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Well 2021 is in the books and we’re on to 2022. The year started off with us losing our dog Cooper unexpectedly. Many of you helped us through that time and I’m still so appreciative of all of you. Not long after that, sauga season started. We had to c…

So the Yeard journey had finally come to an end. I submitted my last entry today. Swipe to see my first entry. What do you all think? It’s been really fun growing out my beard but I will say that I’m ready to eat normally again. The winners of the contes…

Wow, where did the last two weeks go? Sorry, I’m just getting around to posting pics from the fall recapture a couple weeks ago. The end of the field season is always super busy with wrapping everything up, entering data, and writing reports plus I’m wor…

Well the summer has flown by which means it’s time for the fall recapture of our reintroduced alligator snapping turtles. We’re heading down today for a short week this time around but hopefully we can check on a handful of turtles and make sure they’re …

Gorgeous little painted turtle from today. Someone mentioned maybe doing a poster of painted turtle plastrons and I’m thinking that might be a good idea. Gonna have to start remembering to photograph every turtle I see. If I do make one this turtle will …

While common snappers can be a pain to get out of turtle traps, I really love catching them especially at this size. They have so much personality as you can see in this photo. One toss size are fairly easy to get out of the traps but the bigger ones can…

It has been way too long since I saw one of these floaty cottonmouths. I came across this snake when I was tracking alligator snapping turtles several years ago. Some of you have most likely seen this photo already but I wanted to share it for those that…

Check out this cute little hatchling Eastern Fence Lizard. These are usually very hard to catch as they are super fast but for some reason this one wasn’t afraid of me. When I was a little kid I always loved catching lizards and Fence Lizards were my fav…

A Garter Snake getting ready to shed. This snake was out basking on some rocks by a nice little pond. It’s eyes were so cloudy that it didn’t even see me walk up and it stayed super calm while I was holding it. This snake’s eyes are cloudy because before…

Check out this tiny little Boreal Chorus Frog. This was the only herp we found on a survey a few weeks ago so we were pet excited just to see something. This species is almost indistinguishable from the Upland Chorus Frog and the Western Chorus Frog. Loc…

A Green Anole from a few weeks ago when I was in Florida. This is the only native anole species in the United States. They can actually turn brown but they are not to be confused with the Brown Anole which is a nonnative invasive species. I did a little …

The Gulf Coast Box Turtle from a few weeks ago when I was on vacation. My dad actually saw him rooting around in the vegetation from the second story balcony. This was such a cool turtle to find especially since I’m so used to finding regular Eastern Box…

Let’s keep this turtle train going! Most of you know that last week I was lucky enough to stay up all night and find nesting female sea turtles. This is a large female loggerhead sea turtle who actually decided not to nest that night but instead turned a…

I’m so excited to finally share with you all the second edition of the Beauty of Eastern Box Turtles poster. This new poster has all new turtles some of which I think are the most beautiful box turtles I’ve ever seen. Right in the middle is the turtle th…

One of the little Diamondback Terrapins that I got to release last night. This was such a cool experience and my first ever wild Terrapin. Thank you to everyone who helped figure out who the Gulf Coast Box Turtle from yesterday belonged to as that led to…

It’s been way too long since I’ve seen a timber rattlesnake in the wild. The last one was over 2 years ago when we were sampling for snake fungal disease in Indiana. That was pretty special considering I had done my undergraduate research on timbers in I…

A pretty little Western Ribbon Snake from a few weeks ago. These snakes are very slender and fast making them difficult to catch. They are nonvenomous and harmless to humans. Western Ribbon Snake (Thamnophis proximus). #beardedbiologist #ribbonsnake #t…

Here is the beautiful Eastern Fox Snake from the other day. It’s probably been 8 or 9 years since I’ve seen one of these so I was pretty excited. This was a gorgeous snake and had such a wonderful demeanor. It was super calm and seemed fairly content to …

Bullfrogs may be super common and even invasive in some areas but they sure are fun to catch. They’re actually kinda pretty and definitely super goofy. This is a big male. To sex these frogs you can look at the tympanum (circular disc behind the eye) and…