Animal planet

07 May 2003

Cathy Cockrell photo

Before he was a wildlife biologist, Dale McCullough was a farm kid with a “hunting instinct.” Now he packs a Canon EOS instead of a rifle, to stalk animals in their native habitats across the world. As an amateur photographer, he says, “I can do all those hunting things. I have my trophies, but nothing gets hurt.”

Fifteen of McCullough’s trophies — close-up wildlife portraits from Japan, Africa, and Australia — are now on display in Mulford Hall. The Berkeley professor is pictured here next to his photo of a monitor lizard known as Gould’s goanna, taken in Australia. Viewers can get up close and personal with a drooling African wild dog — “all charged up at the thought of baboon steak” — that appeared on the scene as McCullough observed a troupe of baboons in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Also on display are an Eastern grey kangaroo (he and his wife, Yvette, literally “wrote the book” — Kangaroos in Outback Australia — on the photogenic and resilient marsupial), along with other wild creatures.

The animal portraits will be exhibited through fall semester. The Walter Mulford Gallery is located on the west stairwell landing of the first floor of Mulford Hall.
— Cathy Cockrell