Search found 1586 matches
- April 29th, 2015, 11:26 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Field Herping Values for da youts....
- Replies: 85
- Views: 52234
Re: Field Herping Values for da youts....
Maybe when [justin] calms down a bit he'll see I didn't say whatever it is he seems to think I did. Or maybe he already knows that but is acting otherwise because he knows he won't get much traction trying to attack me on what's really got him upset, my pointing out in a later post (as a fact relev...
- April 29th, 2015, 11:06 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Field Herping Values for da youts....
- Replies: 85
- Views: 52234
Re: Field Herping Values for da youts....
Gerry, How many children have you raised? I'm going to guess none. Which really means you have shit for experience to pull from, and don't have a leg to stand on with regard to how they should be raised or moralized. I love when clueless idealists tell me how to raise my kids, or what they would do...
- April 28th, 2015, 6:58 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Field Herping Values for da youts....
- Replies: 85
- Views: 52234
Re: Field Herping Values for da youts....
- No they are not all novices but a significant portion of those whom have had the animal/s long periods and have a history of keeping in past but have lost interest in the particular animal because of a new interest in acquiring another species, or other reason like moving, growth of reptile dicta...
- April 28th, 2015, 4:56 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Field Herping Values for da youts....
- Replies: 85
- Views: 52234
Re: Field Herping Values for da youts....
If you are preparing kids for a hands-on, no-collecting field trip, then it makes sense to prepare them for the idea of putting animals back where they find them, regardless of one's feelings on collecting in general. It doesn't need to be anything preachy or complicated. I would just try to explai...
- April 27th, 2015, 6:52 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Field Herping Values for da youts....
- Replies: 85
- Views: 52234
Re: Field Herping Values for da youts....
Spend some time with a good dictionary, dthor, and don't just read but also think about what you find there. I'm particularly fond of the American Heritage Dictionary, if you need a good recommendation. Peter, did you decide that you want to make your thread a rehashing of the debate about whether h...
- April 26th, 2015, 6:28 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Field Herping Values for da youts....
- Replies: 85
- Views: 52234
Re: Field Herping Values for da youts....
... you could print and hand out 'Jr Citizen Scientist' certificates... which can go a long way towards building up self-esteem... Yeah? I'm sure we'd all like it if something helped. I guess it's worth a try, anyway... http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz211/gbin2/citizen%20science%20award_zpssp3...
- April 26th, 2015, 11:47 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Field Herping Values for da youts....
- Replies: 85
- Views: 52234
Re: Field Herping Values for da youts....
... Yesterday, and I do mean just yesterday a mom and her two young children came in needing help because the racer a family friend caught and gave to them is now half dead, and after googling came to the store to see if they could get 'blue bellies' to feed it... How awful! And even more upsetting...
- April 26th, 2015, 9:23 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Field Herping Values for da youts....
- Replies: 85
- Views: 52234
Re: Field Herping Values for da youts....
Adults allow me to moralize to their children all the time, and navigate them toward a pet other than a reptile, that is more compatible to the needs children have to be affectional and to have something to pet and handle frequently. Kelly, you're talking about giving children individual guidance i...
- April 26th, 2015, 7:19 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Field Herping Values for da youts....
- Replies: 85
- Views: 52234
Re: Field Herping Values for da youts....
Gerry, Perhaps, despite the above, it is true that I am moralizing. However, those are my beliefs about Field Herping, and I feel that I should share those with these kids... As I said. I'd like to ask you and like-minded folks to at least think something through, though: How would you feel if some...
Re: Herp Art
Such creative people we have here! My applause!
Gerry
Gerry
- April 25th, 2015, 11:48 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Field Herping Values for da youts....
- Replies: 85
- Views: 52234
Re: Field Herping Values for da youts....
I'm giving a talk at the Chicago Herpetologial Society Junior group to help educate these kids on Field Herping... 1) Field Herping (kind of like birding) is more about seeing, photographing and appreciating nature rather than collecting, keeping, possessing.... 2) If you want to keep an animal, bu...
- April 21st, 2015, 8:18 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Interesting Chuckwalla
- Replies: 7
- Views: 4956
Re: Interesting Chuckwalla
Very nice, indeed!
And how did you ever manage to spot it against the terrain? As beautiful as it is in hand, it looks to have been quite cryptically colored in situ.
Gerry
And how did you ever manage to spot it against the terrain? As beautiful as it is in hand, it looks to have been quite cryptically colored in situ.
Gerry
- April 21st, 2015, 8:14 am
- Forum: Reading Room
- Topic: Venomous Reptiles and Their Toxins
- Replies: 10
- Views: 17668
Re: Venomous Reptiles and Their Toxins
What a great accomplishment! Congratulations, Bryan!
