Furman Magazine. Volume 43, Issue 4 - Full Issue Furman University

Furman Magazine Volume 43 Article 1 Issue 4 Winter 2001 1-1-2001 Furman Magazine. Volume 43, Issue 4 - Full Issue Furman University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/furman-magazine Recommended Citation University, Furman (2001) "Furman Magazine. Volume 43, Issue 4 - Full Issue," Furman Magazine: Vol. 43 : Iss. 4 , Article 1. Available at: https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/furman-magazine/vol43/iss4/1 This Complete Volume is made available online by Journals, part of the Furman University Scholar Exchange (FUSE). It has been accepted for inclusion in Furman Magazine by an authorized FUSE administrator. For terms of use, please refer to the FUSE Institutional Repository Guidelines. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Winter 2001 Remembrance of Things Past: Life on the Old Campus FurmanWinter 2001 FEATURES CROCODILE HUNTER 2 Thomas Rainwater's environmental research often leads to close encounters of the reptilian kind. by Jim Stewart THE PREFAB DAYS 8 A faculty "brat" recalls life and times on the old men's campus. by Judith Babb Chandler A SEPARATE PEACE 12 On a trip to Kosovo, a Furman graduate discovers a divided people struggling to come to grips with the ravages of war. by Ellie Beardsley ECO-COTTAGE 18 Think it's not that easy being green? A Furman experiment could prove you wrong. by John Roberts KNEE-DEEP IN THE HOOPLA 20 While the nation watched from afar, Todd Elmer worked in the trenches during the battle for the presidency in Florida. by Jim Stewart FURMAN REPORTS 22 CAMPAIGN UPDATE 28 ATHLETICS 30 ALUMNI NEWS 34 THE LAST WORD 48 ON THE COVER: Old Main, on the men's campus in downtown Greenville in the early 1950s. Photo from the Furman archives s the clock strikes 10 at reddish glow when caught in the light. Lamanai Field Research Thus, the hunter's maxim: "Terror Has Center, two men head toward Red Eyes." the beach. Suddenly, they get a hit: eye shine Finding the right boat for the task 100 meters to the right. Slowly the skipper ahead,A they cast off into the night. Their maneuvers the boat toward the sighting, waterway: the New River Lagoon, the being as quiet as possible to avoid largest fr eshwater body in the Central fr ightening the traditionally skittish animal. American country of Belize. Their As they approach, his friend crouches on equipment: spotlights and headlamps, a the bow, his snare - a wire cable loop, snare made of cable and rope, a pole, some attached to a long rope and lightly taped duct tape. Their demeanor: watchful and to the end of a pole - at the ready. alert. Carefully he drops the snare over the Their target: crocodiles. croc's head, then pulls it tight. Acting As they make their way, they train much like a slip-knot, it locks into place, their spotlights on the water 's surface, and the croc begins to thrash violently in focusing particularly on tree limbs, lily an effort to escape. Its exertions jerk the pads and grasses along the banks of the snare free from the pole. lagoons, looking for the telltale "eye shine" What's left is a croc on a rope. that indicates the presence of a croc. The While the croc struggles,its antagonists animals have a special layer of cells in the play it as they would a fish. Because most Thomas Rainwater '89 has caught approximately backs of their eyes that allow them to see crocodiles have limited stamina, the battle 650 crocodiles in the wilds of Belize. in the dark - and that reflect a bright usually lasts little more than a fe w minutes. 2 As the animal exhausts itself and were found- perhaps one day to go and that the chemicals may affect their becomes more subdued, they pull it toward through the same experience again. ability to reproduce. the boat and prepare for the next, vitally "Many chemicals like DDT have been important phase of the operation: securing or Thomas Rainwater, this banned in more industrialized countries, the jaws. Depending on the crocodile's scenario is business as usual. but until recently they were still legally size and position in the water, the hunters A 1989 Furman graduate and used in Belize to control agricultural and may use rope, another snare or even their doctoral candidate at Te xas Tech disease-carrying pests, such as malaria hands. University, he has spent portions of the infected mosquitoes," he says. "Chemicals They then lift the croc into the boat, Flast four years in Belize, researching the like DDT can persist in the environment using duct tape to further hold the jaws, endangered Morelet's crocodile as part of for decades, so even if a certain pesticide and blindfold the animal to reduce its his dissertation