Conservationist Peter Zahler will present “The Last of the Wild: Wildlife Conservation Across Temperate Asia” on Wednesday, June 5, at 6:30 pm at the New Lebanon Library. The program, which is free and open to the public, is appropriate for patrons of all ages. “Temperate Asia” extends from the frigid Siberian Arctic through the great expanses of Central Asia and China and down into the conflict-afflicted high mountains of Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. Huge open spaces, such as Mongolia’s Eastern Steppe, the Russian Far East, the Tibetan Plateau and the Afghan Pamirs still hold some of the last great wild spectacles in Asia, from over a million migrating Mongolian gazelle to wild yak, Siberian tiger, Marco Polo sheep and snow leopard. Zahler will give a multimedia presentation on conservation programs that are working to save wildlife and wild places in this mysterious and little known expanse of earth’s landscape justifiably called “the last of the wild.”
Peter Zahler is the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Deputy Director for Asia and manages conservation programs and projects across temperate Asia. He has worked on wildlife conservation for over 30 years, from the Alaskan tundra to the Peruvian Amazon to the Pakistan Himalayas, but he is now happy to call East Chatham home.
The New Lebanon Library is located at 550 State Route 20, ¼ mile north of the yellow blinking light at the intersection of Routes 20/22.