For almost the past ten years we have traveled with four snakes. One of these snakes, our bullsnake Hatch, turned 10 this August. Chuck hatched her out in an incubator at the Denver Zoo after a pair of bullsnakes at Cherry Creek State Park in the Denver area produced 13 eggs. Hatch’s was the only …
“Where do I go to find a bear? A moose? A bighorn sheep?” While working at a visitor center, those are some of my least favorite questions. A wildlife refuge or a park is not a zoo. Some locations may be more likely to produce an animal for observation, but there are no guarantees. And …
Encountering enthusiastic young people has been a driving force for us in our work as naturalists. While it’s easy to criticize the youth of today (as it has been since the beginning of time), we find it more rewarding to search for those with passion and interests that could carry them through their lives and …
“Snakes are mean!” a seven-year old boy exclaimed when we asked him if he wanted us to remove one of our snakes from its cage so he could have a closer look. “They’re really mean!” “Snakes aren’t mean,” I told the youngster. “They are neither good nor bad, but like most animals, they have a …
“Check with Wyoming Game & Fish to be sure you get the correct information,” I told the clerk at In & Out Burgers who noticed our U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service uniform shirts and asked about shooting coyotes if he has a game license. Many people mistake federal national wildlife refuges for state game and …
Over the past nine years visiting classrooms to present our reptile program, we have made mental notes of conduct we appreciate from teachers, staff, and students. Recent Visit One of our most recent visits to an elementary school took us through a decaying neighborhood blemished with walls of graffiti, windows secured with bars, and trash …
“This used to be a well-kept secret out here,” a visitor to the brand new visitor center at Desert National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), 25 miles northwest of Las Vegas, NV, complained to me. “Now that you’ve built this visitor center, there’ll be lots of people coming out!” “We can’t be everything to everybody.” says Refuge …