Tag Archives: amphibians

Episode 93: Origin Stories VII with Justin, Greyson, and Kris



Hello everyone and welcome to Episode Ninety Three!  And while we’re at it, I hope you all remain safe and healthy out there, and happy Ground Hog Day!

SMP Patrons! I want to thank Justin Coburn for his contribution to the So Much Pingle podcast, via Patreon. Much appreciated, Justin, thank you so much.  And as always, I am grateful to all the show’s patrons who help to keep the show moving forward. And if you’re out there listening and you would like to kick in a few bucks, it’s easy to do, you simply go to the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can support the show for as little as three bucks a month – less than a fancy cup of coffee! You can also support the show via one-time contributions via PayPal or Venmo (please contact me via email to somuchpingle@gmail.com).

Well here we go with another Origin stories episode, recorded just a few weeks ago in Peru.  Most of you know the drill – I sit down on the back deck of my tambo, and have a chat with folks when there’s a little downtime.  And on this occasion, a rainy morning provided me with a captive audience, although we had to slap some mosquitos during the sessions.  This is a three-part origin story, featuring Justin Coburn, Greyson Getty, and Kris Haas.

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, tips for herping better, etc.

-Mike

 

 


Episode 91: Hans Breuer: Funny Stuff that Happened to Me in the Woods



Hello everyone and welcome to Episode Ninety One!  And while we’re at it, I hope you all remain safe and healthy out there. We’re rolling into December and like many people, I have a big block of family time coming up, so I am pushing to get this episode finished and out sooner, rather than later.  I wish you all a wonderful holiday season, and peace on earth for everyone.  And be safe out there on the roads, y’all.

And as always, I am grateful to all the show’s patrons who help to keep the show moving forward. And if you’re out there listening and you would like to kick in a few bucks, it’s easy to do, you simply go to the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can support the show for as little as three bucks a month – less than a fancy cup of coffee! You can also support the show via one-time contributions via PayPal or Venmo (please contact me via email to somuchpingle@gmail.com).

Here’s an episode I have been waiting for and I’m sure many of you feel the same way.  Hans Breuer and his wife Lisa live on the island of Taiwan, along with their two boys, Karl and Hans Jr.  If you’ve spent any time perusing the old Field Herp Forum, you’re probably familiar with Hans’ posts about his escapades herping around that island paradise.  If you’re not, go ahead and do so – we’ll wait.  Hans has parlayed his adventures into two delightful books, which we cover in this episode, along with many other interesting things.

Thanks for coming on the show, Hans, it was a great pleasure to talk with you!  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, tips for herping better, etc.

-Mike


Episode 90: HerpMapper Turns Ten



Hello everyone and welcome to Episode Ninety!  And while we’re at it, I hope you all remain safe and healthy out there.

And as always, I am grateful to all the show’s patrons who help to keep the show moving forward. And if you’re out there listening and you would like to kick in a few bucks, it’s easy to do, you simply go to the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can support the show for as little as three bucks a month – less than a fancy cup of coffee! You can also support the show via one-time contributions via PayPal or Venmo (please contact me via email to somuchpingle@gmail.com).

I’ve talked about HerpMapper here and there on various episodes, but since September of 2023 was the tenth anniversary of the project, I wanted to devote an episode to it, and talk with Don Becker and Chris Smith.  The three of us are the primary architects of the HerpMapper project, and I am immensely proud of the work we’ve done, and of the success of the project.  Dr. Josh Otten was kind enough to serve as our interviewer.  You may recall that I talked with Josh and Don recently, along with Jim Scharosch, for The Mud-Box-Hog Extravaganza, in episode 86.

Thanks Chris and Don for everything!  And thanks to Josh Otten for guest-hosting on this one.

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, tips for herping better, etc.

-Mike


Episode 87: Herp Science Sunday with Dr. Alex Krohn



Hello everyone and welcome to Episode Eighty Seven!  And while we’re at it, I hope you all remain safe and healthy out there.

And as always, I am grateful to all the show’s patrons who help to keep the show moving forward. And if you’re out there listening and you would like to kick in a few bucks, it’s easy to do, you simply go to the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can support the show for as little as three bucks a month – less than a fancy cup of coffee! You can also support the show via one-time contributions via PayPal or Venmo (please contact me via email to somuchpingle@gmail.com).

It’s another episode of Herp Science Sunday!  On this installment, Dr. Alex Krohn and I discuss two papers:

Between fruits, flowers and nectar: The extraordinary diet of the frog Xenohyla truncata
by Carlos Henrique de-Oliveira-Nogueira et al., and published in Vol 35 of the journal Food Webs

Aggregation and social interaction in garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis)
by Morgan Skinner and Noam Miller, and published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (2020) 74: 51

and as always, drop me a note if you need a copy of these publications.

