‘Big Cats of New Mexico’ is Oct. 13 presentation at Farm and Ranch Museum

Mountain lion research in New Mexico is the subject of the next Culture Series at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, 4100 Dripping Springs Road, the museum said in a news release.

The “Big Cats of New Mexico” presentation at 7 p.m. Thursday, 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, South Carolina, will talk about his New Mexico mountain lion research, meaningful outdoor education and creating a field station in the Gila National Forest, the museum said.

In 2021, Perry founded National Curiosity, a nonprofit based in Hillsboro, New Mexico, that created the station for hands-on education, back-country skills and conservation research in the Gila.

As a community ecologist, 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, the news release said.

Perry, who has a bachelor’s of science degree from Furman University and a Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico, “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,” according to www.furman.edu/people/travis-perry.

 For more information, call 575-522-4100.