Steve's Herpetological Blog

An insight into the life of Steve, his research and the many books he reads

What I’ve Been Up To

Dunedin Botanic Garden

You’ve guessed it! It’s another blog post from my recent trip to New Zealand – this time all about the Dunedin Botanic Garden. The Botanic Garden is located at the northern end of central Dunedin, within walking distance of the…

Visiting the Orokonui Ecosanctuary

Whilst visiting Dunedin for the World Congress of Herpetology, I was lucky enough to have visited the Orokonui Ecosanctuary. As you can probably guess by the name, it ecological wildlife reserve that has been developed by the Otago Natural History…

The Otago Museum

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past fortnight, you’re probably aware that I’ve recently been in Dunedin for the 9th World Congress of Herpetology. Aside from the conference (which was mind-blowingly awesome) I also did a number…

#SciFri: Norwich Geology Walk

Not long ago, I was in Norwich for a week whilst attending a PhD related summer school at the University of East Anglia. Whilst I was there, I was given the opportunity to go for a guided walk of the…

#SciFri: Fossil hunting at Walton-on-the-Naze

Whilst visiting my mother’s house in Essex, I couldn’t help but take the opportunity to travel to Walton-on-the-Naze (known as Walton for short) with her when she headed to the beach to walk her dog. Whilst she would be ensuring…

#SciFri: Amphibians and Reptiles of Scotland

On Saturday 9th June, herpetologists from all over the UK (including me) gathered in Glasgow for a very special occasion. The Glasgow Natural History Society, in conjunction with Clyde ARG, had organised a fantastic line-up of herpetologically themed talks for…

Froglife Toad Summit 2018

On the 19th June herpetologists from all over Europe travelled to Peterborough for Froglife’s 2018 ‘Toad Summit’. The driving force behind this one day meeting was a recently published scientific paper based on decades of painstakingly collected toad patrol data,…

Visiting the refurbished Cambridge Zoology Museum

In September 2012 when I first moved to Cambridge, one place where I spent a lot of my time was looking around the Zoology Museum just off of Downing Street. As a zoology undergraduate, this museum was a gem and…

#SciFri: Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life

On Monday 11th June I was lucky to join a couple of friends at Conway Hall, London for a talk by Peter Godfrey-Smith regarding his research which has culminated in his brilliant book ‘Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution…

#SciFri: The Invention of Nature: Andrea Wulf in conversation

As a number of you may have recognised by both the start of this special weekly post on my blog and the large amounts of content I post on social media, I attend a number of talks and debates throughout…