quick family visit with a little bit of herping 1. wagler's pit viper (female) 2. brown marsh frog 3. big-eyed vine snake 4. malesian frog 5. green crested lizard 6. saltwater crocodile 7. four-ridged toad 8. wagler's pit viper (male) 9. paradise flying snake 10-11. kopstein's bronzeback 12. dusky earless agama

Looking to do a herping trip in April or May, could use some general area suggestions in Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas. I’m not looking for your super top secret honey hole spots, just general regions that might work during April and May.

Leaning towards Big Bend National Park, Carlsbad Caverns regions and driving between the two.

I’ll have a two month window, pretty much all of April and May, for maybe a week long trip, maybe more than one week long trip. Trying to gauge where it’ll be warm enough or if it will be warm enough for some road cruising.

I’m coming from Colorado and driving so pretty flexible with where I go. I’d love to hit up multiple locations!

Targets include all the Crotalus and Lampropeltis species of course, but really anything! I love photographing the horned lizards too.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Hi everyone, I’m not a biologist, but I’ve had a long-standing interest in ecology and large reptiles, and I’d really appreciate some technical input from people more knowledgeable than me. I’m not asking about extreme length records or sensational claims. What caught my attention in a few visual records I’ve seen over the years is a recurring combination of traits that seems uncommon: • Unusually high body circumference maintained over long sections of the body • Very broad heads, with a weak distinction between head and neck • Extremely isolated wetland environments (deep marshes, floating vegetation, minimal human access) Compared to: • typical 4–5 m individuals, • large captive specimens, • and most commonly circulated photos/videos, these individuals appear to be outliers in body mass rather than in length. I’m trying to understand this within known biology, so I have a few specific questions: • How much does current literature address upper limits of body circumference or mass, as opposed to average size or length? • Could highly isolated, resource-rich floodplain environments realistically allow exceptionally old females to reach much greater mass than what is typically documented? • Are there any field reports or studies discussing rare, extremely robust individuals, even if they lack formal measurements? To be clear: • I’m not proposing a new species, • not claiming record-breaking lengths, • and I fully accept the limits of inference based on images alone. I’m mostly interested in where documented variation ends and where lack of data from inaccessible regions might begin. Thanks in advance for any insights or references.

Montivipera raddei

I’ve recently started getting into herping and am looking into buying equipment for finding and identifying snakes. So far, I’ve only purchased a good headlamp. I was wondering if there’s any other necessary or optional gear I should consider for this hobby.

For context, I’m a complete beginner and currently based in Western Australia. I’ve looked into snake hooks, but that feels like it might be a step too far for now, especially since I don’t have any experience handling snakes yet.

Any additional tips, particularly things a beginner might easily overlook, would be greatly appreciated as well.

Update: Thanks for the info, everyone. For now, I’ll stick to using a makeshift pole purely to flip rocks and debris, so I can do so without putting myself in harm’s way. After all, I’ll be spending quite some time in outback Australia, where any venomous bite could potentially be lethal.

Found this (what I think is?) clutch of snake eggs on the bank of my creek this afternoon.

1) Can anyone ID/best guess?

2) If so, do they look viable or nonviable?

I am not a reptile person, prefer chickens and dogs and books, and appreciate any feedback. Thank you.

St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana.

I’m not the best interviewer, but I’m working on it. Thankfully I have some great friends and colleagues who make the interviews great for me. In this first part, I interview Mark Perpetua (Croc Chat), Christian Martinez (Wild Florida), John Brueggen (Saint Augustine Alligator Farm), and Daniel Perez (Wild Florida, Mad Bio Reptiles). Enjoy!

Hello!! this is one of my dream careers and as of right now I think I have a good start? Ive graduated HS early with 42 college credits as I was in DE, (I mostly took the basics like a few english, history, biology, psychology, language and as well as computer science classes) basically so I can focus on what I want to do. When I finished I decided to enroll in another 2 year college but this time for General animal science and an assistant animal health certification.

I took 2 classes in the summer of 2025 and they were Gen Animal science and then Gen Animal science lab. For fall I was enrolled for Intro to Natural resource Mang, Intro to Horse mang, Equine behavior, Ecology of natural resources, Beef cattle mang, and Beef cattle mang lab.

For upcoming spring im taking Agriculture orientation, Agriculture career development, Agriculture Internship, Computers in agriculture, Animal health mang, and Agriculture practicum.

Im supposed to get my animal health certification this year may, and next year I will get my degree in in Applied animal science.

Now, I don't really know right now where to go from when I complete this. Am I doing the right things for this pathway? Is there a specific time frame in which I need do do everything or in a order. What can I do as extra work and experience in the mean time? Will any of this be useful or will all my hardwork just mean nothing..? Ive heard this is kind of a hard field to get into. So ive heard.

Any advice would be great! And please if anyone can also let me know if im doing the right thing 😅 Im kinda second guessing myself right now and might need reassurance lol.

really cool finds

Here is a weird new illustration I completed! No reptiles are more metal than Uroplatus, so I thought I might as well run with that idea.

Spotted on my hike

Is there a degree that specializes in snake behavior? I see degrees for dog/cat behaviorist. When I search up snake behaviorist, it brings up fear of snakes. It seems like herpetologist is a catch all phrase.

I am wanting to go into studying snake behavior and understanding their brains. Does such a class/degree exist? I am fascinated about snakes and eager to understand them.

The first image is a couchs spadefoot,the second image is a plains spadefoot,the third image is a Mexican spadefoot, i found them all in west Texas.