Episode 46: Training on Venomous with Joe Ehrenberger

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Matt and Joe

Hello everyone and welcome to Episode Forty Six!  I hope you all remain safe and healthy out there. It’s the dog days of summer here at So Much Pingle world headquarters and the afternoons are plenty hot and humid. The flower garden still looks pretty good, but the tomato plants are scraggly and tired. But in my general area it’s also the time of year when female copperheads and rattlesnakes are close to giving birth. I got to see a couple gravid timber rattlesnakes last weekend while out with some friends, and the snakes looked ready to pop and I expect they will do so in just a few short weeks. And of course when gravid snakes are encountered, I prefer just to hang back and observe them without any real disturbance, just let them do their thing and I’m grateful just to see them.

SMP Patrons!  I want to thank our latest Patreon member, Benjamin Genter!  Thank you so much for supporting the show, Ben!  And thanks as always to all of the folks who help keep the show going. And folks, if you like the show, please consider supporting it via the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can also support the show via one-time contributions via PayPal or Venmo (please contact me via email to somuchpingle@gmail.com).

This week’s episode features a conversation with Joe Ehrenberger, and while the main thrust of the interview concerns the venomous snake training that Joe provides to first responders and other professionals, we talk about much, much more. Joe and I have been friends for quite a while, and we’ve shared some cool adventures over the years, including trips to Mexico and Cuba. Joe and his wife Kelly are new parents to a little cutie bug named Emma, and they are quite busy as you might imagine, so I was happy to get a little chunk of time with Joe for this interview. Joe has environmental consulting company out in the Denver area, and we talked about some of the projects the company is involved with, including one in particular. And there is a bonus guest appearance by Matt Cage, friend of the show and my Peruvian herping buddy. Matt works with Joe doing venomous snake training modules and so we’re getting two perspectives on that important work.

Thanks Joe and Matt for coming on the show!  And thanks for listening everyone!  And as always, please keep the comments and suggestions coming, and please take time to rate the show on your podcast platform! The show email is somuchpingle@gmail.com, and there’s also a So Much Pingle group on Facebook, for discussion, comments, feedback, suggestions, herp confessions, the best gloves for wrangling caterpillars, tips for herping better, etc.

Cheers!  Mike

 

Episode 45: Origin Stories III

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Hello everyone and welcome to Episode Forty Five!  I hope you all remain safe and healthy out there.  I myself have been a little bit under the weather and the show is about a week behind schedule, so thanks for your patience with regard to new episodes.

SMP Patrons!  I want to thank our latest Patreon member, Myles Masterson!  Thank you so much for supporting the show, Myles!  And thanks as always to all of the folks who help keep the show going. To others in the listening audience, if you like the show, please consider supporting it via the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can also support the show via one-time contributions via PayPal or Venmo (please contact me via email to somuchpingle@gmail.com).

For this week’s episode, we return to the Origin Stories format, for which I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback.  There are four segments featuring Maximiliano Monroy Sánchez, Brandon Curtis, Jeff Dragon, and Kyran Leeker.  I interviewed Max at the tail-end of a recent trip to Mexico, and I talked with Brandon and Jeff together at about the mid-point of that trip, in a small hotel precariously perched on the side of a mountain.  Kyran’s segment is a more formal interview, which was done more recently.  I hope you enjoy these four segments as much as I did!  And of course, we talk about much, much more than the central question of how everyone came to be interested in amphibians and reptiles….

Thank you Max, Brandon, Jeff, and Kyran, it was great to hang out and chat with you all, and to get your origin stories!  And thanks for listening everyone!  And as always, please keep the comments and suggestions coming, and please take time to rate the show on your podcast platform! The show email is somuchpingle@gmail.com, and there’s also a So Much Pingle group on Facebook, for discussion, comments, feedback, suggestions, herp confessions, the best gloves for wrangling caterpillars, tips for herping better, etc.

