Tag Archives: reptiles

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



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!

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 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 89: Hogtober with Noah Fields



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.

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 88: Invasive Tegus with Rachel Pikstein



Hello everyone and welcome to Episode Eighty Eight!  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).

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.

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 86: The Mud-Box-Hog Extravaganza



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.

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 84: Tales of the Bushmaster



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

It’s good to be back in the recording studio after a long absence, and I appreciate everyone’s patience while I was out having a good time. I spent several weeks in Thailand, on a herping trip that started in Bangkok and finished at the southern tip of the country, on the border with Malaysia.  I saw some amazing herps and other wildlife, lots of pit vipers including several Wagler’s pit vipers, one of those bucket list serpents for me.

So Much Pingle Patrons! A big thank you to the show’s newest patron, Daren Riedle!  I’m sure you all remember my conversation with Daren back in Episode 78 – that was a fun one and I get a lot of comments about that show.  So thank you so much Daren for supporting the show and for taking part as well!  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).

So this episode arises out of some singular events that happened in Peru earlier this year.  I was down there with Matt Cage for three separate herp tours, and the crazy bit is that we encountered 7 bushmasters across the three trips – one on the first, FIVE on the second, and one on the last trip in February.  Now, we are happy to get one Lachesis muta on an expedition – there’s no denying that the chance to see a bushmaster is a big draw for our clients – and sometimes we may even find two.  But during our second trip, after five bushmasters were found, I decided to record with some of the folks involved, attempting to capture some of the experience. So please enjoy my conversations with Jill Rials and Michael Moffat, Jeff and Berk, the Brothers Martineau, and Richard Legere.

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