One of my favorite species to see in early spring are Eastern Ribbonsnakes! A fairly uncommon species in Tennessee due to their limited range within the state. Found this one last week while on a walk with my gf @valenthedragon.bsky.social !

My first snakes of the year in Middle Tennessee! We are SOOOO back!! 1. Gray (now Central) Ratsnake 2. DeKay's Brownsnake 3. Northern Watersnake #herps 🐍

First reptile in Tennessee for 2026 was this cute Little Brown Skink (Scincella lateralis) a friend an I found on a trail today! #herps 🦎

Been doing a lot of Pokémon Nuzlockes in the past year and I have been been trying my hand at Run & Bun recently and it's super challenging but really fun. Unsure if I should post my Pokémon stuff here, but I stream at: www.twitch.tv/whitepaaws in case anyone wants to follow me on the journey.

Another really cool frog endemic to the Colombian pacific is the poison frog Oophaga solanensis! That orange coloration is so pretty, and it's definitely one of the most stunning frogs found in the region! #herps 🐸

Right before this cold front hit Tennessee, I decided to go check a spot I hadn't gone to in 3 years and managed to turn up a Streamside Salamander (Ambystoma barbouri)! One of my favorite species ever, and one that keeps me alive during winter. #herps

Power has officially gone out thanks to the ice storm, oof

Pristimantis labiosus Pristimantis is a very diverse genus of frogs and is often really difficult to ID them down to species. With this said, this one is of the biggest and the yellow stripes make this species fairly distinct. #herps 🐸

Froggy wizard casts a spell to make you happy! ✨🐸 He's trying his best to make the world a lil brighter. It's my first art piece in a lil while so I'm a bit rusty, but finally my life has stabilized enough that I'm able to create things again :3 💜 I can't wait. #art #frog #herps #cuteart

Here's a really cool snake species I hadn't seen since 2019! This is the Temporal Snail-eating Snake (Dipsas temporalis), a decently rare snail eater that's sometimes found on trees at night. #herps 🐍

Two of the most exciting finds were my first ever salamanders in Colombia! These arboreal creatures tend to be pretty hard to find in South America and are not very well studied so chances are I get the species wrong but this is what I think: 1) Bolitoglossa medemi 2) Bolitoglossa biseriata #herps

Time for my least favorite part of the year, apply for jobs. Wish me luck lol

Gliding Tree Frog (Agalychnis spurrelli)! One of the coolest and biggest frogs I was able to observe in the Colombian pacific! Those red eyes are so insanely cool. I was lucky to be graced by their presence since they spend so much time high up in the trees and are pretty hard to find. #herps 🐸

Leaving Colombia today, I'm glad that for the first time in years I actually got to spend a substantial amount of time with my family and friends. It was a good time. I also have a big backlog of critter pictures I'll be posting in the next week or two, so expect lots of critters in your timeline!

A beautiful juvenile Fer-de-lance (Bothrops asper) found coiled on the trail we were hiking at night. If we wanna talk about Colombian pacific classics, this is the top of the top. I never get tired of seeing them even though they are easily the most common snake. #herps 🐍

Spectacled Caiman (Caiman crocodilus). A Colombian pacific classic. Always love seeing so many Caimans whenever I go to the pacific. Generally I see them while canoeing but this one was the first one I see while creek walking, very cool! #herps 🐊

Rueda's Anole (Anolis maculigula)! Possibly my new favorite lizard I've seen in the wild. Endemic to Colombia, they are mainly found near waterfalls and are fairly aquatic, they can create bubbles from the top of their head and re-breathe these bubbles to last longer underwater, crazy! #herps 🦎

White-lipped Mud Turtle (kinosternon leucostomum) My first ever Colombian Kinosternon! This is the most excited I've been for any herp during my trip down here, I wanted to see one of them so bad. Found in the Colombian pacific, swimming in a pool of water next to a creek. #herps 🐢

First snake of the year was my lifer Degenhardt's Scorpion-eating Snake (Stenorrhina degenhardtii) found yesterday during my first hike of the year near Cali, Colombia! This is a decently rare species since they spend a lot of time underground, so I'm lucky to have crossed paths with one. #herps 🐍

Here’s my 4 favorite games I played this year! I don’t think I’ve ever posted gaming stuff here, but eh, just wanted to share lol.

