#SciFri: Herpetofauna Workers Meeting 2024
Regular readers of this blog, as well as those in the field will know that the beginning of February is a busy time for herpetologists. It is a time which has historically marked the beginning of the field season, when…
#SciFri: TetZooCon 2023
For those eagle-eyed among you, you may have noticed on Twitter recently that I attended TetZooCon 2023 on the 3rd and 4th December. Like last year, which I couldn’t attend as I was recovering from submitting my PhD thesis, dozens…
#SteveReviews: Planet Earth III
It is always a momentous occasion when a new landmark Attenborough series airs on BBC One, especially one following in the footsteps of Planet Earth II. It was during the beginning year or two of my PhD when I heard…
#SciFri: ARC-BHS Joint Scientific Meeting 2023
Ahhh, the first weekend of December. For most of you it may be the start of your Christmas countdown, but for us herpetologists it is the timing of the annual Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust – British Herpetological Society Join…
#SteveReviews: Life on Our Planet
It is weird to me to watch a nature documentary, especially one which by title appears to be a spinoff of an Attenborough series and not have him narrate it. Instead however, Life on Our Planet which is available on…
#SciFri: European Turtle Alliance Conference 2023
On the 11th November, I visited Writtle University College for the annual conference of the European Turtle Alliance. Despite being reptiles, turtles and tortoises are not my forte and so I decided to try to fill that gap in my…
#SciFri: Free online Bsal course from EAZA Academy
A decade ago in 2013 when the discovery of the salamander chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans; Bsal) was published, my heart sank. What really scared me was the potential impact on wild newt and salamander populations in Europe, following the decline…
#SciFri: Searching for salamanders in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
If you wanted to create somewhere for herpetologists to flock in their hundreds, I could think of no better place than the Appalachian Mountains. The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the…
#SciFri: GARD2022
If you read last week’s #SciFri post, you’ll know know that this time last year I was visiting Knoxville, Tennessee for the first Global Amphibian and Reptile Disease (GARD) conference. Aside from being the ideal place to network, and hear…
#SciFri: Zoo Knoxville
Today marks a year since the beginning of the first Global Amphibian and Reptile Disease (GARD) conference, held in Knoxville, Tennessee. I travelled to Knoxville alone (as I usually do for international conferences), visiting the United States for the first…