What is herping...

... Kim wants to know. The precise answer is: Looking for reptiles and am- phibians in the wild. Generally it involves watching, photographing or catching and releasing the little critters.Anke and I take it beyond actual reptiles into insects and birds and butterflies and mammals and pretty much anything else that interests us in nature. Maurice was telling me about how he was on his farm a couple of weekends ago, just hanging out in his field one morning. He was sitting on the ground and looked between his knees and there was a butterfly. He thought to himself, "This is a perfect Scotty and Anke moment. Except that they would have a camera and take a picture of it." But I digress. Mostly herping is about lizards and snakes.

How did I get here? It all started out as a basic interest in lizards and snakes and frogs as a little kid. And I never really grew out of it. I had a newt first. I named him Isaac. He lived for quite a long time, for a newt. I kept him in a fist bowl with small rocks and one big rock. Dad had to fashion a wood and screen top for the fish bowl as our cats took an unhealthy interest in him. Unhealthy for Isaac, not necessary for Midnight or Jettero. Through the years I had several other lizards, culminating in a basilisk and an iguana. They lived for a while, but not as long as they should have. I was too young, and didn't properly understand the care that they require. I was really too irresponsible. I feel a bit of guilt about that now, I should have taken better care of them. I was probably around 11 or 12.

Then more than a decade went by and I didn't have any lizards, but I kept an interest in them. Anke and I went to western Colorado and eastern Utah (Canyonlands) in maybe 97 or 98 for hiking and camping. While there I photographed all of the little lizards that I could find. This was me herping, before I knew what herping was.

Later in 2001, just after we were married, Anke let me get a lizard for my birthday. We decided on a getting a Chinese Green Waterdragon. We found a nice litter of them at Petco so we purchased Loki there.

Afterward we joined the Nebraska Herpetological Society. Which is basically lizard and snake club. We met many interesting people through the herp society. Zoo keepers at Henry Doorly Zoo. Professors from UNL and UNO. And a grad student, doing her thesis on the ecology and conservation of the Massassauga.

It is with these cool people that we have done most of our herping. We've gone with Tracy (the grad student) to radio track Massassauga's. They are a relatively small rattlesnake with venom that will not kill you (unless you are Corwin, Kelton, or Jadon sized.) On other occasions we've found prairie rattlesnakes and timber rattle snakes and looked for copperheads. We haven't yet found the copperhead in the wild yet, but I put this down to bad luck. But these guys can kill you and me with a bite. But we go with people who are very cautious and know what they are doing. I never get too near the rattlesnakes. But every rattlesnake found has its location recorded using GPS. It is then weighed and checked to see if it has a radio identification tag. If it doesn't one is inserted into the snake, so if it is found again the data can be reattributed to the same snake.