An expert on canopies

From Express Buzz:

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: You don’t have to be a Tarzan to swing around the tree-tops in the dark tropical forests.

Margaret Lowman, the mother of canopy biology, along with representatives of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE), was in town this week to introduce the concept of canopy walkways to the state Forest Department. Canopy Meg, as she is fondly referred to by her students, has been building canopy-walkways and other gadgets, which will take people right from one treetop to another. Even the disabled ones.

“It’s an action-packed place to visit. Half of the species that live on land live on treetops, you know. Millions of beetles, thousands of ants, hundreds of monkeys – it’s totally dynamic and exotic. Probably less than one percent of the life has been studied and even if every child in India grows to be a canopy biologist, there will still be lots of exciting stuff to do,” said Meg, who is also the Director of Museum of Natural Sciences in North Carolina.

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