Gerry
Gerry
- April 21st, 2015, 8:12 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Handling Wild Herps Poll
- Replies: 66
- Views: 26037
Re: Handling Wild Herps Poll
I'll respond with another photographic metaphor:
I reckon how one should behave depends on whether one wants to take a picture or be a part of the picture. "Different strokes..."
Gerry
I reckon how one should behave depends on whether one wants to take a picture or be a part of the picture. "Different strokes..."
Gerry
- April 21st, 2015, 7:36 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Handling Wild Herps Poll
- Replies: 66
- Views: 26037
Re: Handling Wild Herps Poll
As I mentioned, stress biology is a very hot topic nowadays. From a historical perspective, it's interesting that another split in thought appears to be developing between European and American scientists in this area: Back in the day, Lorenz, Tinbergen and von Frisch led European scientists into th...
- April 11th, 2015, 6:31 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Want to study herps for AZ Game & Fish?
- Replies: 0
- Views: 12341
- April 11th, 2015, 10:16 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Handling Wild Herps Poll
- Replies: 66
- Views: 26037
Re: Handling Wild Herps Poll
I meant in terms of actions and effect, of bagging, tactically exhausting, repetitive tailing. Not what/who is applying them. I do not know of snake as prey/predator interaction that last for hours or days. If there was such an event, the same consequences would apply. But morbid fright isn't usual...
- April 10th, 2015, 2:29 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Handling Wild Herps Poll
- Replies: 66
- Views: 26037
Re: Handling Wild Herps Poll
edit-I've seen some really rough pinning of rattlesnakes and some really gentle. The venom extractors pin their snakes hundreds and hundreds of times but I bet they never fracture a bone. Contrast that with someone like me, who is scared and never properly trained, and that is a recipe for trauma. ...
- April 10th, 2015, 8:36 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Handling Wild Herps Poll
- Replies: 66
- Views: 26037
Re: Handling Wild Herps Poll
... a high proportion of the rattlesnakes had skull and neck fractures... Questions that came to mind when I read this was: Did they consider and if so could they tell whether the fractures were fresh enough to be likely attributable to the snakes' capture by pinning? And if so, how did such fractu...
- April 10th, 2015, 6:59 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Handling Wild Herps Poll
- Replies: 66
- Views: 26037
Re: Handling Wild Herps Poll
Could a finesse of methodology which made more paramount the reduction of stressors in process improve the outcome of relocation efforts? This is definitely an area where considerable effort is now being made, to improve the reintroduction/translocation prospects for all kinds of animals. Pretty mu...
- April 9th, 2015, 6:43 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Handling Wild Herps Poll
- Replies: 66
- Views: 26037
Re: Handling Wild Herps Poll
http://i481.photobucket.com/albums/rr180/wstreps/Tri%20Color%20Hog%20Nose/moc.jpg Another animal getting a bit excited without being touched. Actually... Just as a person can't tell how stressed an animal is simply because it attempts to escape while being handled, s/he can't tell how stressed it i...
- April 9th, 2015, 5:46 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Handling Wild Herps Poll
- Replies: 66
- Views: 26037
Re: Handling Wild Herps Poll
... Human interaction manipulation that does not resemble any natural occurrence with any other animal in the world. If I understand, Kelly, the idea is that this is a special concern. But that doesn't fit with what we know of stress biology. Hormonally speaking - and hormones drive everything else...
- April 9th, 2015, 2:35 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Handling Wild Herps Poll
- Replies: 66
- Views: 26037
Re: Handling Wild Herps Poll
We've discussed this subject repeatedly and at considerable length over the years; people who are particularly interested in it should search the archive, as I'm sure a number of us aren't up for repeating whatever we've got to contribute to it ad nauseam . To save myself some time at the keyboard (...
- April 1st, 2015, 12:15 pm
- Forum: Herpetoculture Forum
- Topic: Snake nest boxes, what media do you use?
- Replies: 28
- Views: 15724
Re: Snake nest boxes, what media do you use?
Good to know Ger, I loved the term 'Rowdy' Jimi used to describe the temperate runners. He did touch upon the subject in a humorous way, I agree. ;) I just wanted to be sure people understood that some bamboos can cause serious ecological disruption, too. It's not merely a matter of the neighbors g...
- April 1st, 2015, 6:48 am
- Forum: Herpetoculture Forum
- Topic: Snake nest boxes, what media do you use?
- Replies: 28
- Views: 15724
Re: Snake nest boxes, what media do you use?
On the dark side of the discussion about bamboo...
Some bamboos can be terribly invasive exotics, very hard to get rid of even on a small scale (such as in one's backyard) and virtually impossible to eradicate on a larger scale. Just something to keep in mind.
