COSAM News Articles 2013 October SCB goes on Gulf Coast Field Trip

SCB goes on Gulf Coast Field Trip

Published: 10/21/2013

In a reprise of last year’s successful Gulf Coast Field Trip, 7 SCB members traveled to the Gulf Shores area Oct. 18-20. Leaving in the late afternoon on Friday, we spent the night in The Nature Conservancy’s Splinter Hill Bog house in South Alabama. On Saturday morning, we drove to Gulf Shores to visit the Gulf Coast Zoo, hosted by former AU student and SCB member Jessica Larson who now works at the zoo as a keeper. We enjoyed the zoo’s animal show, the lemur encounter and a behind-the-scenes tour by Jessica, including a spectacular opportunity to play with two seven-week-old tiger cubs. After lunch, we went to Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge to see habitat of the endangered Alabama Beach Mouse. Our own Faculty Advisor (Dr. Bob Boyd) led this portion of the trip, and talked about a 5-year research project he and Dr. Mike Wooten conducted on beach mice and post-hurricane habitat restoration. We then went back to Splinter Hill for dinner. Sunday we toured the pitcher plant bogs at the Splinter Hill Reserve and collected some Exyra moth larvae and pitchers for research being conducted by Dr. Debbie Folkerts and her graduate student Allison Tjelmland. All in all, a very busy and productive field trip!