On January 31, 2024, Wesley L. Shoop presented “Mississippi’s Natural Heritage” as part of the History Is Lunch series.
Shoop spent years at LeFleur's Bluff State Park near downtown Jackson photographing amphibians and reptiles, birds, mammals, invertebrates, plants, fungi, and even fossils. More than a thousand species of flora and fauna have been identified on the park’s bluff and floodplain.
“LeFleur’s Bluff is a fascinating microcosm of Mississippi's ecological community, but all these species can be found in forests, parks, and backyards across the state,” said Shoop, author of the new book Mississippi’s Natural Heritage: Photographs of Flora and Fauna. “I hope that by illustrating the living diversity found in Mississippi, it can inspire a greater appreciation of what we have and how impoverished we will be if we do not protect it.”
Shoop’s book is the first of its kind dedicated to Mississippi's natural world and features four hundred color photographs and a complete index of included species.
Mississippi Museum of Natural Science director emerita Libby Hartfield wrote of Shoop’s book: “Through outstanding photographs and field guide-like narratives, Mississippi’s Natural Heritage shines a spotlight on the biota of LeFleur’s Bluff State Park, a beautiful, well-known urban natural area and wildlife corridor in Mississippi’s state capital. This book will surely foster a greater awareness of and appreciation for the diversity of plant and animal life in Mississippi.”
Wesley L. Shoop is a former professor of parasitology at Murray State University; former director of parasitology at Merck & Co., Inc.; and former vice president and global head of animal health at DuPont. He studied tropical medicine and parasitology at Louisiana State University and zoology at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln. Shoop has published over a hundred scientific articles. His first book, Mississippi’s Natural Heritage: Photographs of Flora and Fauna, was published in 2023 by University Press of Mississippi.
History Is Lunch is a weekly lecture series of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History that explores all aspects of the state’s past. The hour-long programs are held in the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium of the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum building at 222 North Street in Jackson and livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook.