Cheers!  Mike

Episode 44: Human-Snake Interactions with Dr. Heather Bateman

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Hello again, everyone, and welcome to Episode Forty Four!  I hope you all remain safe and healthy out there!  It’s hot, humid, and full-bore summer here at the SMP world headquarters, so I took a little time off yesterday for some creek walking and queen-snaking.  The cold water felt great and there were plenty of Nerodia sipedon and Regina septemvittata to observe.  I like the fact that when it’s miserably hot, I can change my game a little and still get some herp-time in.

Patrons!  Thanks as always to all of the folks who help keep the show going. To others in the listening audience, if you like the show, please consider supporting it via the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can also support the show via one-time contributions via PayPal or Venmo (please contact me via email to somuchpingle@gmail.com).

This week’s guest is Dr. Heather Bateman, an associate professor at at Arizona State University’s College of Integrative Science and Arts, and a wildlife ecologist as well as an educator.  Heather is the recent co-author of the paper “Unwanted Residential Wildlife: Evaluating Social-Ecological Patterns for Snake Removals” published in Global Ecology and Conservation earlier this year  It’s an interesting paper and a little complicated, and I’m grateful to Dr. Bateman for unpacking the publication and breaking it down for me.  Also, ASU put together a short 3 min video that gives a little back story to the Bateman et al. paper – it’s very well done and it features Heather and Bryan Hughes and some cute buzztails, so be sure to check it out!

Thanks for coming on the show, Heather!  I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and we also chatted about some of her other projects (she is a busy person!). And as always, thanks for listening everyone!  Please keep the comments and suggestions coming, and please take time to rate the show on your podcast platform! The show email is somuchpingle@gmail.com, and there’s also a So Much Pingle group on Facebook, for discussion, comments, feedback, suggestions, herp confessions, tips for herping better, etc.

Cheers!  Mike

 

Episode 43: The Brothers Martineau

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Hello again, everyone, and welcome to Episode Forty Three!  I hope you all remain safe and healthy as we move through July and into the peak of summer (sort of, it’s been very rainy and mild where I live for the past few weeks).

Patrons!  Thanks as always to all of the folks who help keep the show going. To others in the listening audience, if you like the show, please consider supporting it via the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can also support the show via one-time contributions via PayPal or Venmo (please contact me via email to somuchpingle@gmail.com).

For this episode, I talked with Jeff and Berk Martineau from Mesa, Arizona, and I appreciate them giving me some of their time in the middle of peak herping season out their way. I recently got acquainted with these two herp enthusiasts, and I missed a chance to record with them in person earlier this spring (the wind in the desert was howling that night).

Berk and Jeff have a channel called ‘Catch It’ on YouTube, and we discussed how that got started, and how their content, style, and delivery have changed over time.  A healthy set of subscribers means that extra care must be taken with the show’s content and I appreciated our discussion about this, and the brothers’ thoughtful approach.  We also talked about field herping in various places and I really enjoyed their energy and enthusiasm.

The brothers are both on Instagram as @JB_Martineau (Berk) and @WJMartineau (Jeff), and be sure to check out their Catch It channel on YouTube.  Jeff also does some herp-related artwork in various media, including t-shirts and decals, so be sure to check that out, lots of awesome designs.

Thank you Jeff and Berk, really great to hang out and chat with you two!  And thanks for listening everyone!  And as always, please keep the comments and suggestions coming, and please take time to rate the show on your podcast platform! The show email is somuchpingle@gmail.com, and there’s also a So Much Pingle group on Facebook, for discussion, comments, feedback, suggestions, herp confessions, MEMs, tips for herping better, etc.

Cheers!  Mike

 

 

Episode 42: Herp Science Sunday with Dr. Alex Krohn

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Illustrations from the Varanus and Spadefoot papers. Click image for full size

Hello everyone and welcome to Episode Forty Two!  It’s good to be back after a bit of a vacation, I was off in Mexico for a few weeks, chasing some herps in various locations.  But as always, I am not idle while on the road, and I captured some recordings for future episodes because that’s how this show rolls.

