Teaching

Ranging from the largest animal in the world, the blue whale, to the tiny shrews, mammals are a diverse group of organisms. They range from the marine and aquatic environments, the deserts and tundra, to the plains and alpine. Understanding mammalian diversity is critical to understanding, managing, and caring for ecosystems around the world. In this course, we explore characteristics and origins of the mammalian lineage. We also investigate the diversity of mammals' life histories, behavior, societies, and morphology. We explore the global diversity, but pay closest attention to Alaskan mammals. Labs focus on mammalian orders and families, field detection of local mammals, and identification of Alaskan mammals to genus and species.