About the Class
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| Taught by Eric Wagner |
Every spring, thousands of rhinoceros auklets return to Protection Island off the coast of the Olympic Peninsula, in the Salish Sea. There they dig burrows, lay eggs, and raise their chicks. Small, gray, and adorned with a curious horn on their bill, these funny-looking birds have become an unlikely but vitally important indicator for the health of oceans and the Pacific ecosystem as a whole. In this course, biologist and author Eric Wagner will talk about the lives of auklets and other seabirds as scientists try to gauge the effects of climate change in the region. Students will travel into auklet burrows by fiber-optic camera and learn how these birds have tried to adapt to widespread environmental change.
| About Eric Wagner |
Eric Wagner is an author and seabird biologist. He holds a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Washington, where he studies penguins in Argentina and, closer to home, rhinoceros auklets on islands off the Washington coast. He is the author of four books, including After the Blast: The Ecological Recovery of Mount St. Helens, and the forthcoming Seabirds as Sentinels: Auklets, Puffins, Shearwaters, and the View from Destruction Island. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Orion, and High Country News, among many other places. He lives in Seattle with his family.
