Current Herpetology

Herpetology is the study of amphibians and reptiles. It's different from the other 5Live branches of zoology because it contains a non-amniote (amphibians) and an amniote (reptiles). This field is concerned with all aspects of reptiles and amphibians; such as systematics, anatomy, evolution, reproduction, ecology, diet, social behavior, population structure and conservation biology.

People who enjoy outdoor activities involving reptiles and amphibians are known as "herpers," just like how people who enjoy bird watching are called "birders." Many herpetologists are also herpetculturists; meaning they keep or breed herps at home.

Careers involving herpetology include: conservation biologist, museum staff, zoological staff, studbook keeper, photographer, biologists, college professors, environmental educator and herp breeders. Some herpetologists specialize in a branch of herpetology. For example, Dr. Harry W. Greene is one of the leading herpetologists on snakes, while Dr. Eric R. Pianka specializes in lizard ecology and Dr. Archie Carr with sea turtles. Other herp related careers are professional herp breeders. Herp Breeders such as Bob Clark and Bert and Hester Langerwerf (Bert recently passed away), has made it a career to raise and breed herps.

The study of Herpetology is extremely important for understanding our world and how people can live in balance with it. Herps play a important role in nutrient conversion, as indicator species and development of new medication.

North America Herpetology History

North American herpetology began with in the late 1700s, with naturalists such as John Eatton Le Conte and Thomas Say (Say's Phoebe was named in his honor). In 1826, the first books on NA heptiles came out, Genera of North American Reptiles and a Synopsis of the Species and American Herpetology by Richard Harlan. Later in 1836, John Edwards Holbrook wrote North American Herpetology, and became the NA herpetology's best work to date.

In 1828 with French naturalist Jean-Louis Berlandier. Jean-Louis surveyed and collected plants and wildlife in South Texas and parts of Mexico. Spencer Fullerton Baird named the Rio Grande Leopard Frog (Lithobates berlandieri) in honor of Jean-Louis in 1859. Louis Agassiz named the Texas Tortoise (Gopherus berlandieri) in honor of him in 1857.

In late 1840s, congress commissioned many expeditions to the American West. One of them was the US and Mexican Boundary Survey; William Hemsely Emory (Great Plains Rat Snake was named in his honor), Jean-Louis Berlandier, John Russell Bartlett, James D. Graham (Graham's Crayfish Snake was named in his honor), Darius Nash Couch (Couch's Kingbird and Couch's Spadefoot Toad was named in his honor), Arthur Schott (Schott's Whipsnake) and Ferdinand Lindheimer (Texas Rat Snake was named in his honor, also known as Father of Texas Botany) all helped to collect specimens. The collections were later used by famous US herpetologists such as Edward Drinker Cope, Spencer Fullerton Baird and Charles Frédéric Girard to examine the diversity of US herp fauna. Edward Drinker Cope (Cope's Gray Treefrog & the Journal: Copia) later wrote The Crocodilians, Lizards, and Snakes of North America.

The title of "Father of North American Herpetology" belongs to John Edward Holbrook. His most famous work was North American Herpetology, a five volumn reference that was the first of its kind. The Speckled Kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula holbrooki), the genus Holbrookia and the Eastern Spadefoot toad (Scaphiopus h. holbrookii) were named in his honor.

In 1859, Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (1807-1873) founded the Deparment of Herpetology at Harvard University. Agassiz was a zoologist that studied all sorts of things from geology to zoology, the Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) was named in his honor.

In the 1890's Clinton Hart Merriam commissioned Vernon Bailey and his associates to do a biological survey of Texas. This survey took a span of 16 years to complete. During this time, the group collected over five thousand specimens. Most of them were mammals and birds but reptiles, amphibians and plants were also surveyed. Detailed accounts of each species and type of habitat were noted. Other noted naturalists such as Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Albert Kenrick Fisher, Ned Hollister and Henry Philemon Attwater (Attwater's Prairie Chicken was named in honor of him). Mammalogist David J. Schmidly gives an excellent account of Merriam & Bailey's Texas survey in his book, Texas Natural History: A Century of Change. The Western Collared Lizard (Crotaphytus collaris baileyi) and a mountain peak at Big Bend National Park were named in honor of Vernon Bailey. Merriam's Canyon Lizard (Sceloporus m. merriami) was named in honor of Clinton H. Merriam.

