Field Herp Forum

Good looking year, Chad. I may have to take you up on coming up there at some point. As always, I love the calligaster. Those milks sure are lookers. Great find with the pair copulating, I really like the look on both of them too. I guess those alterna are pretty neat ;) -Kyle Thanks Kyle! Yeah I g...

Hello Folks. My end of year report doesn't compare to many of the ones folks have been putting up, but I thought I'd share it anyway. After moving back to northeastern Kansas I decided that I would focus my energy and efforts on NW MO. Eastern KS is a wonderful place to herp, as many of you know. Th...

Very nice year Chris. I have a feeling that next year you'll get an alterna.

hot dawg that was some prime stovage Mike!

daaaamn, absolutely stellar post. I love seeing any and all wildlife from Africa. Well did.

If there was still a picture of the week...I would nominate your eastern coachwhip periscope shot in a heart beat. Great series, outstanding photography.

Hilarious! I can't wait to see you dominate NE now...

If I had extra money to donate to any charity organization or worthwhile pursuit, I would give it to this project. In fact I might soon enough, and if that time comes I'll be contributing something. If any group of herpers could ever rediscover anything, I think it's this one. I hope you guys raise ...

Evolutionary Psychology is a legitimate science, but it's young and in an underdeveloped stage of progress. It isn't reducible to just a buncha thought experiments in the minds of academics. Neuroscience and psychiatric methods can test the hypotheses of evolutionary psychology.

This thread is awesome.

I found this majestic soaring eagle.

Saying that a sound is only a pressure wave until it is perceived by a human (or other organsim capable of perceiving that pressure wave) isn't quantum mechanics, nor is it philosophy. It is semantics. And philosophy and quantum mechanics are different fields. Yes, they may have some common origins...

A 'sound' is recognition of received and processed sound waves... without the receiving apparatus and sufficient cognition to process sound waves... there are only sound waves, bouncing off stuff. Then why are those called "sound" waves? Sound exists in the absence of perception. If a tree falls in...

Step one: go roadcruising.

…but you don't do that, right Justin?! ;D

You might indeed, Matt.

Chris- no Sistrurus in this post unless I overlooked one.

That's awesome! Those trimorphs are not easy to find...

Excellent post, John. And that's quite a purdy desert pine you found.

I would listen to Tanks, and Chris' advice is stellar if you want to avoid being confronted by the park police. However, my experience is that you're more likely to be harassed outside of the park than inside…and if you aren't collecting, then it makes no difference. The only thing I'd do differentl...

outstanding

-EJ wrote:I had a good giggle when I read who bumped this...

chad ks wrote:bump.

…glad it wasn't the bad kind.

bump.

For the record: I am always extremely respectful, I never have collecting equipment unless I have a collecting permit and a reason to collect, and I'm always transparent and willing to cooperate with law enforcement. I think it's useful to point out that people can intend to only photograph, and tha...

Regardless of the variations in the definition of "take", I remain skeptical that I would ever receive a citation or charge for photographing a herp.

Thanks Mywan, appreciate the information.

You can't assume this applies only to species that fall under the ESA either. Since any law using the term "take" is legally defined in context of the ESA definition. "Take" under wildlife management extends well beyond take in the usual sense, and getting close for a photograph is a "take" under t...

I wish I knew the reasoning behind each state's laws. Some are wide-open, while their next-door neighbors are almost completely closed. I don't get it. For state's with bag-limits, CA is probably the worst. Sorry, a little off topic... Not really so off-topic: 1) All of us here care A LOT about her...

Jim, I didn't think your archetype idea would do any good, but I've come to appreciate it a little more. Though, I tend to think that "if you build it, they will come" and that's why I think an organization with a clear purpose and system of goals related to conservation will do us some good.

A little history on this discussion: When I first pitched it to Scott, I asked if it could be moved immediately to the Board Line, as I felt it was outside the scope of The Forum proper. However, it remained there until today, and ironically only moved after the discussion has seemed to start movin...

Chad, you're too young to be so cynical re: "we'll never bring these two fundamentally different camps together." :P Chad, you're probably even more familiar than I with the herping "scene" in Texas, inasmuch as it is a field-herping as well as field-collecting overlap (which doesn't fit the "separ...