Here's a Nakon Si Thammarat Caecilian (Ichthyophis supachaii), observed in a shallow rivulet near a forest trail in peninsular Thailand, 2023. Caecilians are amphibians, & generally live underground, although there are some completely aquatic species. #herps #caecilians #NaturePhotography 🌿

This little Leucostethus brachistriatus was the other poison frog species I was able to see this month. Another pretty cool lifer to add to my lifelist! #herps 🐸

The Banded Sand Snake was my 70th snake species and I got this amazing piece from @honeyllemon.bsky.social to celebrate this very big milestone! I’m ending 2025 with 75 species of snake in my lifelist and here’s hoping I find many more next year too!

Got to see Flamingos for the first time in the wild this week! This was a trip I've wanted to do for a few years and finally got the chance to go see them at one of the protected areas they exist at in northern Colombia! Such a gorgeous species! Caribbean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) #birds 🪶

Hope everyone who celebrates had/is having a nice Christmas!

A cute Grass Anole (Anolis auratus) I found last week just chilling on a branch near the beach in northern Colombia! #herps 🦎

A cute Anton’s Anole (Anolis antonii) found on a leaf one night. Fairly common lizard in some areas of Valle del Cauca, very pretty! #herps 🦎

🇨🇴

Meet Strabomantis ruizi, an endangered species of frog endemic to a few locales in Colombia. They are extremely susceptible to habitat loss, mainly using primary and sometimes secondary forests. This individual was found in a wildlife corridor, so cool! Means they are actively using it! #herps 🐸

Animals with misleading names. I'm seeing this go around as part of a viral tumblr thread so I thought I'd reshare it.

A good looking Yellow-headed Caracara (Daptrius chimachima) I found in a small forest opening while hiking today! #birds 🪶

A couple of Cat-eyed Snakes (Leptodeira ornata) found on the crawl while hiking at night! This is quite the emblematic genus in Latin America, fairly common but extremely cool! #herps 🐍

Lifer Cauca Poison Frog (Andinobates bombetes)! A species endemic to Colombia! This frog relies pretty heavily in the microhabitat provided by bromeliads. Because of the specificity of their habitat they are very threatened by habitat loss and also by the illegal pet trade. #herps 🐸

In Colombia until January visiting family!

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild: Prairie Kingsnake Cotton-top Tamarin Streamside Salamander Ringtail Yellow-striped Poison Dart Frog

A couple more late November snakes in Tennessee! It was super warm last week for late November, being consistently 60+°F, so that definitely helped some snake activity. These are probably my last snakes of the year though, but what a great year it was. #herps 🐍 1) Cottonmouth 2) DeKay's Brownsnake

Just watched Zootopia 2 and as a herpetologist I really felt represented in that movie. Don't want to spoil much, but I really enjoyed it.

Some more Salamander migration action from this weekend! Please watch out for amphibians while driving during rainstorms, especially in back roads. #herps Small-mouthed Salamander (Ambystoma texanum) on the left. Mole Salamander (Ambystoma talpoideum) on the right.

We had a warm AND sunny day today in Middle Tennessee after a week of rains and this Black Racer took the opportunity to come out and bask for a little bit! #herps 🐍

Spotted Salamander from a light rain tonight! It's that time of the year again! #herps

Back in Tennessee, and back to the usual. Here's a baby Cottonmouth I found today thanks to the higher than usual temperatures! #herps 🐍

Left Arizona yesterday, it was a good run. I will be back someday.

Lifer Lowland Leopard Frog from a hike today! One of the many protected Ranid species in Arizona. I wish I had spent more time looking for amphibians in AZ, as my time here is coming to an end soon, but I'm really happy to add another species to my life list before heading back east. #herps 🐸

My lifer Ground Snake found on the crawl last week! This is such an absolute beauty and was one of the species I really wanted to see out west. #herps 🐍

My lifer Western Patch-nosed Snake I found earlier this week at work while hiking back to camp! This guy was out enjoying the late afternoon sun and I was thrilled to see them, as it’s a species I didn’t think I would find at all!! #herps 🐍

I've heard Great Horned Owls frequently while camping in the last month or two but I've never seen any until this weekend. This is the first one I'm able to photograph! What a beautiful animal! #birds 🪶

Glossy Snake (Arizona elegans) We finished the work week early and I decided to give snake night cruising one last go before calling it for the rest of the year. The temps were promising yet nothing was crossing but on my last pass I saw this awesome snake!! Another amazing lifer for me! #herps 🐍

It took a minute but I finally found my lifer Gopher Snake!! For as common as this species is, this was a tough species to find for me lol #herps 🐍

Northern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus)

The other lifer I managed to find this past weekend was this beautiful Tiger Rattlesnake chilling in a rock crevice! This was one of my targets for the day and one of my top targets in Arizona! #herps 🐍