Biology professors Dr. Csengela Barta and Dr. Cary Chevalier helped staff the Missouri Department of Conservation and The Nature Conservancy’s Prairie Days at the TNC Dunn Ranch on Friday, Sept. 10 and Saturday, Sept. 11. It was very successful on several levels with over 200 people visiting and enjoying the outdoor activities.
Eight wildlife students (members of the Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society) set up live trap lines, staffed the herps and mammals of the prairie and assisted Dr. Barta’s students with the dissection of flowers of prairie plants.
Students served as tour guides for the bison tours, rode on the tour trailer as it transported individuals through the prairie to see the bison, and they explained the prairie restoration and management activities of TNC and MDC and Dunn Ranch.
They took families on the mammal transects to see if anything had been caught and explain the natural history of the animal. They also displayed two snakes and talked about their natural history in addition to assisting with microscopes to help the public dissect flowers and look at slides of pollen.
