San Diego flexing its herping muscles right now 😮‍💨

Back chasing snakes on the Cyclades 😎

SoCal herping is kicking into gear

Dear science friends, Have any of you had any experience using a liquid nitrogen dry shipper to bring blood/tissue sample tubes back from international field work? If so, do you have any recommendations for a certain product? What was your experience with airlines/TSA/customs like? Thanks!

Ancient cities as biodiversity havens around the world. 🏛️🌱 www.bbc.com/future/artic...

Some cool urban lizard research presented by wonderful Brock Lab grad students at #SICB2026! Check them out on Tuesday 🦎 🌆

Congrats Tucker Heptinstall - 1st ever winner of the IOB Best Student Paper winner! @doc-brock.bsky.social lab see his science & amazing photos via tuckerheptinstall.weebly.com & read his co authored paper doi.org/10.1093/iob/... & watch his thank you YouTube youtu.be/n6sszCzChuA #herpetology

WOOOOOOO! Huge thank you to SICB and all of my collaborators on this project!

Winter trips to Colorado for views and wildlife >> Working on my growing stack of projects and manuscripts ⛰️

🧪🐠 I am hiring a postdoc! Work will be on patterns of biodiversity across phylogenetic scales using teleost fishes as a model. Apply by end of Jan 2026 for full consideration apply.interfolio.com/179070 I encourage folks to reach out with any questions. Please Share!

Funded Master's position in Rattlesnake Biology at Cal Poly SLO jobs.rwfm.tamu.edu/view-job/?id... Please share!

𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓𝐃𝐎𝐂 𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐈𝐍 𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐍𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐁𝐈𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐘 I am recruiting a postdoc to join the lab in summer/fall 2026! This is a fully funded, 2-year position. Please share with your networks! Application details: jobs.calpoly.edu/en-us/job/55... Photo is of a rattlesnake I found on campus today (in Dec!)...

Look’it what my student @hippieherper.bsky.social found under a rock in Juniper Canyon. Two Side-blotched lizards he caught with one hand! ✋🏼 #UrbanHerping

Hard to beat a San Diego ruber 🐍

@hippieherper.bsky.social 's summer SICB zoom is coming up! Join us by emailing [email protected] tuckerheptinstall.weebly.com/about.html has studied the #evolution and #ecology of garter #snakes. His broad interests include #herpetology, #ecology, #evolution, and above all else, #conservation.

Our last night in Greece together as the whole gang. I’m grateful to all of these students for spending this time together in nature. It’s a wild thing to live your dream! ✌🏼 🇬🇷

Our last hike of the 2025 Cycladic field season through the hills of Naxos. Hundreds of miles and 160 snakes. A memorable first summer as PI. 🌞 🐍 🇬🇷

Be sure to reserve a spot for our July IOB author - @hippieherper.bsky.social ‘s zoom talk #herpetologist #science #biologist #snakes #reptiles

Crotalology (RATTLESNAKES) w/ @emilytaylorscience.com is up! 🐍💚 Rattles. Fangs. Misconceptions! Boggling stats, hiking advice, dog training, antivenom, first-aid flim-flam, free relocation & changing sentiments. Also: who gets bitten the most? Might surprise you. www.alieward.com/ologies/crot...

40 snakes from Κουφονήσι and we ain’t done yet! #VipersAndVines2025 🐍 🍇

New paper! Italian wall lizards have been introduced to urban areas across the world and do very well around humans.🦎 from a source population that has evolved with humans for millennia are more bold than 🦎 from nearby rural areas. Priming them for success in cities? academic.oup.com/jue/article/...

America cannot long remain free, nor first among nations, if it becomes the kind of place where universities are dismantled because they don't align politically with the current head of the government.

Drooling.

Thousands of rocks flipped, dozens of miles walked, and finally we got one. Congrats to @hippieherper.bsky.social i’m catching his first Viper! Off the walls of an ancient castle, no less! 🐍 🇬🇷 Vipera ammodytes — Irakleia 🏝️

Νάξος

3 days, 20 snakes! 🐍 Πάμε! Our first Four-lined Snake (Elaphe quatorlineata) from Moni, Naxos 🇬🇷

7.22 miles and 5 snakes - not a bad first day! 🐍 @hippieherper.bsky.social

Not a bad spot to conduct dissertation field work.

Any tips for getting blood and/or scale clips from very small snakes with small, flat scales? We're doing venipuncture of the caudal vein and it's tough on the smallest Eryx jaculus we've caught. 🧪🐍 These tiny wee lads do not want to give us their DNA.

So long, San Diego! Γεια σου, Ελλαδα!

Thanks to all who participated so far in the Week of Action for NSF by calling your reps and sharing your stories! Check out our Media Tool for other actions you can take to #SaveNSF. shorturl.at/i7WfU #SupportNSF #WithoutNSF

Great trip to San Diego State University for the Carpenter-Cohn lecture. A wonderful community and great to meet new and revisit with "old" friends. Great vibes here! Thanks to @doc-brock.bsky.social and @kevinjburns.bsky.social for hosting me!

My colleague, Rulon Clark, and I are starting a community science project to study urban snake pop genetics across SD county ! We've sent out scale clipping kits but many aren't comfortable clipping scales... If you know of a reliable way to get DNA easily and noninvasively from squamates pls lmk! 🧪

Nothing better than a snake filled Saturday

A great day to be a herpetologist. ! 🌞

😎😎

Mondays suck, but they suck less when you win a grant 🎉💰

I love the desert.

Anyone have a high speed night vision camera under $2K that they recommend? It’s for filming geckos at night. 🦎 🌙

Thanks to IOB for letting me recount a fun (and long) day in the field!

Were you aware that #scientist , @hippieherper.bsky.social co author on IOB's Dietary Breadth Predicts Toxin Expression Complexity in the #Venoms of North American #Gartersnakes doi.org/10.1093/iob/... is also a great #photographer? Be sure to follow his account & read his paper.

Fresh Ink for IOB! Dietary Breadth Predicts #Toxin Expression Complexity in the #Venoms of North American #Gartersnakes T C Heptinstall et al doi.org/10.1093/iob/... #science #biology #phenotypic #snakes #phylogenetic #ecology

Heck yeah! My home - San Diego State University is now officially an R1! www.sdsu.edu/r1 @sandiegostate.bsky.social

Super excited to see the final paper of my masters thesis come out! If you've ever wondered about rear-fanged snake venoms, garter snakes, and/or the meshing point of ecology and evolution, this one is for you! 🐍🐟🐸🪱 academic.oup.com/iob/article/...

Winter Wildlife of the Southeast 🦎🐋📸

I am giving a seminar today at San Diego State Univ, and they are among the first to hear the great news! In 2026, we'll be able to watch timber rattlesnakes on a live-cam all day long, all summer long. Join the mailing list at RattleCam.org & subscribe to YouTube channel: @projectrattlecam9377

What an awesome paper. Hope!! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

go.bsky.app/29rs45P We have an Urban Ecology Starter Pack! 🌆

I made a #Herpetology starter pack because I haven't found one yet & have been struggling to find all the herpers on here! 🦎🐊🐢🐍🐸 I'm still searching for more users so comment below and I'll add you! go.bsky.app/6yaYc2u