WBU Events

These events, classes, and bird walks are sponsored or hosted by us!Each listing may have different requirements for attendance, so be sure to read thoroughly.___

[Bird Talk] Galapagos Finches

Darwin’s finches, named after Charles Darwin, are small land birds, 17 of which are endemic to the Galapagos Islands. They are not true finches – they actually belong to the tanager family. It is thought that their ancestor, and closest known relative, is the dull-coloured grassquit, which is found on mainland South America.

Once the original grassquits arrived in Galapagos, they diversified and adapted to the different environments found on the Islands, eventually becoming different species. They famously evolved to have different beaks which are suited to different food types such as large seeds and invertebrates, allowing them to occupy different niches.

Join us and our amazing facilitator Dolph Schluter on a fascinating journey through adaption and evolution.

Dolph Schluter is a Canadian professor of Evolutionary Biology and a Canada Research Chair in the Department of Zoology at the University of British Columbia. For his doctoral thesis, Schluter studied ecological mechanisms driving evolution in island assemblages of Darwin's finch species.

For his fieldwork, he and an assistant spent nearly two years living in a tent on remote and otherwise uninhabited Galápagos Islands. His work was a key component of a long-term study of the Darwin's finches that has been recognized as the most successful ever field study of evolution. Schluter obtained a tenure track position at UBC in 1989, where he played a steering role in building one of the world’s strongest research groups in biodiversity science.

When: Wednesday, June 12th 2024

Time: 6:30pm (Presentation is about an hour in length.)

Where: In-store here at 1302 West Broadway (Free parking in back!)

Space for this talk is limited! Call today to reserve your spot. 604-736-2676

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Local Non-WBU Events and Classes

Check out these classes, events and activities from around the province! Please note that these are not sponsored, run by, or affiliated with us in any way, and you'll need to contact the groups hosting the events themselves with any questions you may have. Registration for each event may be different, and some may have an associated cost. We recommend you read each posting thoroughly by clicking on the workshop/event name to view the full webpage of information.