Guest Speaker - Dr. Glen Chilton

This week's speaker was best selling author Dr. Chilton - "Attack of the Killer Rhododendrons" which is about the effects a species introduced by man can have on the environment.  Currently Rhodo's are devastating the old Oak Forests of England, Scotland and Ireland.  Here in Vancouver the Crested Myna bird was introduced in 1886 but no one knows who introduced them or why.  Perhaps a ship's captain was tired of them or they outlived railway workers that brought them here from India or China.  Originally there was only 2 or maybe 4 birds but by the 20's and 30's there were tens of thousands in Vancouver.  After a 100 years here they declined down to 2 and then became extinct in North America.  We are not sure of why they declined but it could be because of the interbreeding from the original 2.  Dr. Chilton's next book is "The Return of Ferret Zombies" which talks about a species that was thought to be extinct but came back.