“A bird in the hand is worth two in the book,” says biology teacher Jim Dunlap, curator of the Living Materials Center.

On 25 acres of primitive watershed in east Plano, the Lake Highlands resident watches over the home of over 200 small animals and a 3.5 mile trail system. A 20-year veteran teacher of high school biology, Dunlap has made educating and caring for urban wildlife his mission in life.

He didn’t start with acres of critters. “I began collecting small animals for my own class,” he explains. “Soon I had a whole room full.”

Other teachers became interested in Dunlap’s living laboratory, and he often traveled to nearby schools during his lunch period with an assortment of creatures to share with students.

Dunlap explains: “This arrangement eventually evolved into a schedule in which I spent a half day teaching and the other half traveling.”

His program was so successful that 15 years ago the City of Plano and Plano Independent School District approved a bond package to finance the construction of the facility that now houses The Living Materials Center.

“All of these animals have their own story,” says Dunlap weaving his way through a crowded maze of cages.

All the animals at the center were either rescued by people and dropped off, or are abandoned pets. Almost daily, animal control officials will call Dunlap when they have captured an animal that has no other place to go. When this happens, he contacts a network of people at zoos and wildlife parks.

“Our ultimate goal is to move the animals out of here to the best possible place for them,” he says.

Currently, the Center is home to a wide variety of animals — monkeys, alligators, snakes, rabbits, birds and turtles, to name a few; it currently is part of the Plano schools curriculum and not open to the public. Each weekday during the school year, buses arrive with 150 or more children ready to spend the day learning about wildlife.

“We break them into two groups,” explains Dunlap. “Half work indoors with the animals while the other half go out on the trail. Then, after lunch the groups switch.”

The activities incorporate observational techniques, such as counting, classifying and identifying. The teachers design the projects for each individual class, and Dunlap feels that this hand-on approach to science is invaluable.

Students come to love this quirky man, while developing utmost respect for his knowledge about animals. Kendell Stixrood, a 1999 Plano High School graduate recalls: “Mr. Dunlap was kind of a goofy guy, but we loved him. We called him all the time when we found an animal we didn’t know what to do with.”

Dunlap isn’t sure what will happen if he ever steps down as curator of The Living Materials Center. “This job is 24-hours-a-day and 365 days a year,” he says. “You have to be a real nut.”

Lake Highlands Night Life

In addition to his work at The Living Materials Center, Jim Dunlap also writes articles about local wildlife to area magazines, and has published both fiction and non-fiction books about nature. Following is an excerpt from an article about his recent encounter with some Lake Highlands Night Life:

I have lived in Old Lake Highlands for 30 years and have had many encounters with the urban wildlife. There was the night the dogs were going crazy … .

I strolled out to the alley to see what all the ruckus was about. The scratching noise made my filling hurt and then I noticed a tiny foot hanging over the edge of a lidless trash can. I recognized the foot and knew this nemesis of the garbage can was trying to retrieve some dinner.

You would prefer that opossums move on to a neighbor or stay in the creek. There are a few things you can do. First, do not feed Fido or Kitty on the back porch or garage. Opossums are the first to take advantage, followed by raccoons and then skunks. Second, close up holes and close the garage door at night. They will enter any place that offers an opening at least as large as their head.

Third, and last resort, you can trap and remove them. For a small deposit fee you can borrow a live-catch trap from the Animal Control Department. Place the trap anywhere you find an edge. Opossums like to travel along a definable edge because they use their whiskers as a guide in total darkness. The side of the house or garage, the fence, or flowerbed border will do nicely. You do not want to catch the neighborhood cats so you can use freshly sliced banana, apple and crushed pecan for bait.

When you catch the opossum, call the zoo, nature center or museum, and get a number for the local wildlife rehabilitation person. They will instruct you about safe release or can possibly release the animal for you. – Jim Dunlap