Culture Series: Big Cats of New Mexico

Mountain lion research in New Mexico is the subject of the next Culture Series at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces.

The “Big Cats of New Mexico” presentation at 7 p.m. on Oct. 13 is organized and hosted by the Friends of the Museum. Admission is free.

Dr. Travis Perry, a biology professor at Furman University in Greenville, S.C., will talk about his New Mexico mountain lion research, meaningful outdoor education, and creating a field station in the Gila National Forest. In 2021, Dr. Perry founded Natural Curiosity, a nonprofit based in Hillsboro, N.M. that created the station for hands-on education, back-country skills, and conservation research in the Gila.

As a community ecologist, Dr. Perry’s interests are quite broad as reflected in his research with Furman students on species as diverse as the bunched arrowhead (endangered plant) to spotted salamanders to meadow voles to desert bighorn sheep.

Dr. Perry thrives on engaged teaching, giving students first-hand experience in the subject matter. He believes that these are the academic experiences, more than any others, that change lives. He has introduced students to the wilderness of New Mexico, the South African bush, the tropical forests of Costa Rica, and the natural environments of South Carolina. Perry feels his greatest professional achievement as an educator has been the design and implementation of Furman University’s Wild Semester, a conservation biology study-away program.