Lili Romann ’19

Felix Olusola Abayomi, a conservation professional working with wildlife management and zoologist enlightened the students of teacher Mike Lazaroff’s Zoology and Animal Behavior classes with his education of wildlife, conservation, and extinction on Friday, March 17.

“I really enjoyed listening to the talk of endangered species,” Eloise Pieper ’19, a student in Lazaroff’s Animal Behavior class said. “His fight for sea turtles and other creatures has inspired us all to learn more about this topic and fight to preserve our earth.”

Abayomi, a member of Wildlife Africa, spoke about the negative variations of human utilization regarding wildlife, common trends, conservation and sustainable development. He was able to communicate his methodologies and approach going forward.

“Sustainable is to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” Abayomi presentation read. “There should be reasonable assessment of the survival prospects of the animals to justify the risks involved.”

Lazaroff felt it was important to bring such a presentation specifically to his students’ attention as they are not fully educated in other classes on these concepts and moralities.

“The issue we’ve had is that when people are taking biology classes, there was so little time to learn about these problems of extinction,” Lazaroff said. “When you learn about animals, you need to address extinction, ecosystem conservation, and the governmental aspect.”

The Zoology and Animal Behavior classes will continue to explore this unit as the semester progresses. Lazaroff encourages people to continue learning and staying interested in this complex subject.