Gerry
Some bamboos can be terribly invasive exotics, very hard to get rid of even on a small scale (such as in one's backyard) and virtually impossible to eradicate on a larger scale. Just something to keep in mind.
Gerry
- March 21st, 2015, 6:04 am
- Forum: Reading Room
- Topic: HERP NATION Magazine
- Replies: 7
- Views: 9117
Re: HERP NATION Magazine
Gee, Dave, I thought it was just your personal style to falsely accuse someone of something (e.g. my supposedly claiming that the HERP database is worthless, Scott's supposedly running Herp Nation magazine as some kind of a Ponzi scheme to rip off subscribers) and then to ignore it when they've refu...
- March 21st, 2015, 5:41 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: How much does it cost?
- Replies: 55
- Views: 27314
Re: How much does it cost?
... I chased snakes hard for the past several years but am fishing more now. 230 or so days/nights a year hunting herps cost me around $25,000 per year... See, this is probably why most of us try hard not to calculate or even do a good job of estimating the expenses of our hobbies. Tim, there's no ...
- March 21st, 2015, 5:35 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Join the 2015 Bangladesh Python Project Expedition!
- Replies: 20
- Views: 9983
Re: Join the 2015 Bangladesh Python Project Expedition!
* Saying, "This is the last thing I'll post", and then deleting that claim and posting repeatedly afterwards, is a bit dishonest... You think? ;) Switching the order of posts around to try to make it look as if his unwarranted denigrations of others are fresh and unaddressed is really amo...
- March 20th, 2015, 1:36 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Top Down Effects of Snakes
- Replies: 15
- Views: 6582
Re: Top Down Effects of Snakes
My thoughts, exactly.
Gerry
Gerry
- March 20th, 2015, 9:27 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Top Down Effects of Snakes
- Replies: 15
- Views: 6582
Re: Top Down Effects of Snakes
Ok, I believe I understand you now, amigo. Curse this stilted electronic communication medium! :x I agree that information on DOR pythons themselves could be useful, especially if the data point toward a young and growing population or (wish-wish...) a population crash, as you mention. But I think i...
- March 20th, 2015, 8:29 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Yet another study showing snake relocation is a bad idea
- Replies: 84
- Views: 60987
Re: Yet another study showing snake relocation is a bad idea
One of my favorite things that's been posted here at FHF in some time.Bryan Hamilton wrote:Its good to be skeptical. Just please don't ignore or disqualify the published studies...
Gerry
- March 20th, 2015, 8:23 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Join the 2015 Bangladesh Python Project Expedition!
- Replies: 20
- Views: 9983
Re: Join the 2015 Bangladesh Python Project Expedition!
Folks can read through Ernie's garbage if they find it entertaining, but this is really all one needs to know about him with respect to his participation in this thread: [Ernie Eison] and [David and Tracy] Barkers' many years spent trafficking in pythons has enabled them to learn a fair bit about th...
- March 20th, 2015, 8:18 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Translocation of snakes
- Replies: 27
- Views: 9378
Re: Translocation of snakes
I'm sure your husbandry is good, dthor, but there is still the potential for disease transmission if you keep any other snakes besides those two rat snakes, or even if you don't keep any other snakes but have done so in the past. You said you've kept those two snakes "in clean, sterile conditio...
- March 20th, 2015, 7:30 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Top Down Effects of Snakes
- Replies: 15
- Views: 6582
Re: Top Down Effects of Snakes
Its amusing to think about working with high profile wildlife as a high paying glory fest. I was (and still am) interested in working with tigers and grizzly bears... My wife and I actually started our scientific careers working on Siberian tigers, Bryan, albeit in a captive setting. (Had a chance ...
- March 19th, 2015, 5:17 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: How much does it cost?
- Replies: 55
- Views: 27314
Re: How much does it cost?
captainjack0000 wrote:Yeah, we should unite under one big conservation tent, but I don't see that happening anytime soon...
- "Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours."
- [list][list][list]- Richard Bach
Gerry
- March 19th, 2015, 5:14 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Translocation of snakes
- Replies: 27
- Views: 9378
Re: Translocation of snakes
It's not at all clear to me what exactly you're asking. Do you mean that you have two snakes, one you collected as a hatchling two years ago and one you collected as a hatchling last fall, and you're wondering whether you could now release them in one place or another? If so, at this point I don't t...
- March 19th, 2015, 4:58 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Join the 2015 Bangladesh Python Project Expedition!
- Replies: 20
- Views: 9983
Re: Join the 2015 Bangladesh Python Project Expedition!
... As usual though, the rest of Ernie's post is absolute garbage, propaganda, and science bashing. Indeed. I thought Ernie's vigorous FHF smear campaign was specifically against scientists/research focused on the pythons in the FL Everglades, but apparently any kind of connection made here between...