SMP Patrons!  I want to thank our latest Patreon member, Moses Michelsohn!  Thank you so much for supporting the show, Moses!  And thanks as always to all of the folks who help keep the show going. To others in the listening audience, if you like the show, please consider supporting it via the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can also support the show via one-time contributions via PayPal or Venmo (please contact me via email to somuchpingle@gmail.com).

This episode comes out of the mind of Dr. Alex Krohn and some fortunate happenstance.  I’ve been looking for a way to talk about herp science in general, without boring everyone to tears, and Alex suggested that we have an informal chat (that’s just my game) about some of the recently published herp papers that we think are cool, and that our listening audience would think are cool as well.  So this episode is our Herp Science Sunday kickoff, and we plan to do this once a month or so. I hope you all enjoy it as much as Alex and I did!  This episode features two papers, and here they are:

“Ecosystem engineering by deep-nesting monitor lizards” published in Ecology and full PDF available here.

“Confirmation Bias Perpetuates Century-Old Ecological Misconception: Evidence Against ‘Secretive’ Behavior of Eastern Spadefoots” published in the Journal of Herpetology

Now as I mentioned after the show, it’s not always easy to get access to recent scientific papers, so if you would like a copy of one or both of the papers we discussed, send me a note to somuchpingle@gmail.com and I will get them to you.

Extra Credit:  To go along with the Varanus spiral burrow paper, here’s a link to the Wikipedia page on Palaeocastor, a genus of extinct beavers who, like the monitors, excavated spiral burrows in early Miocene Nebraska – really cool with some interesting photos.  Check it out!

One More Thing:  If you like Herp Science Sunday, please let us know!  Thanks for listening everyone!  And as always, please keep the comments and suggestions coming, and please take time to rate the show on your podcast platform! The show email is somuchpingle@gmail.com, and there’s also a So Much Pingle group on Facebook, for discussion, comments, feedback, suggestions, herp confessions, corkscrew techniques for the left-handed, tips for herping better, etc.

Cheers!  Mike

 

Episode 41: Postcards from Paraguay

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Hello everyone and welcome to Episode Forty One!  It is the Memorial Day weekend here in the United States, and this weekend also marks the one year anniversary for the So Much Pingle podcast!  And that makes this episode the last of Season One!  Who knows where Season Two will take us?  It’s a mystery to me too.

Patrons!  I want to take the time to thank all of the folks who help to support the show, either through Patreon or other means – I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your generosity.  You really do keep this thing rolling.

I also want to thank all of my guests!  So many folks to thank for agreeing to come on the show and talk with me, it’s been a real pleasure talking with each and every one of you.  And also appreciate all of the folks who have taken the time to give me feedback about the show, and suggestions for topics and future guests.  Very important to me and to the show.

This episode comes to you from Paraguay, more precisely from the airport Holiday Inn in downtown Asunción, at the end of a difficult and challenging herp expedition.  I sat down with Devon, Tim, Jake, Dermot, Matt, and our new friend Jose to break down the experience, and thanks to all of those folks for their participation.  And I want to give a shout-out to Josh, Becca, and Rachel, we missed you!

Thanks for listening everyone!  And as always, please keep the comments and suggestions coming, and please take time to rate the show on your podcast platform! The show email is somuchpingle@gmail.com, and there’s also a So Much Pingle group on Facebook, for discussion, comments, feedback, suggestions, herp confessions, the correct lyrics for La Bamba, tips for herping better, etc.

Cheers!  Mike

 

Episode 40: Carrizo Campfire Tales

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Hello everyone and welcome to Episode Forty!  I hope you all remain safe and healthy here in this fine month of May, the busiest of months for those of us in North America who enjoy getting out and seeing amphibians and reptiles. I just got back from a trip out west where John, Tim and I drove all over Nevada, California, Arizona and Utah, and we saw a bunch of cool herps, including a dozen or so species that were new to me.  As per usual I bring my mobile recording studio along, in the hopes of recording something interesting, and this trip did not disappoint.

