- Feb 5, 2002
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A dedicated ornithologist with a passion for lightning bugs scours bogs and beaches to discover previously unknown species
In the dark of a June evening, standing in the black mud of a New Jersey bog, an hour’s drive from home, Christopher Heckscher was alert to any flicker of light. He is an explorer, though this wilderness lies in one of the most densely populated regions of the United States: the Northeast megalopolis. And now, as pale stars appeared from behind the clouds, he needed one more firefly.
Heckscher, a professor at Delaware State University, is an ornithologist who studies thrushes, sparrows and other migrating songbirds. But another fascinating flier captured his attention early on, and he has been publishing papers about fireflies for almost 20 years. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Heckscher was able to focus on his favorite insect close to his home region. He joined with other North American members of an international panel of firefly experts, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission Firefly Specialist Group, to determine which firefly species are closest to extinction, using extinction risk criteria from the IUCN, which maintains a worldwide record of threatened species known as the Red List.
Continued below.
www.smithsonianmag.com
In the dark of a June evening, standing in the black mud of a New Jersey bog, an hour’s drive from home, Christopher Heckscher was alert to any flicker of light. He is an explorer, though this wilderness lies in one of the most densely populated regions of the United States: the Northeast megalopolis. And now, as pale stars appeared from behind the clouds, he needed one more firefly.
Heckscher, a professor at Delaware State University, is an ornithologist who studies thrushes, sparrows and other migrating songbirds. But another fascinating flier captured his attention early on, and he has been publishing papers about fireflies for almost 20 years. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Heckscher was able to focus on his favorite insect close to his home region. He joined with other North American members of an international panel of firefly experts, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission Firefly Specialist Group, to determine which firefly species are closest to extinction, using extinction risk criteria from the IUCN, which maintains a worldwide record of threatened species known as the Red List.
Continued below.
The Illuminating Science Behind Fireflies
A dedicated ornithologist with a passion for lightning bugs scours bogs and beaches to discover previously unknown species