- March 19th, 2015, 7:08 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Translocation of snakes
- Replies: 27
- Views: 9378
Re: Translocation of snakes
I say that what we really need is to attract Elon Musk's interest in the problem...
Gerry
Gerry
- March 19th, 2015, 7:06 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Top Down Effects of Snakes
- Replies: 15
- Views: 6582
Re: Top Down Effects of Snakes
The motives are clear... If we're talking about Ernie, yes, his motive for using FHF's message boards to wage an unending campaign of misrepresentation and otherwise dishonest denigration against scientists/scientific work that focus on the Everglades python situation is quite clear. As I've pointe...
- March 18th, 2015, 1:48 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Translocation of snakes
- Replies: 27
- Views: 9378
Re: Translocation of snakes
... its the battery that is adding all the weight... That's the problem, all right. We really need, not just for wildlife radiotelemetry but for all kinds of applications, some significantly new battery technology. A breakthrough. I've been listening hard for news of such for quite a few years, now...
- March 18th, 2015, 1:37 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Top Down Effects of Snakes
- Replies: 15
- Views: 6582
Re: Top Down Effects of Snakes
I don't think this will surprise too many people - except those who for one reason or another are in denial about the pythons' harmful effects in the Everglades (hi, Ernie!). But it's definitely good to have such direct evidence, both for evaluating the Everglades situation and for addressing the la...
- March 18th, 2015, 6:49 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Translocation of snakes
- Replies: 27
- Views: 9378
Re: Translocation of snakes
I think that gravid-female idea could possibly work if her "soft release" site was centered on a suitable hibernaculum/rookery, in the case of communally-denning species. Otherwise how could the young of the year survive their first winter? They wouldn't know where to go. I didn't think t...
- March 17th, 2015, 3:25 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: How much does it cost?
- Replies: 55
- Views: 27314
Re: How much does it cost?
... Money is power in legislative-branch politics, but organization and presence are power in executive-branch politics... You're right, of course, and that's an excellent point. But when it comes to effecting change in wildlife agency matters, I suspect legislative-branch politicians are more pers...
- March 17th, 2015, 12:28 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: How much does it cost?
- Replies: 55
- Views: 27314
Re: How much does it cost?
I want more industry scale numbers, like the one somebody offered up for birders being in that 4-20 billion dollar a year industry. Federal and state wildlife agencies are always conflating live collection for pets and kill harvesting for consumption in order to make the former look much, much bigg...
- March 15th, 2015, 7:59 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: How much does it cost?
- Replies: 55
- Views: 27314
Re: How much does it cost?
... it is the experience of the "hunt" that is most memorable and most valued, even if you fail to get your goal. I agree, and for all of the activities under discussion. (But not necessarily for all of the people involved in those activities. ;) ) To say that one particular group of outd...
- March 15th, 2015, 1:46 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: How much does it cost?
- Replies: 55
- Views: 27314
Re: How much does it cost?
For what it's worth to recent turns in the conversation: Lots of (probably even most) anglers have one or a few preferred species that they fish for, many of them are even fairly exclusive about it and some are even rigidly exclusive about it. It depends on the person. I remain principally a walleye...
- March 15th, 2015, 8:20 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: How much does it cost?
- Replies: 55
- Views: 27314
Re: How much does it cost?
...you can't find a popular birding spot simply by looking for the excess beercans, monofilament line, lures in the trees, and other trash left behind by groups of birders. Now, now. There are slob hunters or the equivalent in all of these pursuits, just as there are in all of them those who are ma...
- March 15th, 2015, 7:55 am
- Forum: Mammal Forum
- Topic: A new species for the yard
- Replies: 0
- Views: 10357
A new species for the yard
For fun my wife recently set a game camera up at the lakeshore where this time last year we'd seen (but unfortunately didn't get a picture of) a fisher climb up off the ice of the still-frozen lake into our yard. Spring is definitely beginning here in the Adirondacks and the chipmunks have come out ...
- March 14th, 2015, 10:55 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Translocation of snakes
- Replies: 27
- Views: 9378
Re: Translocation of snakes
I was going to add but I forgot: Bryan, it seems to me that in the case of species such as rattlesnakes, it might be best to translocate gravid females, and to do so in such a manner that the females can't leave the area where they're placed until after they've given birth, either because they're pl...
- March 14th, 2015, 10:47 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Translocation of snakes
- Replies: 27
- Views: 9378
Re: Translocation of snakes
... No one takes a single bighorn sheep and drops off in a new range and expects it to do well. Nor should we expect herps with strong social structure to do well when moved as singletons. ... Success is also a matter of perspective. When we translocate rattlesnakes, we've tended to say, 50% of the...