But first, PATRONS!  Here’s a shout-out to new supporter Nick Scobel!  Thank you so much, Nick, for supporting the show, and thanks as always to all of the folks who help keep the show going. To others in the listening audience, if you like the show, please consider supporting it via the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can also support the show via one-time contributions via PayPal or Venmo (please contact me via email to somuchpingle@gmail.com).

For this episode, I was fortunate enough to spend a little time on California’s Carrizo Plain with a group doing research and conservation work with the blunt-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia sila).  After a long day of lizard looking, and lizard lassoing, and lizard processing, I sat around a campfire on a chilly evening and recorded a conversation with Robert Hansen, Emily Taylor, Katie Rock, and Savanna Weaver (They’re all under the lizard in the photo). Bob of course is of course the long-time editor of Herp Review, and you will remember Emily Taylor from Episode Twelve recorded last summer.  I also spoke with Katie Rock about “Quantifying the Gender Gap in Authorship in Herpetology”, an interesting paper that she and her coauthors published in the March 2021 volume of Herpetologica (and is featured on the cover!).  NOTE:  If you don’t have access to the paper, drop me an email to somuchpingle@gmail.com and I will send it to you.  And last but not least, Savannah Weaver gave us the lowdown on the blunt-nosed leopard lizard and her ongoing research project.

Thanks Bob, Emily, Katie and Savannah!  I had such a great time talking with all of you!  Now of course, after listening to the show you’ll want to follow these folks on Twitter:  Emily (@snakeymama), Katie (@KatietheeRock), and Savannah (@ScienceWithSav).

Thanks for listening everyone!  And as always, please keep the comments and suggestions coming, and please take time to rate the show on your podcast platform! The show email is somuchpingle@gmail.com, and there’s also a So Much Pingle group on Facebook, for discussion, comments, feedback, suggestions, herp confessions, lizard lasso techniques, tips for herping better, etc.

Cheers!  Mike

 

Episode 39: Ecuador Adventures with Ross Maynard

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Hello everyone and welcome to Episode Thirty Nine!  And I hope you all remain safe and healthy as we move towards May, a busy time for herps and herp lovers in many places across the planet.

PATREONERS!  Here’s a shout-out to new supporters Martin Habecker and Daniel Dye!  Thank you so much for supporting the show, and thanks as always to all of the folks who help keep the show going. To others in the listening audience, if you like the show, please consider supporting it via the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can also support the show via one-time contributions via PayPal or Venmo (please contact me via email to somuchpingle@gmail.com).

In this episode, we talk with Ross Maynard about the Rio Mandiriacu Reserve, up in the mountains of northwestern Ecuador.  Now this conversation with Ross hits a lot of marks for me – new species of amphibians, conservation work, and adventure travel in foreign lands, and I hope you enjoy it as well as I did.  Ross works for the Biodiversity Group and he and other members are actively engaged in preserving critical habitat for many poorly known and endangered species in Ecuador.  See the photo gallery below for more images of the reserve, as well as some of the amphibians mentioned on the show, including Rhaebo ollalai and Nymphargus mandiriacu.

I encourage all of my listeners to help the Rio Mandiriacu Reserve project if possible.  You can learn more about the Biodiversity Group here, and you can make direct donations as well.

There is also The Biodiversity Group conservation swag & art shop on Etsy (all products made by Nathalie Aall to raise funds for TBG research efforts), and you can also check out Nathalie’s personal Etsy store for more cool art.

Another way you can contribute is via Cameras for Conservation (for donations of functional cameras and other field equipment for reserve staff and local community members)

Also, be sure to check out Fundación EcoMinga, the NGO that manages the Río Manduriacu Reserve.  EcoMinga’s pages highlight plants and animals from protected reserves, many of them new species, and you get a good idea of what’s at stake here.  Also see Fundación Condor Andino, the NGO that Sebastian Kohn founded and operates (the original land owner of the Manduriacu Reserve–he is responsible for initiating the research and protection of the reserve).

