Naturalist Remains Enthusiastic About Wildlife, Despite All the Fangs and Claws

You’d think Curt Abdouch, 42, of Irvine would have shaky feelings about wildlife, considering he’s been bitten and clawed by lizards, owls, hawks, snakes, a fox and a badger. In his case, however, it comes with the job. “Getting bit and clawed is not uncommon for people in my profession,” said Abdouch, who is a naturalist and science coordinator for UC Irvine Extension and who says he is more interested in talking about what he calls a literacy crisis in science.

“We look at new developments in space and computers, but science hasn’t kept pace with the technologies of the 20th Century,” said Abdouch, who earlier worked for the National Wildlife Federation, which has 4.2 million members.. “For instance, I’m convinced young people are not getting enough kinship with animals as they once did.”

Abdouch partially blames young people’s ignorance of animals on the demise of rural living and the fact that youngsters today live an “urban youthhood.”

“In spite of the need to keep animal kinships alive,” he said, “they are often set aside for material things. Our relationships with wildlife are essential. We need them around us even for our own good.”

Abdouch no doubt will place heavy emphasis on that theme at his “Wild and Wonderful Science Festival” on Saturday at the UCI campus, one of his attempts to broaden science programs in extension classes.

In addition to a series of lectures on preserving and protecting wildlife and the environment, he will also show the colorful collection of butterflies he has carved from basswood, the product of the North American linden tree.

Abdouch was raised in Nebraska, where he kept foxes, songbirds and a skunk. He tells youngsters now that such animals as skunks and wolves are neither good nor bad, but “they are all necessary.”

“We need a basic respect for all living things because we’re all dependent on each other,” he says.

Although he lives a modern life, “I temper that with what I call an environmentally compatible life style. I pay attention (to) how my actions affect my fellow man and the physical surroundings.”

The scars on his arms and hands from animal bites show that Abdouch has paid a painful price pursuing his career with animals. “It’s sort of like biting the hand that feeds them,” he says.

Ever try to convince an intoxicated caller that he has the wrong number, especially when the caller is in Seattle using an “800” number to try and get a cab home and instead gets an Orange County phone number? “It was a minor mix-up, but we got everyone to the right number,” said Elaine Osborn of Comprehensive Care Corp. of Irvine, an organization that offered free cab rides during the holidays to those who had too much to drink. “We’ve been doing this for six years so we’ve had a lot of practice.” In addition to the 100 misdirected calls, the company gave 350 free rides home in Orange and Los Angeles counties. “I think people were afraid of getting caught in a sobriety check point,” she said.

Grayce Roessler of Huntington Beach, long interested in international nursing education, knew it would be difficult to get permission for 20 nurses to leave China to study at Golden West College.

So she tried a simple approach and wrote a friendly letter to Chairman Deng Xiao-Ping of the Chinese Communist Party. “Always go to the top when you have a bureaucratic problem,” said the college’s coordinator for continuing education for health care personnel.

Back came a letter from the chairman outlining his support, which resulted in bringing the 20 English-speaking nurses to the college to learn modern nursing techniques, as well as ways to update the Chinese health-care system.

“These nurses are the cream of the crop in the (Chinese) health-care field,” said Roessler, adding that the 20 nurses will return to China in June.

Sid Buckles, 83, of Santa Ana expects to be back playing third base this year with the Santa Ana Old-Timers after a cataract threatened his off-time athletic activity. He has since had an eye implant and now works out with his grandsons and anyone else he can find to help him get back the sparkling edge he once had.

“I think I’ll be all right now,” said Buckles, who works full time on production control at Coast Iron and Steel Co. in Santa Fe Springs. “I really had a problem. I couldn’t see the ball.”

His manager said Buckles is the type who “seems to hang on to his reflexes.” The softball league administrator added that “Sid’s phenomenal for his age.”

And his wife, Dorothy Buckles, said she’ll continue to watch her husband play on weekends. “I have a brother, husband, two sons and four grandsons,” she said, “so I sort of go along with all this.”