Tag Archives: herpetology

Episode 95: Massasaugas with Dr. Mike Dreslik

April 7, 2024Episode Postherp podcast, herpetology, massasauga, rattlesnakes, reptilessomuchpingle

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

SMP Patrons! I want to thank a couple of new Patreoners! – Derek Gillespie and Paul Duren, thank you both so much for supporting the show! Much appreciated! 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, if you’re a fan of the longer episodes then you are in luck – this one was a bit of a challenge, with 13 individual recordings to stitch together, and all recorded in the field to boot. In late March I spent a long day in the field with Dr. Michael Dreslik, or Drez as folks call him, and his field team, doing field surveys for Massasaugas here in my home state of Illinois. Mike has been studying saugas for a quarter century now, and it seemed like a good time to check in with him.

Lots of parts to this episode – there’s an interview with Mike to start off, and then we go out in the field to look for massasaugas. I also talked briefly with everyone on Drez’s survey team, and these little vignettes are scattered throughout the episode. I briefly touch base with Mike near the end, and then the last is a chat with Xander Perelman, who is Mike’s PhD candidate, where we talk about some of the other interesting projects that he is working on with saugas and pygmy rattlers, as part of his PhD work. Oh yeah and Xander provides a lot of narrative during the field recordings, doing a lot of explaining, and I thank him for that.

I want to thank Dr. Michael Dreslik for talking with me and letting me hang out and help look for those hard-to-spot massasaugas. Let’s not forget all of the folks on the survey team – Emily Ash, Matt Parry, Joey Cannizzaro, Nick Dunham, Tony Easton, Claire Dietrich, and Xander Perelman.

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 94: Herp Science Sunday: Dr. Alex Krohn & Dr. Harry Greene

February 25, 2024Episode Postherp podcast, herpetology, rattlesnakes, reptilessomuchpingle

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

SMP Patrons! I want to thank a couple of folks for their support – Clint Guadiana, for his contribution via Patreon, and Dave Weber, who made another one-time contribution via PayPal. Thank you Clint and Dave! 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 we go with the eighth installment of Herp Science Sunday with Dr. Alex Krohn. I’ve really enjoyed doing these shows with Alex, and this one was no exception – a conversation with Dr. Harry Greene on a variety of subjects including Pleistocene rewilding, Bolson Tortoises, a breakdown of serpent prey items, and much, much more. Harry is a deep thinker and don’t be surprised if you find yourself thinking deeply about some of the topics we discuss!

-Mike

Episode 90: HerpMapper Turns Ten

November 12, 2023Episode Postamphibians, herp podcast, herpetology, herpmapper, reptilessomuchpingle

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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.

-Mike

Episode 89: Hogtober with Noah Fields

October 29, 2023Episode Postherp podcast, herpetology, Heterodon, Hogtober, reptilessomuchpingle

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

SMP Patrons! I want to thank Shawn LaRochelle for his contribution to the So Much Pingle podcast, via Patreon. Much appreciated, Shawn, 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).

I also want to give a shout-out to Colleen McCarthy, Justin Michels, and Noah Fields for their recent comments and suggestions regarding the show, and for just being awesome people in general. As I’ve often said folks, I’m open to your comments, suggestions, feedback, whatever you got. Drop me a note to somuchpingle@gmail.com.

This one is a Noah Fields two-fer, a mashup of two separate recordings. I recently spent a couple days hanging out with Noah and his girlfriend Kaitlyn, during their first visit to Snake Road. We had a pretty good time and I recorded just a ten-minute session with Noah, to get his thoughts on the whole Snake Road experience. My aim was to talk with some other folks as well, and then put together a full episode. But that didn’t pan out, mostly because I was concerned about over-saturation of the subject, because – I was a recent guest on the Orianne Society’s Snake Talk Podcast, and the subject was Snake Road. Chris Jenkins does a great job with Snake Talk and I’m featured on episode 89.

Anyway, after my Snake Road business was concluded for the year, I headed down to Georgia for yet another attempt to see a Southern Hognose Snake, Heterodon simus. Hogtober baby! And I got to hang out with Noah for a couple days on his home turf, so to speak. We recorded the second and larger session sitting around a campfire, and while hognoses and Hogtober were covered, we stray into some other subjects as well. FYI I had an issue with my microphone about 42 minutes into the recording, but I managed to recover my audio from Noah’s microphone track (two mics, two tracks). So be warned, the sound quality is a little warbly for about 8 minutes. Warbly is a technical term. No warblers were actually present.

-Mike

Episode 88: Invasive Tegus with Rachel Pikstein

September 27, 2023Episode Postherp podcast, herpetology, Invasives, reptiles, Tegussomuchpingle

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

Our guest for this episode is Rachel Pikstein, and we discuss the issue of invasive tegu lizards in Florida and elsewhere, and we also talk about her research in this area, and much much more. I had attended the International Herpetological Symposium this past summer, where Rachel gave a presentation on the subject and I knew I wanted to get her on the show.

-Mike

Episode 87: Herp Science Sunday with Dr. Alex Krohn

September 10, 2023Episode Postamphibians, herp podcast, herpetology, pollinator frogs, reptilessomuchpingle

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

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.

-Mike

Episode 86: The Mud-Box-Hog Extravaganza

August 20, 2023Episode Postherp podcast, herpetology, Heterodon, Kinosternon, reptiles, Terrapenesomuchpingle

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

Before we get to today’s episode, I want to thank Gerry Salmon for his one-time donation to the So Much Pingle podcast. Much appreciated, Gerry, 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).

I also want to give a shout-out to Justin Michels and Marty Whalin for their recent comments and suggestions regarding the show, and for just being awesome dudes in general. As I’ve often said folks, I’m open to your comments, suggestions, feedback, whatever you got. Drop me a note to somuchpingle@gmail.com.

I drove up to Iowa to interview Dr. Josh Otten, Don Becker, and Jim Scharosch, about their ongoing project with Illinois mud turtles, ornate box turtles, and western hognose snakes. Initially this was a survey project, but along the way conservation and restoration components were added. Before we talked, I spent the day in the field with Josh and Don and Jim, and I also want to give a shout out to Laura Scharosch, Jeff Faircloth, and May Quiminales, lovely folks who were also present and willingly gave their time and effort to the project.

-Mike

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

July 30, 2023Episode PostAlytes, amphibians, herp podcast, herpetology, Natrix, reptilessomuchpingle

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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.

-Mike

Episode 83: The Sky and Sheri Show

June 11, 2023Episode Postamphibians, herp podcast, herpetology, reptiles, tarantulassomuchpingle

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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 4^th. 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

May 21, 2023Episode Postamphibians, herp podcast, herpetology, rattlesnakes, reptilessomuchpingle

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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