Michael Noonan, PhD

The Canisius Ambassadors for Conservation are directed by Dr Michael Noonan, Professor of Biology at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York (USA).  As an scholar, his research focuses on the welfare and behavior of animals held in zoological institutions.  Most recently, his projects have investigated social-cognition in captive killer whales.  His teaching responsibilities are centered in the Canisius College Animal Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation Program. 

As a teacher, Dr Noonan feels strongly about the importance of getting students out of the classroom so that he can teach lessons in real-world situations.  Many of his classes take place at zoos and aquariums that are close to the Canisius campus.  In addition, Dr Noonan has led more than seventy field trips to distant locales. 

Dr Noonan is the Founder and Director of the Institute for the Study of Human-Animal Relations, and the Canisius Ambassadors for Conservation program is part of that initiative.  In the CAC program, Canisius students travel with Dr Noonan for field studies at the front lines of wildlife conservation.  Then, upon their return to Western New York, the students go on to become advocates of wildlife conservation in the wider community.  The CAC students fall in love with wildlife via unforgettable encounters, and then they spread that same love for wildlife via their infectious enthusiasm. 

Dr Noonan’s emphasis is to keep the conversations upbeat and constructive.  He feels it is important to counteract a troubling trend toward pessimism in today’s young people.  “In the latest decade we are too often encountering teenagers who have feelings of helplessness and dread about the future,” Noonan says.  “It is particularly sad to find attitudes like that in young persons.  They are people who are supposed to full of dreams about making their world a better place!  The CAC program should never minimize or gloss over the very real challenges that we all face.  But the story of wildlife conservation over the past century has been a positive one, with many very substantial successes.  It is my belief that a pessimistic attitude is both unwarranted and counter-productive.  We should tell young people to just look at the resurgence of the great whales as an example of a positive change that humanity can affect when it is determined to do so.  The American Bison, the California Condor, the many others species tell similar stories.  It is never easy, but people do have the ability to leave the world a better place if they work together.  That is the message of CAC.” 

 

CAC is a program of the Institute for the Study of Human-Animal Relations at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY.