Betty 
A visitor approached me as I was setting up my skulls for display and interpretation at a visitor center one morning. “Can I ask you a question?” she asked breathlessly. “It’s about a bird we saw. Can you help?” I turned and faced the woman. “Sure. What’s the question?” She opened her mouth to continue, …
“A 15 foot Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake – the largest ever caught on record,” declares the latest e-mail we received forwarded from a friend. In fact, even though the dead rattlesnake pictured appeared taller than the man extending it, further inspection revealed that it was merely an optical illusion created by clever photography. Repeated E-mails This …
“What good are they?” a woman recently asked wildlife writer Shannon Jacobs about skunks. “Are you asking what good are they for humans or what good are they for the web of life?” Shannon retorted. Eyes rolled with that comment. Good for What? So what good are skunks? What good are manatees? What good are …
“Where can I take my boys to go and shoot some prairie dogs?” a woman recently asked Chuck at the visitor center where we were working. The question took Chuck by surprise. “Why would you want to do that?” he asked. The woman was obviously serious. “They just want to shoot some little critters.” Annoyances …
“I just came across a carcass,” my friend Gaylia told me when she called from a trail she was hiking near Grand Teton National Park, “and I’m wondering what it is.” As she described the large skull with no upper front teeth, I pictured an elk. “But check the length of the nasal bones,” I …
“Hey! There’s a moose and her calf over there!” a visitor to Grand Teton National Park shouted at us as we started a hike on a trail we’d taken many times before. As the visitor and his wife hurried across the sagebrush in the direction of the mother and young, we continued on the trail. …
Venom can kill. It can also make money and, more importantly, save lives. “Why is venom, filled with deadly toxins, now a leading contender for lifesaving drugs on so many medical fronts?” asks PBS documentary, Venom, A Production of NOVA and National Geographic Television. What Good are Snakes? For several years now, while presenting reptile …