project in environmental was last used 20 or 30 years ago, it has the anxiety. To take it home, they place it in toxicology. potential to affect the current inhabitants a holding bag or in the bottom of the boat. His tests on the animals (he takes of the area, both wildlife and people." With the firstcaptive in hand, the crew samples of their blood and fat), combined Crocodiles and their comrades in the moves on. Once their evening's work is with a study of their eggs, nest material Order Crocodylia, Rainwater says, are completed - they may hunt all night, or and sediment samples from the environ "excellent indicators of environmental for only a few hours -they return to their ment, are part of an effort to determine contamination and ecosystem health." base at the research facility. There they the crocodiles' exposure and reaction to As predators that reside at the top of the sequester their catch in a holding center contaminants such as DDT and other food chain, they tend to accumulate until the next morning, when they return pesticides. Rainwater says recent research environmental contaminants and are often to take samples and measurements. Within suggests that crocodilians (crocodiles, more sensitive to these chemicals than are 12 hours, the animals are taken back to the alligators, caimans, gharials) fr equently birds, mammals or fish. Crocs eat virtually wild and released in the same spot they encounter contaminants through their food, anything, live for a long time (50 years or 3 SIMON BACKLEY JEFF POWIS JEFF POWIS more) and typically remain in the same f course, the question begs to confesses, was not the most focused of general area throughout their lives. be asked: Why crocodiles? students. Rainwater says that if a crocodile contains 0 The answer goes back to Although many of his fel low 1989 contaminants, chances are it was exposed Rainwater's formative years in biology graduates immediately pursued in the area that it was captured. Florence, S.C., the heart of Pee Dee country, advanced study, Rainwater decided to take Since beginning his annual six-month with its ample supply of swamps and a year off, "basically to avoid making a stints in Belize in 1997-a total of four undeveloped land. "Ever since I can decision on what to do next." While sessions in the field, after each of which remember," he says, "I've been fascinated traveling and working odd jobs, he he returnedto Te xas Te ch to analyze his with wildlife, particularly reptiles. I think developed a strong interest in environ data- Rainwater says that he and his this is actually pretty common among mental pollution and its effect on wildlife associates have inspected hundreds of children growing up in rural areas. I just and their habitats. In 1990, he enrolled at infertile crocodile eggs and found pesticide never outgrew it." Clemson University to pursue a master's residue in virtually every one. They have He claims to have owned as many as degree in environmental toxicology. also discovered contaminants in sediment seven snakes at one time, and he and His thesis project took him to Kiawah and nest samples. The next step, he says, his friends knew the swamps near his Island, S.C., where for two summers he studied the effects of turfgrass pesticides "Ever since I can remember, I've been fascinated with and other chemicals on free-ranging birds wildlife. I think this is pretty common among children at the Ocean Course, site of the 1991 Ryder Cup. Still, he says, "I probably spent a growing up in rural areas. I just never outgrew it." third of my time observing and photo graphing the many alligators that inhabited is to analyze the blood and fat samples as neighborhood "like the backs of our hands. the course's creeks and ponds and basked well as other data to determine if this We 'd spend the summers exploring and along the edge of the fairways." When the exposure is having any effect on the crocs, searching for animals, and we'd buy baby Kiawah research ended in the summer of both at the individual and population levels. pools at K-mart for 50 cents each and use 1993, he was determined to develop a Their research, he believes, could help them to hold turtles and toads." project to study the effects of environmental determine what effect environmental His parents were good role models, contaminants on alligators or crocodiles. contaminants might have on an overall encouraging their son's activities but Master's degree in hand, he spent the ecosystem and what the implications might insisting that he return the animalsto the fall of 1994 in Princeton, N.J., as an intern be for humans and other animals residing wild shortly after capture.

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