Thanks for listening everyone!  And as always, please keep the comments and suggestions coming, and please take time to rate the show on your podcast platform! The show email is somuchpingle@gmail.com, and there’s also a So Much Pingle group on Facebook, for discussion, comments, feedback, suggestions, herp confessions, Yaqui origin stories, tips for herping better, etc.

Cheers!  Mike

Episode 38: Weekend at Armin’s

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Hello everyone and welcome to Episode Thirty Eight of the SMP show!  I hope you all remain safe and healthy, and it’s great to be back after a few weeks off.  I was not idle during that time, I was out in the field for 21 days, and I recorded material for several shows during that time, including this one.

PATREONERS!  Here’s a shout-out to new supporters Jeremy Schumacher, Neill Jones, and Alec Gordon!  Thank you so much for supporting the show, and thanks as always to all of the folks who help keep the show going. To others in the listening audience, if you like the show, please consider supporting it via the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can also support the show via one-time contributions via PayPal or Venmo (please contact me via email to somuchpingle@gmail.com).

Weekend at Armin’s was just that – an opportunity to walk around a large group of field herpers and get some stories from them, while enjoying some fantastic jambalaya and adult beverages.  Thanks once again to everyone who participated – I always appreciate it!

And as always, please keep the comments and suggestions coming, and please take time to rate the show on your podcast platform! The show email is somuchpingle@gmail.com, and there’s also a So Much Pingle group on Facebook, for discussion, comments, feedback, suggestions, herp confessions, Yaqui origin stories, tips for herping better, etc.

Cheers!  Mike

Episode 37: The Epic Toad Episode with Robert Villa

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Hello everyone and welcome to Episode Thirty Seven!   I hope you all remain safe and healthy and hopefully many of you are getting your vaccine doses.  Spring is here where I live and I managed to get the intros and outros recorded for this episode despite a trio of chainsaws working on a tree in the neighbor’s yard.  Tricky timing but done.

PATREONERS!  Here’s a shout-out to new supporter Tom Eles from Ontario!  Tom took the PayPal option and thank you so much good sir.  Hopefully we will meet again this year.  To others in the listening audience, if you like the show, please consider supporting it via the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can also support the show via one-time contributions via PayPal or Venmo (please contact me via email).

This week’s guest is Robert Villa from Tucson, Arizona. Robert and I have corresponded over the years, and have never met, so I looked forward to having a nice chat with him, and sure did. Robert is interested in all kinds of different subjects and that makes him interesting as well. We talked about so many different things that it is hard to characterize this show, but at the root of it all is the toad, more specifically the Sonoran Desert Toad, and everything else we discussed is related in some way.

During our conversation, Robert and I talked about spotted box turtles (Terrapene nelsoni), and folks, he wrote a great article about them for Medium entitled “Tortuga de la Sierra Madre – My encounter with a cryptic and elusive turtle” and I urge you to check that out.  Robert is also the current president of the Tucson Herpetological Society, and it just so happens that the guest speaker for March will be Gary Nabhan, and the topic will be “Traditional Knowledge and Conservation of Reptiles with the Seri People” which is related to some of the things Robert and I talked about, and that’s a Monday March 22nd Zoom meeting, so check it out!   And finally, for more information and discussion on possible border species between Mexico and the United States’ check out the thread entitled “Possible Country Records for the US” which was created by Don Cascabel on the old Field Herp Forum.

Thanks Robert!   Such a fun talk.

And as always, please keep the comments and suggestions coming, and please take time to rate the show on your podcast platform! The show email is somuchpingle@gmail.com, and there’s also a So Much Pingle group on Facebook, for discussion, comments, feedback, suggestions, herp confessions, Yaqui origin stories, tips for herping better, etc.

Cheers!  Mike