowing public viewing during banding activities. This is great. The birds have to be handled to be banded, so why not kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, and let others observe, up close?
I welcome comments and suggestions here, regardless of whether you agree with my views. Meanwhile, you might reconsider that Facebook profile picture with the live spider on your face. Just sayin'.
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