Posts tagged with herpetology. View all posts

Our Town Temple: Restoring Glory

Some folks call them horned frogs, others know them as horny toads, and the scientific community refers to them as horned lizards, which is the correct terminology. But whatever the name, most people over 40 remember the flattish spiked lizard fondly. Sadly, most people under that age have never seen one.

Mutual Relationships in the Wild: A fundamental trait of the Texas Herpetological Society

Drs. Ryberg and Hibbitts are two of Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute’s (NRI) research scientists whose work includes diagnosing and resolving complex problems in conservation biology with a focus on herpetology to be applied to natural resource management solutions. As with most scientists, their work derives from a passion to understand, to explore and to make an impact in their field. The work-life balance of a scientist is quickly translated to work-life integration where traces of their passion can be found out of the lab, acting as more of a fulfilling extension of their life.

Scientists search for rare snake in East Texas longleaf pine forests

While many people try to avoid snakes, a group of researchers are doing everything they can to find snakes, specifically the rare Louisiana pine snake.

The nonvenomous, 6-foot-long snake lives in gopher burrows, coming out only to go from one burrow to another or to mate. Its only habitat is the longleaf pine savannahs in eastern Texas and western Louisiana. But today, that habitat is almost gone, said Dr. Toby Hibbitts, a researcher at the Texas A&M Institute of Renewable Natural Resources (IRNR) and curator of amphibians and reptiles at the Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections at Texas A&M.

Hibbitts is working with Dr. Wade Ryberg, another IRNR research scientist, and colleagues from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service on the project.

“With the loss of habitat, populations are crashing in Texas and Louisiana,” Hibbitts said.

The snake’s numbers have never been that abundant, Hibbitts said. In fact, the snake was undiscovered until the 1920s.