1900's-1920's

In the early parts of 1900's, Thomas Barbour (1884-1946) did alot of research on herps around the world, and started a long trend of husband herpetologists and their photography wives. In 1944, his book That Vanishing Eden: A Naturalist's Florida was published. He also coauthored the first "Checklist of North American Amphibians and Reptiles" with Leohard Hess Stejneger. Stejneger was a taxonomist at the US National Museum and later the head curator of biology at the Smithsonian. In 1919, Dr. Frank Blanchard even wrote this PhD theis on the genus Lampropeltis.

The general public are very curious about the wild stories that naturalists, such as William Mann, of the National Zoological Park, and Raymond Ditmars of the Bronx Zoo, often had from their adventures in the field. Ditmars published The Reptiles Book in 1907, Reptiles of North America in 1936 and Thrills of a Naturalist's Quest & Field Book of North American States in 1939. Raymond L. Ditmars was the most well known herpetologist of his time.

As herptiles became more popular, reptiles parks started popping up around the landscape. One of them was Ross Allen's Reptile Institute in Silver Springs, Florida in 1929. Also around this name, many state level herp books were starting to show up, such as "The Herpetology of Michigan" by Helen Gaige, Crystal Thompson and AG Ruthven. Another one was Thomas Burt, Dickinson and Edward Pope's "The Amphibians and Reptiles of Wisconsin," published in 1928.

One of the first herp field guides, "Field Book of North American Snakes," was published in 1939 by Raymond Lee Ditmars (1876-1942). This was followed by "Field book of Snakes of the United States and Canada," authored by Karl P. Schmidt and D. Dwight Davis in 1941. Schmidt and Davis were zoologists were from the Chicago Natural History Museum (now called The Field Museum of Natural History).

1930's-1940's

During the late 30's and early 40's, laws such as the Pittman-Robertson Act (1937) made it possible for states to have more funding for wildlife research. With these funds, many colleges started wildlife management departments. The first of which was in 1933, at the University of Wisconsin by Aldo Leopold.

In 1946, Dr. Hobart Muir Smith (1912 - ) moved to Texas from Kansas to be an associate professor of wildlife management at Texas A&M University. During his short time in Texas, he wrote a Checklist and key to snake of Mexico and Checklist and key to amphibians of Mexico (coauthored with Dr. Edward Harrison Taylor). Dr. Smith wrote over 29 books, one of his most famous is the Handbook of Lizards: Lizards of the United States and Canada.

Dr. William Frank Blair (1912-1984) arrived at the University of Texas in 1946 and immediately set out to improve the natural history collections. He started a vertebrate collection that is one of the finest in the state. He took his students on several 4 to 6 week long collecting trips in West Texas from 1945 to 1965. On one particular trip in 1948, Dr. Blair and his students spent 37 days at C.E. Miller Ranch in Presidio County and collected 51 species. Dr. Blair remained at the University of Texas at Austin for the rest of his life. During this time, he published: Vertebrates of the United States, Big biology: The US/IBP and The rusty lizard: A population study. Dr. Blair also edited classic titles such as Evolution in the genus Bufo and Vertebrate Speciation.

Tulane University hired Dr. Fred R. Cagle (1915-1968) in 1946 as well. Dr. Cagle was from the University of Michigan and "had been a student of the outstanding cheloniologist, Norman E. Hartweg" (Contant 1997). Like his advisor, Fred was also interested in turtles, especially map turtles (Graptemys). Cagle's map turtle was named in his honor. One of his students was Donald W. Tinkle (1930-1980), who went on to become a herpetologist at the University of Michigan. Dr. Tinkle is famous for his work in lizard demographics and ecology of freshwater turtles. While at Tulane, Dr. Tinkle met Dr. J. Whitfield Gibbons, who was Tinkle's undergrad assistant. Whitfield late got his Ph.D from Michigan State University and studied the population dynamics and ecology of the Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) as a grad student. Dr. Gibbons wrote several books, including one with Michael E. Dorcas, on North American Watersnakes: A Natural History. He has also advised many grad students, including Raymond Semlitsch, who is the author of Amphibian Conservation. Dr. Gibbons a ecology professor at University of Georgia.