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, tips for herping better, etc.

-Mike

 

 


Episode 85: Grass Snakes & Midwife Toads with Dr. Steven Allain



Hello everyone and welcome to Episode Eighty Five!  And while we’re at it, I hope you all remain safe and healthy out there. And for those of you experiencing extra-high temperatures, I hope you all are staying cool and hydrated.

As always, I want to thank everyone who keeps the show rolling along. And if you’re out there listening and you would like to kick in a few bucks, it’s easy to do, you simply go to the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can support the show for as little as three bucks a month – less than a fancy cup of coffee! You can also support the show via one-time contributions via PayPal or Venmo (please contact me via email to somuchpingle@gmail.com).

Our guest this week is Dr. Steven Allain, of Kent University in the UK.  We talked about some of his research projects that include grass snakes and midwife toads. Steve also keeps the science flowing on his social media accounts and we cover some of that as well.

Steve actively posts about his study subjects, herp science, and other science-related issues on Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon, and Facebook.

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, tips for herping better, etc.

-Mike


Episode 83: The Sky and Sheri Show



Hello everyone and welcome to the show!  Mike Pingleton here, and I am your host for these proceedings.  And here we go with Episode Eighty Three, and I hope you all remain safe and healthy out there.  It’s early June here at the So Much Pingle world headquarters, and my flower garden is starting to POP!  It’s a great time if you’re into that sort of thing.

Well I’ve been kind of busy over the last few weeks, helping out with a couple of different herp surveys, and there’s a podcast episode coming out of one of those, which I hope to put out next month if time permits.  I say time permits because I’m leaving for Thailand next week and I won’t get back until July 4th.  I’m happy to get this show out before I leave because the last 4-5 days at home before a trip I am running around like a madman trying to get everything ready, and getting the lawn mowed one more time, stuff like that.  Good problem to have.

So Much Pingle Patrons! As always, I want to thank everyone who keeps the show rolling along. And if you’re out there listening and you would like to kick in a few bucks, it’s easy to do, you simply go to the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can support the show for as little as three bucks a month – less than a fancy cup of coffee! You can also support the show via one-time contributions via PayPal or Venmo (please contact me via email to somuchpingle@gmail.com).

Our guests for this episode are Sky Stevens and Sheri Monk, which I recorded months ago in Peru. Why did it take so long you say?  Well, I had some technical issues – let’s call them what they really are, operator error on my part.  When I record in the field, I use a Zoom HN4 recorder, with two Shure microphones cabled in. It’s a lovely rig and I get good results, but on this occasion, I neglected to turn off the Zoom’s built-in omnidirectional microphone and just run the two Shures as per usual.  The result was a lot of static and wind noise, and I had to spend some time learning how to clean that up using Adobe Audition. I’m not an audio engineer and every time I have to dig deeper into audio engineering, I feel like my brain forgets a dozen scientific names to make room.

Thank goodness I didn’t have to ask Sky and Sheri to re-record this episode, because it is a gem.  There are still a few moments of static, notably around the 2 minute, 39 minute, and 1 hour 14 minute marks, my apologies, but the rest of the recording is quite clear.  You may notice some other artifacts – the omnidirectional microphone picks up EVERY buzzing insect, and the birds are a lit louder too, although I’m told some folks enjoy that.  Maybe turn down the volume if you listen with headphones.

Thank you Sky and Sheri!  So much fun talking with you. 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, methods for picking up water snakes, tips for herping better, etc.

-Mike


Episode 82: Bucket Cams, Rattlesnakes and more with Dr. Andrew Hoffman



Hello everyone and welcome to the show!  Mike Pingleton here, and I am your host for these proceedings.  And here we go with Episode Eighty Two, and I hope you all remain safe and healthy out there.  It’s a lovely Sunday morning in May and I can’t wait to get out in it after I’m done putting this together.

So Much Pingle Patrons! A big thank you to the show’s newest patron, Skylar Hopkins!  Thank you Skylar! And as always, I want to thank everyone who keeps the show rolling along. And if you’re out there listening and you would like to kick in a few bucks, it’s easy to do, you simply go to the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can support the show for as little as three bucks a month – less than a fancy cup of coffee! You can also support the show via one-time contributions via PayPal or Venmo (please contact me via email to somuchpingle@gmail.com).

