department highlights
B i olog i cal scie nce s
Jack Feminella, Department Chairman
Auburn University’s Society for Conservation Biology, or SCB,
prides itself in promoting conservation through education. The
organization, which is led by a group of students and faculty mentor,
Bob Boyd, Ph.D., joined the Auburn campus in 2008 and is made up
of students, faculty and staff members of the university.
Each month, the group meets to discuss their monthly outing
and hear from an expert on an area of conservation concerning their
upcoming excursion.
“Our goal is to give students the opportunity to interact with
people about conservation in terms of field trips, talks and experience,”
Boyd said. “We try and get our students the kind of experience that
will help them in terms of a future career in conservation. We get them
working in labs and out in nature getting some hands-on experience
that is most important in this field.”
Andrew Arnold, currently the president of the SCB, found the
group and its objective to be a natural tie-in with his studies and
interests. Arnold, who is a senior in wildlife sciences from Monroeville,
Ala., says the group goes above and beyond what expectations may be
and makes the best of its time together.
“When people hear about clubs like SCB, they assume it’s going to
be hands off because that’s how most conservation groups are,” Arnold
said. “The focus is put on, ‘Oh, such and such species is endangered so
you have to leave it alone,’ but we’re not like that at all. We go out into
the wild. We get down and get close with nature.”
The group also participates in multiple initiatives outside of the
monthly field trips that engage in conservation and education. One
such initiative is the Tigers for Tigers program.
“Tigers for Tigers is designed to use interest in Aubie to spill over
into interest with real tiger conservation and education,” Boyd said.
The group’s efforts include manning game-day booths during
football season and conducting education programs for students in
local schools.
“It’s more than just the meetings,” Arnold said. “We make the
16
Journey/2012
experience worth it
through the firsthand involvement.”
In one such
experience, the group
helped reintroduce
the eastern indigo
snake into the wild.
The largest snake
indigenous to the
United States, the
eastern indigo snake
has been considered
threatened since the
late 1970s. Along
with researchers from Auburn and Zoo Atlant