NightSchool: Down Under

Join us for a session dedicated to the unique wildlife and ecosystems of Australia. Tune in for stories about platypuses, flying-foxes, koalas, and wombats, and how these populations are faring while facing climate change, wildfires, and urban development. Also: Find out how wombats produce cube-shaped poop.

• Wildlife photographer Doug Gimesy doesn’t have to travel far from home to find interesting conservation stories—it helps that his home is in southeastern Australia. He’ll talk about two of the fascinating animals that he’s covered close to his hometown of Melbourne—flying-foxes and platypuses.
   
• Australia’s iconic koalas aren’t doing well. Dr. Christine Hosking, Conservation Planner at the University of Queensland, talks about the population’s plummeting numbers and the country’s recent bushfires, drought, and increased urban development that threaten them, and what conservation models are needed to avoid the species’ extinction.
   
• To mark their territory, wombats build cairns with their cube-shaped poop. But how can their soft intestines make cubes in the first place? Dr. David Hu is an expert in the biomechanics of animal locomotion, and his lab at Georgia Tech recently won an Ig Nobel prize in physics for their work explaining just how it works—and how it might be applicable to the wider world.

All NightLife virtual programming is intended for audiences 21+.

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PAST VIRTUAL NIGHTLIFE EVENTS

Missed the party? Just want to relive the magic? Watch the recorded livestreams on YouTube!