... my point remains that in practical terms we haven't yet figured out how to artificially unite a group that folks like you and I desire to see as a real community... We disagree here, apparently, in terms of both what your point actually is and whether it's actually valid. Your declaration that ...

Thanks for continuing the public chat, Chad. Let me follow suit. First, I think I did this conversation a mischief by not emphasizing enough, the important and relative differences between access-management at the legislative level and at the wildlife-agency level. Legislatures, state or federal, f...

I agree with a fair amount of what Chad said above. Where our views differ, and maybe not even all that much there (we'll see, I guess), is on the relationship between the field-herping and herp-keeping parts of our community. I describe them as parts of the same community rather than two separate ...

Interesting contribution Chad, thanks for it. I'd like to respond to it, wearing a particular "hat" - a "fish and game insider". Specifically I'd like to respond to "reflections 2 and 3". As I read Chad's words, I interpret the general, combined thrust of these 2 reflections to be: "Maintaining acc...

. . “Join, or Die” By Chris McMartin, 01 February 2013 NOTE: This commentary is not directed at a specified individual, group, forum, or organization. The author knows people and participates in groups representing “both sides” of many ongoing differences of opinion and chooses not to take sides, b...

since this conversation is not just about NAFHA, how bout we move this thing along?... I'm all for moving along (but think that folks who don't want others to repeat things shouldn't repeat things themselves, let along totally bogus things such as "NAFHA bashfest," "if you don't like it then don't ...

... forgot to state in my 1st response; most of us could learn a thing or 3 from the masterful manner Chris has facilitated this thread, kudoes to our site hosts for not doing the shortterm (repugnican) smart thing and killing it. On the divide & conquer rant earlier, i also meant to add; the funny...

...so many congratulations to you Mike, and to Mary. She's beautiful, and Fielding is a treasure. He's gonna lead one helluva good life. Best,

Chad

I get you now, Jim. If a person looks up the word "cruel" in a dictionary, s/he will generally find two basic definitions. One of these is simply the infliction of suffering, and the other is the intent to inflict suffering. I was using the word in the former sense (I use "sadistic" when I'm talkin...

did not know that. thanks. i wouldn't fly it outside. unless things got really bad, then i'd fly an inverted us flag with this one underneath. -ben If you really feel like letting it fly if the government doesn't grow the hell up, then you could easily be a tea party member yourself. It isn't a bad...

I reckon I started this thread, so I'm certainly entitled to spend a bit of time on a tangent if I wish... ;) What defines a troll? I'd say that it's not simply a person who posts something, or even a lot of somethings, that are argumentative, antagonistic, whatever-you-want-to-call-it. People of r...

I know this is slightly off topic but I'd like to present a somewhat hypothetical question. If you could start fresh in life, no job, no family, and finances and credit in order, where would you live? Things to make mention of your reason would be proximity to civilization (jobs, sustenance, findin...

... The part I find ironic is Gerry believes commercial collecting cannot make a dent in populations but somehow killing snakes will... I figured this would show up sooner or later... luv, the important distinction is between live collection (be that for oneself or to sell to others) and kill harve...

Thanks for the responses everyone!

If this is a post intended for all of us to share our herping hounds, then cheers to a great novel idea for a thread, or at least an idea I've yet to see on this forum. I'm happy to oblige! This is Somalia, or Molly for short. She's a purebred American Bull dog Scott type x Johnson type, and I can't...

I really like posts like this which focus on a specific species. So you use an ATV to find Senticolis? That is really cool.

Great post Dell.

I nominated the very last pic, by Kris Hass, for POTW (in spite of the obnoxious water mark), because THAT'S what herping with friends is all about.

I'm not on the due process bandwagon, I think if people put themselves into the limelight for personal gain, for example by hosting a show, and if they either elect themselves as or grow to be representatives of a culture such as ours…they have a duty to go the extra mile to make sure that things li...

Great post, but the Caecilians were a show stopper for me. Wow.

After that much effort can they have a little post vent on?? Of course they can, Brian. I never said otherwise, nor criticized them for doing so. (My comment about not caring about folks' dismay over a clique dissolving was in response to your sarcastic post aimed my way, not to what Dave and TC po...