Wednesday, October 26, 2016, 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Join us this October for a some down under tales of conservation.
Characterized by baking drought and raging floods, the Australian outback is one of the most unpredictable environments in the world. The birds that live in this boom-bust landscape have developed incredible and surprising adaptations to these harsh conditions. Many birds are nomadic, moving around the landscape. For years, the patterns of these movements were unknown. In this talk, Claire tells how we are beginning to unlock the mysteries of these desert nomads and the implications for conservation of these unique birds. This talk will include superfluous tales and photos of Australian birds.
Claire Runge is a postdoctoral researcher at the National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis in downtown Santa Barbara. She completed her PhD thesis in 2015 at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Her thesis focused on understanding how to conserve migratory and nomadic birds. For the past year she has been working in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and the Sage Grouse Initiative to find ways to conserve Sage Grouse habitat while improving the livelihoods of ranchers. Find out more about the project here http://snappartnership.net/groups/better-land-use-decisions/ and her other work here http://clairerunge.wordpress.com/ Claire also really loves birds, and is sad to say that after working on Sage Grouse for a year, she has yet to see one.
