November 2015 Speaker
Tue, November 17 2015, 11:30am
Campus Club ABC
University of Minnesota professor Craig Packer will speak at the November 17 UMRA luncheon. His topic will be “Lions in the Balance: Man-Eaters, Manes, and Men with Guns.” This is the title of his latest book, published in September. It is a chronicle of his experiences researching lions and fighting for their survival in Tanzania, indeed, of lions throughout the many lion countries in Africa.
Craig Packer is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at the University of Minnesota. He first went to East Africa in 1972 as a field assistant to Jane Goodall and returned to Gombe in 1974-75 to conduct his PhD research on olive baboons. After a brief study of Japanese macaques in Hakusan National Park, he returned to Tanzania in 1978 to head the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Lion Projects. His book , Into Africa won the John Burroughs Medal in 1995, and he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003.
Over the past ten years, he has served as an official member of the Tanzanian Delegation to the Conference on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). He also founded an NGO to measure the effectiveness of Foreign Aid Projects in rural Africa. He has published over 150 scientific papers. For example: “Fear of Darkness, the full moon and the Lunar Ecology of African Lions,” “The Effects of Trophy Hunting on Lion and Leopard Populations in Tanzania;” “Group Territoriality and the Benefits of Sociality in the African Lion;” and “Sport Hunting, Predator Control and Conservation of Large Carnivores.”
In September, Professor Packer published Lions in the Balance. As a sequel to Into Africa, Lions in the Balance continues to describe his own research efforts and those of his students. It also describes their practical efforts to preserve African lions in the wild. One of his reviewers, Dr. George Schaller, the author of The Serengeti Lion, praises the book:
“The king of beasts is in trouble throughout Africa as this hard-headed, clear-eyed book makes unmistakable. Explosive human population in the lion’s habitat, conversion of wild lands into fields, corrupt government officials, unscrupulous overharvest by trophy hunters, illegal killing with gun, poison, and spear, lion bones smuggled to Asia-the litany of woe goes on and on. Craig Packer and his coworkers studied lions in the Serengeti and other parts of Tanzania…But they also took on the moral task of protecting lions and helping them endure.”
We look forward to hearing this scholar and active conservationist at our November luncheon.
— Hal Miller, past president
Upcoming Events
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Picnic under the covered, open-air Como pavilion, gaze at the water, spy some birds, catch up with friends and former colleagues, and meet new members. We’ll have lunch with plenty of time for visiting and then compete in teams as we are challenged by our Quiz master(s)!
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