Why Birds Matter: From Powdermill to the Tropics
Date:
Thursday, June 24, 2021
Time:
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Location:
Zoom
From backyard cardinals to roaming albatrosses and sunbathing flamingos to snowbound penguins, birds have adapted to an incredible variety of habitats. Join Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Curator of Birds Chase Mendenhall for an in-depth look at our feathered friends and their many contributions to ecosystems near and far. Along with Director of Science Rose-Marie Muzika, they’ll take you on a journey from Powdermill Nature Reserve to the tropics of Central America, exploring some incredible avian feats and why birds are such important members of the natural world.
Dr. Chase D. Mendenhall is an ecologist and evolutionary biologist with degrees from the University of Wyoming and Stanford University. Mendenhall’s research emphasizes the role cooperation plays in the natural world to create cells, build bodies, and determine behaviors that challenge traditional narratives of what it means to be an individual, a male, a female, or part of a family or group. Mendenhall is also an expert on extinctions, especially how they play out differently on islands compared to mainland continents.