ENHS Nature Trails June 99 Article 1

This month's speaker: Stuart Perlmeter

Stuart Perlmeter is well known to members of the Eugene Natural History Society. It was not too many years ago that he drew the biggest crowd the society has ever seen. Stuart was going to talk to us about the mountain gorillas, based on his recent experience working with Dian Fossey in Africa. The topic, and the fact that Stuart had an established reputation as a great speaker, were guaranteed to bring out a big crowd.

Compounding this interest were two occurrences we had never anticipated. First, an interview of Stuart by Don Bischoff was published in The Register-Guard the month of the lecture. In the interview Stuart mentioned that he was going to give a talk to the Eugene Natural History Society. We were pleased; excellent publicity like this is what any organization desires. Then came the truly unexpected. That same month the movie "Gorillas in the Mist," a story of the life work of Dian Fossey, was released. It was a huge hit in Eugene as around the country. The public was hungry for gorilla gossip and the old lecture hall, Room 100, was filled to overflowing. What an event! It was a powerful experience for all.

Stuart returns to us for a repeat performance. This time his topic deals with a group of animals radically different from those of his previous talk: bats. While most people love gorillas, most people hate bats. The first movie with bats that comes to mind is "Dracula." Beyond visions of vampires and fear of rabies, bats are not high on the list of lovable animals on most peoples' lists. And while you have to go to Africa to see gorillas, most of us can see bats in our back yards.

The members of the Eugene Natural History Society, however, are not most people. We know that bats are valuable elements of any ecosystem and that their life styles are absolutely fascinating. To have Stuart Perlmeter talk to us about bats is going to be a treat. Come this Friday to enjoy a special meeting.

After returning from Africa, Stuart has embarked on an unusual career. There's nothing necessarily unusual about being a high school science teacher. What makes Stuart's career unusual is his incorporation of original research into his high school curriculum. Stuart's students are deeply involved in his current studies of bats. It is a serious business. Rabies is an issue and all his students must be vaccinated for rabies before they can begin working with him.. Their enthusiasm doesn't let this deter them. They have monitored populations of several species of bats in the surrounding landscape. We look forward to hearing some of the results of these studies.

A special part of this Friday's program-the reason why our President, Nathan Tublitz scheduled an extra meeting in June-is that the late evening twilight is just right for a bat walk immediately after the program! We observed above that bats are in our backyards. Come and see that this is true. The scheduling of this program is one of the special treats that membership in the Eugene Natural History Society brings. This would be a fine time to bring your friends and introduce them to our congenial community of nature lovers!

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