By Kathy Henry Dowell

On a field trip with naturalist Rudy Mancke, your feet may take baby steps but your mind leaps from fact to fascinating fact.

Twenty-five South Carolina Honors College students signed up for the first offering of Natural History of South Carolina, described in the course bulletin as “a course that will bring out the naturalist in you.”

And for a full semester, those twenty-five students followed instructor Rudy Mancke like the children of Hamelin followed the Pied Piper.

So charmed were they by Mancke’s mesmerizing, fact-filled tune that they marched with him into forests, up mountains, through swamps, and onto beaches.

It’s easy to see why. A noted South Carolina naturalist, Mancke is as knowledgeable as a scientist, as kind as a grandparent, as playful as a kid brother.

On a field trip to Woods Bay Heritage Preserve near Sumter, he takes one step out of the bus and immediately points to a leaf on a tree.

“What’s this?” he asks, looking around at his students.

“Who said, ‘Wax myrtle’? That’s right, that’s right!” he says, adding with a mock pout, “Oh, you don’t need me anymore.”

At the sound of a shrill call, all eyes look up. Mancke points to a yellow-rumped warbler sitting in a nearby maple. He tells a story about his grandmother reprimanding him when, as a boy, he called the bird “butter butt.”

“She let me know she didn’t think that was a nice thing to say, and she didn’t want me to say it anymore. And it probably wasn’t a nice thing to say, and I didn’t say it again. At least, not where she could hear me.”

The students nod and laugh knowingly.

“Look—here’s some heartleaf. Crush the leaves. Smells like ginger, doesn’t it?

“And what is this? Largest deciduous tree in the United States. Can grow 100 to 150 feet high. No, not oak. Not birch. A tuliptree. The tiger swallowtail, which is the state butterfly, likes to lay its eggs on this tree.”

At this point, Mancke pauses to take a breath. He has talked for 20 minutes. As a group, the students have traveled roughly five feet.

True, they will never traverse the globe this way. But they will see more than they’ve ever seen before.

In January, Mancke joined the USC School of the Environment as a distinguished lecturer in natural history. He is perhaps best known as director of nature programming for S.C. ETV and for NatureScene, a nationally syndicated TV show on which he appeared for 23 years.

Before his television career, Mancke was natural history curator at the South Carolina State Museum and, before that, a high school biology and geology teacher. He earned a degree at Wofford College and did graduate work at USC, and has received honorary doctorate degrees from the College of Charleston, Converse College, Coker College, Presbyterian College, Winthrop University, and Wofford College. He writes articles, maintains a demanding public speaking schedule, and is host of Nature Notes on educational radio.

The course Mancke has structured at USC offers students the fruits of all those experiences.

“This semester we have gone from the mountains to the sea,” Mancke said. “We have taken a general look at the plants and animals found in South Carolina, examined the classification system for these organisms, and learned how to identify many of them. We also explored the myriad connections in the natural world—the glue that holds the system together.”

Class requirements are attendance and participation during two in-class meetings per week, three exams, a report on a naturalist, and a report on a plant and an animal of the student’s choice. Participation in labs—one field trip a week—is required.

Students also keep a journal of their experiences. In this first class, many of the journals became works of art that included regular diary entries, extensive lists of flora and fauna seen on field trips, poetry, sketches, even haiku and small watercolor paintings. Word of the course has spread quickly. “Since Rudy joined us, there have been multiple inquiries from the community about a degree or certificate program in natural history at USC,” said Bruce Coull, dean of the School of the Environment and a Carolina Distinguished Professor. “And that is certainly being considered.”

Holding a haggard-looking snake at Riverfront Park, Mancke shakes his head with pity.

“Poor guy, he won’t live to see another winter, probably. Look at his mottled scales; look at how his mouth hangs open.” The students gape in wonder, then write in their notebooks.

Asked later if he ever gets tired of looking at birds, lizards, and sick snakes, Mancke answered, “I love the excitement of discovery. I’ve caught thousands of snakes, but I always want one more. And every time I share in someone else’s moment of discovery, I get excited about that.”

Mancke insists that everyone has this broad-based curiosity—it just needs to be ignited. Field trips are an excellent way to do that. During the semester, Mancke and his students took Wednesday afternoon excursions to Dreher Island near Newberry; Peachtree Rock Nature Preserve in Lexington County; and Forty-Acre Rock in Allendale County; Barnwell State Park near Blackville; Sumter National Forest; and Congaree Swamp National Monument near Columbia. They took day-long Saturday trips to Edisto Beach State Park on the coast and Jones Gap State Park in the Upstate.

“If you read about something, that’s one thing, but holding it in your hand and touching the scales on it—you’re never going to forget that,” Mancke said. “I’m convinced they will never forget it. They like this feeling and want more, and they won’t need me to spark that.”

Needing to fulfill a four-hour science course requirement, Sheima Salam very nearly signed up for an anatomy course.

“I’m so glad I didn’t,” she said. “There wasn’t a boring moment, ever, in Professor Mancke’s class or on the field trips. He is so animated and interesting: he mixes his own life stories with the class.

“On the field trips, we got to see what we were learning about in the classroom,” said Salam, a junior baccalaureus major from Richmond, Virginia. “I’m not from South Carolina, so I’m really not that interested in the natural history of South Carolina. But the course turned out to be about natural history in general and can be applied to all of nature. I’m a much better observer now, certainly more aware of what’s around me.”

That awareness, as another student discovered, is a very good thing.

“I started learning from the very first class meeting,” wryly noted Lois Dowers, a senior anthropology major. “On our first field trip, I moved a leaf aside to see a spider and discovered that the leaf was poison ivy.

“That must be what the course description meant by ‘hands-on learning’,” she laughed.

Dowers signed up for the course for two main reasons, she explained.

“Since early childhood, I have been an investigator of nature and have always loved natural history. And I recently moved to South Carolina from Illinois, so I wanted to learn more about my new state and its environment.

“I really enjoyed the field trips. My favorite flora-find was mistletoe. It was the first time I’d ever seen it, and I am fascinated by its means of survival. I really enjoyed learning how it gets to the tops of trees by birds wiping their sticky beaks against it.”

Brother-and-sister duo Emily and Derrick Smith took the course together.

“Professor Mancke’s an instructor who really cares about his subject and his students,” said Derrick, a senior math major who graduated in May. “This course is exactly what college ought to be.”

On the final field trip—a return visit to Riverfront Park—the Smiths’ parents came along.

“We’re big fans; we love NatureScene,” said dad Harold Smith. “We live in Spartanburg and we drove to Columbia for the day. Derrick and Emily have raved about the class, and we didn’t want to miss a chance to walk in the woods with Rudy.”