Hi all,

Here is a reminder about an exciting WEDNESDAY seminar in biology given by Dr. Monica Vasile. Welcome!

Wednesday 8th of May, 12:15, on site in room MA335.

Our speaker is Dr. Monica Vasile, Maastricht University, on

The Decline and Rescue of the Vancouver Island Marmot: a History of Science and Conservation,1970s- 2020s

Here is an abstract of the talk:

In this presentation, I explore the history of the Vancouver Island marmots, a story of an intense human-animal relationship, unfolding across the second half of the 20th century. Combining a history of science with environmental history, this case explores a series of broader questions: How do humans come to understand animal lifeways and species decline? How do they act to repair damage and what can humans do in the face of extinction? I draw on archives and interviews to examine the conservation of the critically endangered marmots living on the mountain tops of Vancouver Island - a species that almost became extinct in the wild in the early 2000s. It took humans nearly ten years to resolve that they were declining and to understand why. Eventually, scientists discovered that the cause of the marmots' decline was anthropogenic: extraction of timber and construction of forestry roads changed the relationship between marmots and their predators - wolves and cougars. Scientists estimated the rate of predation was unsustainable. The tiny island population spiraled down the extinction path, and by the early 2000s, wild living marmots numbered less than fifty. Yet, there was hope. Humans captured a part of the remaining population, transported them to Toronto and Calgary zoo for captive breeding, and then released the marmots back into the alpine habitat. What ensued was called a 'comeback' and a success, however the real long-term story proved more complicated.

See you on Wednesday!

-

Katya