Herper of the Month - Sept. 2006 |
| Chris
Harrison |
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"I
have had a fascination for the natural world from birth I guess.
Even as a very small child, I spent as much time as I could poking
around the outdoors. However, I never had much experience with snakes
since we lived in Sydney, Australia and Madrid, neither of which
are snake meccas for a small child. My first memories of snakes
were of seeing gartersnakes caught by older kids at my elementary
school in Illinois. I never really gave them much more attention
than any other type of critter." |
|
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| "Sometime
around 1972, in Tulsa OK, I was walking home from the public library
and I stopped and turned over a piece of trash along the roadside.
Underneath was the tiny coil of a small Prairie Ringnecked Snake.
I picked up this little gem, probably the first snake I had ever
caught, and was amazed at its beauty (I guess it was a good thing
it wasn't a coralsnake!). I was 8 years old, and I was hooked
for life! I began to read everything I could find about snakes
(there wasn't much available back then). I soon set out in the
grasslands around our house and began looking for more of these
fascinating creatures. 35 years later, I'm still looking. After
Oklahoma, we spent another 5 years in Sydney where my herping
was reduced to finding a few lizards and frogs. It wasn't until
we moved Houston in 1978 that I was able to start finding snakes
again." |
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| "I
have had the good fortune to see a lot of the world as a child
and young adult. Most of these trips were not herping trips, but
I flipped every piece of trash, and peeked in every crevice I
could from Australia to Zimbabwe. After high school, I finally
gave in to herper leanings and completed my BS in Wildlife and
Fisheries Sciences in 1986. After graduating, I taught in the
public school system for a while, before deciding to go back to
grad school to allow me to teach at a higher academic level. I
completed my MS in Biology at UT El Paso where I worked on the
taxonomic status of snakes in the Coniophanes piceivittis group
then went back to Texas A&M to start my PhD." |
|
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"While working
on my PhD research, I was lucky enough to get to work at the Savannah
River Ecology Lab under Whit Gibbons. However, I lost interest in
my research and became more passionate about my teaching. I eventually
gave in to this desire and took a job teaching full-time at Northwest
Vista College, here in San Antonio, Texas where I now reside. As
an undergraduate, I became very interested in photography and particularly
trying to photograph herps." |
|
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| "In
1984, I borrowed my mother's old manual Yashica SLR, bought a book
on photography and began taking pictures. Twenty-two years later,
I am still learning. To me, finding a cool herp and getting that great
photo is much more rewarding than bringing it home and putting it
in a box, although I do still keep a few critters. During my undergraduate
career, I had a roommate who was a birder. I hung out with him and
eventually started looking at birds myself. I figured out that birding
was an outdoor activity you could be involved in in crowded cities
and all winter long so I was hooked with a third hobby!" |
|
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| "I continue to
be a passionate herper, birder and photographer. The advent of the
internet and great sites such as this forum allow me to have these
experiences vicariously through others and to share those experiences
I have the time to enjoy in person. It's a great time to be a field
herper." |
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