Welcome to my blog, friends.  I'm starting this as a platform to share some of my experiences during my sabbatical travels this fall, but also my general observations about wildlife and wildlife conservation.  I'm a professor in the Environmental Science Department at Westfield State University in western Massachusetts, and the current President of The Wildlife Society (TWS).  The Wildlife Society is the largest international organization of wildlife scientists and managers, organized in 1937.  Opinions expressed on this blog are solely my own, unless I am referencing a published position of TWS.

On September 4th, I'll be starting the drive from western Massachusetts to Wyoming, where I will meet a friend and fellow TWS member, Bob Lanka, who has arranged a number of excursions for me to learn about endangered species issues in Wyoming.  We'll be visiting the black-footed ferret captive breeding facility and later doing some night surveys for ferrets in north-central Wyoming, discussing the effects of energy development on wildlife and their habitats with researchers at the University of Wyoming, and visiting with Wyoming Game and Fish Department staff charged with managing grizzly bears and other large carnivores...among other things. 

The trip and field visits in Wyoming will be interesting I'm sure and provide for some neat photos, but there are plenty of interesting wildlife stories back here at home and all over the world that I will also introduce as time allows and as I get educated on them.  So, welcome and I appreciate your company on this blog.  I'll close out this first entry with a photo from my last big adventure, in South Africa in July 2017.  More about that later.