{"id":3558,"date":"2015-10-21T14:13:57","date_gmt":"2015-10-21T19:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/?post_type=news&p=3558"},"modified":"2015-11-06T10:25:20","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T15:25:20","slug":"museum-presentation-looks-at-the-mysterious-fosa-madagascars-top-predator","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/news\/museum-presentation-looks-at-the-mysterious-fosa-madagascars-top-predator\/","title":{"rendered":"Museum presentation looks at the mysterious fosa, Madagascar\u2019s top predator"},"content":{"rendered":"

RALEIGH \u2014 Madagascar\u2019s top predator, the cat-like fosa, finds life in the jungle increasingly difficult due to human expansion. Find out more about this elusive animal, its role at the top of the island\u2019s food chain and efforts to save the species, when conservation scientist and National Geographic Explorer Dr. Luke Dollar presents \u201cPredators, People and Preservation: 20 Years of Carnivore Conservation<\/a>\u201d at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Thursday, November 5, 7 p.m. This is the second in a series of presentations held in conjunction with the Museum\u2019s newest special exhibition, \u201cExtreme Mammals<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dollar is a Professor at Pfeiffer University, Adjunct Professor at Duke University, and Program Director for National Geographic\u2019s Big Cats Initiative. He first visited Madagascar in 1994 as an undergraduate research assistant studying lemurs with Duke University. The lemur he was assigned to follow was eaten by a fosa, an elusive predator found only on Madagascar. Dollar was instantly intrigued and upon discovering the species had never been studied, vowed to return. \u201cHere was a mysterious predator which sat atop the food chain in the world\u2019s top biodiversity hot spot, yet no one knew anything about it,\u201d Dollar says. \u201cAs a keystone species, the fosa plays a crucial role in maintaining the equilibrium of Madagascar\u2019s entire food chain.\u201d Dollar\u2019s fieldwork over the past 20 years has quantified the fosa\u2019s shrinking numbers, now about 2,500, and yielded a trove of data on its biology and behavior.<\/p>\n

\u201cExtreme Mammals\u201d explores the diversity, ancestry and evolution of numerous species, ranging from huge to tiny, from speedy to sloth-like. The exhibition features spectacular fossils, vivid reconstructions and life-like models \u2014 including a 15-foot-high touchable model of the extinct Indricotherium<\/em>, the largest known land mammal. Dollar\u2019s is the second in a series of scientific talks that delve into what makes a mammal extreme \u2014 the biological characteristics, behavior and ability to adapt for survival. Upcoming presentations include:<\/p>\n

Thursday, December 3<\/em>
\n\u201cEastern Coyotes: Part Wolf, Part Dog, Extremely Adaptable\u201d
\nDr. Roland Kays, Head of the Biodiversity Research Lab, NC Museum of Natural Sciences<\/p>\n

Thursday, January 7<\/em>
\n\u201cMammals in an Age of Extreme Environmental Change\u201d
\nDr. Kristofer Helgen, Head of Mammalogy, National Museum of Natural History<\/p>\n

Thursday, February 4<\/em>
\n\u201cChill Out! Hibernation as a \u2018Cool\u2019 Way to Survive the Winter\u201d
\nSheena Faherty, PhD candidate in the Department of Biology, Duke University<\/p>\n

Thursday, March 3<\/em>
\n“Africa’s Greatest Killer? Understanding Human-Hippopotamus Conflict”
\nDr. Corinne Kendall, Assistant Curator of Conservation and Research, NC Zoo<\/p>\n

Tickets:<\/strong> $10 per lecture. Add an exhibition ticket to your order and receive $5 off admission. Friends of the Museum members receive free admission to the exhibition. Tickets are available online (naturalsciences.org\/extreme<\/a>) or at the Museum Box Office (919.707.9950).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3732,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/3558"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/3558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}