Rattlesnakes, Bugs and Beavers, and The Deadliest Creature

If this is your first Nature Nerds program, please read this: Nature Nerds is an informal educational event for grown-ups. We swear sometimes. Jokes are made that are not intended for kids. Pretty much every biologist who gets on stage talks about sex. This program is not for the haughty or for youths. It is... a good time! Show and Tell: Rattlesnakes! If you’ve been following Nature Nerds for a while, you know that we love a zoological visitor. This month, we will be graced by a rattlesnake! Come, witness one of California’s beautiful residents and learn a bit about what it means to be a Venomous Snake Training Course Instructor with Save The Snakes and work with these special reptiles. Griffin Capehart has spent his entire life as a biologist. He has studied all sorts of animals from larval amphibians to Cerulean Warblers and Red-headed Woodpeckers to Hellbenders to rattlesnakes. With years of experience in fieldwork, international herpetofaunal surveys, and teaching environmental science and biology courses, he now works for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in Habitat Conservation. Waterway Baddies: Bugs and Beavers Scientists have been using benthic macroinvertebrates, or bugs, as biological indicators of stream health for decades. The bug diversity in a stream as well as which species are present tells us a lot about local water quality. Streams with varied and complex habitat types tend to support a more diverse and thriving bug community. Guess who plays a huge role in diversifying stream habitats? Beavers! In this talk, we will discuss the roles that bugs and beavers play in maintaining healthy streams, rivers, and watersheds. Ivie Foster is a researcher at UC Davis in Dr. Lusardi’s Freshwater Ecology lab. Her main research focuses on monitoring ecological responses in streams to beaver dam analogues and floodplain restoration. Her work history includes rescuing steelhead from the Carmel River, studying native brook trout in Pennsylvania, and planning inclusive environmental education programs. You can find her wading into streams both on and off the clock, as well as spending time with her husband, cat, three dogs, and two rabbits. The World's Most Deadly Creature Danger may be brewing in tiny puddles near your home. Let’s learn about these tiny vectors of disease and the research being done on mosquitoes. What is their life cycle? How can we protect ourselves? And are they becoming resistant to pesticides? Come find out about what’s happening in our region and in the lab to learn more about these tiny, but mighty, insects. Carla-Cristina “CC” de Melo Edwards is trying to make the world a better place: one mosquito at a time. She earned her master's degree investigating the effects of microplastics in relation to Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus (the Asian tiger mosquito). She is a PhD student in the UC Davis Entomology program, where her research is focused on investigating the physiological mechanisms underlying pyrethroid resistance in Aedes aegypti (the yellow fever mosquito). She is also a volunteer at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open houses, UC Davis Picnic Day, and UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day. In her free time, she likes getting coffee with my friends, running, and trying new crafts and recipes. ABOUT TICKET PRICES: $33 tickets are for you if you own your home, can travel internationally for fun, have savings and investments. This price directly offsets lower prices for folks that could use support. $19 tickets are for you if you can meet your basic needs. $9 tickets are if you're a single parent, you use EBT, cannot afford to take time off without financial burden, are an unpaid community organizer.