Vision at the Arboretum

Photos from Past Vision at the Zoo Events

Vision at the Arboretum — A Bird’s Eye View outreach event
UW Arboretum
June 4th, 2017
1:00pm to 3:00pm

Short talks included:
– All About Bird Eyes, Dick Dubielzig, DVM, Emeritus Director, Comparative Ocular Pathology Lab of Wisconsin
– Turkeys in Wisconsin, Scott Lutz, PhD, Department of Wildlife Ecology
– Hummingbird Vision, Michael & Kathi Rock, The Hummingbird Society

Hosted stations:
– Birds of the Arboretum, Chuck Henrikson, Emeritus staff, Comparative Biosciences
– Everything Hummingbird, Michael & Kathi Rock
– Urban Chickens, Ron Kean, UW Extension

Location: Visitor Center, UW Arboretum, 1207 Seminole Highway, Madison 53711

Vision at the Arboretum: Fly By Night
June 18th, 2016
9:30am – Noon

Learn about how vision works for bats and owls. Program speakers are: Dr. Gillian Shaw (DVM, PhD, COPLOW Fellow), Dr. Melissa Behr (DVM, Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostics Lab), and Matt Reetz, Executive Director, Madison Audubon Society)

The McPherson Eye Research Institute’s Vision at the Arboretum: Sight in Flight

This event took place on Saturday, June 13, 2015 at the UW Arboretum’s Visitor Center. Participants heard from three speakers focused on insect vision, two of them members of the McPherson ERI. Gillian Shaw, a Fellow at the Comparative Ocular Pathology Lab in UW’s School of Veterinary Medicine, started the program with a talk on Compound and Simple Eyes of Bees, Butterflies, and Moths. She was followed by Carlos Flores from the Colley Lab in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, who zeroed in on Retinal Degeneration through the Eye of the Fly. UW-Madison Insect Diagnostic Lab Manager P.J. Liesch concluded the formal program, speaking about What’s Up with Pollinators? Guests were then able to view insect specimens, both mounted and live (including butterflies, both in and out of cocoons, and a walking stick more than 3 inches long), and to participate in capturing insects using butterfly nets. Approximately 50 people attended this second arboretum event, successor to the McPherson ERI’s past Vision at the Zoo events.

McPherson ERI events about animals and vision have been held at the Henry Vilas Zoo and UW-Madison Arboretum. These free educational events have explored subjects such as how a walking stick has an impressive visual system that allows it to adapt to dim-lighting conditions, that pythons don’t have eyelids, and how vision works for red-tailed hawks and for ground squirrels in their shared prairie environment.

“Studies of animal vision help us to understand our own visual system,” said Dr. Nansi Colley, a professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. “It also helps us to understand how animals interact with their environment and how nature works.”

These McPherson ERI Vision and Animals events support vision health in the community. “Learning about the eyes of other animals is not only fascinating and fun,” said Dr. Dan Albert, Oregon Health and Science University Professor of Ophthalmology, “but it can also have important applications in understanding the human eye and its diseases.”