1950's-1960's

One of the biggest event in popular Herpetology occured in 1951, Roger Tory Peterson met with Roger Conant to explore the idea of writing A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of the United States and Canada: East of the 100th Meridian. This was later renamed A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians: Eastern and Central North America in the second edition, to fill in the states that were were missed in both first editions of Conant's and Robert Stebbins' field guides (Conant 1997). Fifty years later, Conant (teamed up with Joseph T. Collins in later editions) and Stebbin's (Western Reptiles and Amphibians) field guides are still the best herp field guides available. The growing ethics in herpetology can be seen in subsequent editions of Contant & Collin's field guide. These two field guides have educated an army of herp enthusiasts; many of them are now working as herpetologists, biologists and ecologists.

Sea turtles are probably the most charismatic of all reptiles and no one knew them better than Dr. Archie Fairly Carr Jr. (1909-1987). Dr. Carr went to school and later taught at the University of Florida. His work with sea turtles started around 1947 and it took him around the world. In 1959 he co-founded the Caribbean Conservation Corporation to protect sea turtles and their habitats. In honor of Archie's many achievements, the US Fish and Wildlife named a 900 acre wildlife refuge in his honor. The Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge's main purpose is to protect an important nesting area for Loggerhead and Green Sea Turtles on the Florida coastline.

As more and more herp research continued, many monograms were written. One of the classics is Laurence M. Klauber's (1883-1968) monomenous book on rattlesnakes, titled Rattlesnakes: Their Habiats, Life Histories, and Influence on Mankind (first published in 1956). Laurence was not a professional herpetologist but in true Ding Darling fashion, he became the foremost expert in rattlesnakes. One of the best is Howard K. Gloyd and Roger Conant's Snakes of the Agkistrodon Complex: A Monographic Review (1990).

1970's to current

In 1972, Carl H. Ernst and Roger w. Barbour (in later editions Jeffrey E. Lovich joined in, and is expanded to include Canada), published Turtles of the United States, and 17 years later, expanded to all of the turtles species with Turtles of the World (1989). In 2004, another turtle book was published on the The Ecology, Exploitation, and Conservation of River Turtles by Don & Edward O. Moll.

In the spirt of coffee table conservation, two outstanding written books on squamata with wonderful photographs were published. First of which was Dr. Harry W. Greene's Snakes: The Evolution of Mystery in Nature (1997), and the second is Dr. Eric R. Pianka and Dr. Laurie J. Vitt's Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity (2003). Dr. Pianka and Dr. Vitt are the two top lizard ecologists in the world, luckily they are also both authors. Dr. Pianka wrote Evolution Ecology and The Lizard Man Speaks. Dr. Vitt coauthored Herpetology: An Introduction Biology of Amphibians and Reptiles, coauthored Lizard Ecology with Dr. Pianka, and Biology of Whiptail Lizards. Both authors have wrote countless articles in scholarly journals.

As we advance in our knowledge of herptiles, it seems a shift towards species specifici publicans. One of the first was Dr. Peter C.H. Pritchard's (a student of Dr. Archie Carr) The Alligator Snapping Turtle: Biology and Conservation, originally published in 1989 and later reprinted in 2006. Dr. Pritchard recently wrote Tales from the Thébaïde: Reflections of a Turtleman (2007). Another good one is the Biology of the Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina), written by several authors. A more recent book is the Timber Rattlesnakes in Vermont and New York: Biology, History, and the Fate of an Endangered Species by Jon Furman (2008). Ray E. Ashton and Patrica Ashton's The Natural History and Management of the Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus daudin) is another one. This one is unique in that it incorporates management and research techniques for Gopher Tortoise and is geared for people who actually work with the species and other turtles in the field.