Our guest this week is Dr. Andrew Hoffman lately of The Ohio State University, and we talk about bucket cams, rattlesnakes, outreach and education, the Life Underfoot You Tube channel, and Andrew’s new job as assistant professor at St. John Fisher University.

Thanks for talking with me Andrew! 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, methods for picking up water snakes, tips for herping better, etc.

-Mike


Episode 80: Wet Feet by the Fire



Josh, Whitney, Brenna, Sam, John, and MJ

Hello everyone and welcome to Episode Eighty!  A nice round number and I hope you all remain safe and healthy out there.

First up, I want to give a shoutout to Claire Pedersen, who only found out about the show recently but has been working her way through the episodes in chronological order.  She’s more than halfway through so I expect it won’t be long before she hears this.  I also want to give a shoutout to Charlotte Pedersen as well.  She’s Claire’s younger sister and both of them are just nuts about herps and other kinds of wildlife.

So Much Pingle Patrons! I want to give a shoutout to Ian Kanda.  Ian is one of the show’s patrons and he recently made -another- one-time donation to help the show.  Thank you so much, Ian!  And as always, I want to thank everyone who keeps the show rolling along. And if you’re out there listening and you would like to kick in a few bucks, it’s easy to do, you simply go to the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can support the show for as little as three bucks a month – less than a fancy cup of coffee! You can also support the show via one-time contributions via PayPal or Venmo (please contact me via email to somuchpingle@gmail.com).

It’s no big secret that I love hanging out in the field with biologists and ecologists and pretty much any kind of ologist, and I have been fortunate enough to assist with a number of survey projects over the years.  Last April I drove to North Carolina to help Josh Holbrook and his students with some wetland surveys, which consisted of wading into freshwater ponds to set traps and then return to survey their contents.  I had a great time, as you might expect, and then we recorded this episode after dinner, around a campfire.  Stories around a campfire, it doesn’t get any better than that.  And some of Josh’s students were just getting their feet wet, so to speak, and I enjoyed hearing their perspectives on their first forays into field work.

Thanks to Josh, John, MJ, Sam, Brenna, and Whitney!  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, tips for herping better, etc.

-Mike

 


Episode 79: Herping Suriname with Dick and Lieke



Hello everyone and welcome to Episode 79!  It’s been a while since an episode dropped and I hope you all remain safe and healthy out there.

I’ve had the best excuse for not getting a show out for a while – I’ve been traveling!  I just got back from two weeks in Madagascar, and before that I spent most of January and February in Peru.  I am home for a while now, so the show schedule will go back to something close to regular for the near future.

So Much Pingle Patrons!  I want to give a big shout-out to the show’s newest supporter, Sheri Monk!  Thank you Sheri!  And as always, I want to thank everyone who keeps the show rolling along. And if you’re out there listening and you would like to kick in a few bucks, it’s easy to do, you simply go to the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can support the show for as little as three bucks a month – less than a fancy cup of coffee! You can also support the show via one-time contributions via PayPal or Venmo (please contact me via email to somuchpingle@gmail.com).

Our guests this week are Dick Lock and Lieke Verwoerd, who operate the wildlife tour companies Unlock Nature and Herping Suriname.  Dick and Lieke came down to Peru on one of our expeditions, and I got to spend some time getting to know them and it was a pleasure to interview them about what they are up to in Suriname, a place I really want to visit someday.  You can follow Unlock Nature on Facebook and Instagram, and you can follow Herping Suriname on Facebook and Instagram as well.

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, tips for herping better, etc.

-Mike


Episode 78: From Kansas to South Africa with Daren Riedle



Hello everyone and welcome to Episode 78 and I hope you all remain safe and healthy out there.  After three weeks at home, I am heading back to Peru this afternoon for this year’s third and final tour.  I’m happy to get another show out before I leave, and we will touch base again in early March when I return.

So Much Pingle Patrons!  As always, I want to thank everyone who keeps the show rolling along. And if you’re out there listening and you would like to kick in a few bucks, it’s easy to do, you simply go to the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can support the show for as little as three bucks a month – less than a fancy cup of coffee! You can also support the show via one-time contributions via PayPal or Venmo (please contact me via email to somuchpingle@gmail.com).

Our guest this week is Daren Riedle. Daren is the Wildlife Diversity Coordinator for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and he wears many hats as a researcher, administrator, and avid herper.  I recorded this interview in Peru this past January, and I enjoyed the opportunity to herp and just hang out with Daren during our stay.  Our conversation took us from Kansas to South Africa with many points in between.

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, baby monitors to watch baby monitors, tips for herping better, etc.

-Mike