Stephanie’s work on the road ecology of rattlesnakes in the South Okanagan was the subject of a recent article released by The Canadian Press.  Her work, which included a ‘population viability analysis’ model, shows the pessimistic prospects for her study population unless mitigation actions prove successful in decreasing road mortality [unfortunately, Stephanie herself is not named in the article – but it’s all her thesis research! ].  Click HERE to see the article on the Globe & Mail website.

Stephanie Winton successfully defended her thesis on September 20th.  Her external examiner was Dr. Tony Clevenger, a well-known expert on the effects of roads on wildlife.  The very next day, Stephanie presented her work during the Roads & Herpetiles Workshop, as part of the annual meeting of the Canadian Herpetological Society.  Congratulations, Stephanie!

Dana took time out from her field season to organize and contribute to another successful World Snake Day event at the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre.   The Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre, and the Osoyoos Indian Band, have been great supporters of our work there, so what better place to start a tradition of WSD on July 16.    Click here

JoAnne Hales successfully defended her thesis on spadefoot habitat use on Thursday, June 21, 2018.  Dr. Kriistina Ovaska served as external examiner.  Congrats Jo.

Valerie Law won the “In A Nutshell” competition at TRU, where senior undergraduates are each allowed 3 minutes to present on a research project.  Val worked on the field crew last summer, steering a ‘refugia’ project for rattlesnakes within  a  a vineyard.  She is using the work for her senior Graduating Essay in the Bachelor of Natural Resource Science program.  Congrats, Val!   Check out the story:  http://inside.tru.ca/2018/03/22/rattlesnakes-crack-the-first-nutshell/

Already?!?!? We  held our 2017 ‘lab’ holiday social on December 11th, and an amazing collaborative feast took place.   Stephanie organized a great rotating gift exchange with everyone walking away with ‘interesting’ little presents.  Thanks to everyone for helping with the preparation and cooking.   Back row: Karl, Cole, Jared and Anna.  Front row: Steph, Cheryl, JoAnne, Sydney, Dana, and Edyta. 

More good news from the lab as Sasindu Gunawardana successfully defended her thesis on November 30, 2017.   Sasindu created microcosm ‘worlds’ to test how combinations of factors affected the decisions of isopods (‘roly polys’ and sowbugs) to leave and travel away from familiar habitat.      Special thanks to Dr. Jim Hare from the University of Manitoba who traveled all the way from Winnipeg to serve as external examiner on the thesis.   Congratulations, Sasindu.

We’re pleased to report that Shorf  Chowdhury successfully defended his thesis on “The human dimension of Asian elephant conservation in Bangladesh” on July 24th.  Thanks to Dr. Cormack Gates for acting as external examiner.   Shorf is now back home in Bangladesh resuming his work with the national Forest Service, and trying to keep up momentum with elephant conservation.  Congrats, Shorf.

Congrats to Jill and Jared for getting their undergraduate capstone project on snake diets published in The Northwest Naturalist  (2016, 97(3): 181-189).     Jill and Val also saw an undergraduate summer project appear in print, this one focusing on the diet of the highly-invasive eastern grey squirrel (Canadian Field-Naturalist 2016, 130(3):202-206).   Jill is currently working on her MSc in Pat Gregory’s lab at the University of Victoria, while Jared is here in our lab at TRU.  Val is completing her undergraduate degree in natural resources at TRU.  Congratulations to these three for the large amount of effort they put into getting their work into press – a great learning process.

The snake crew puts on a show earlier this summer for World Snake Day.

VIDEO: Rattlesnakes — misunderstood and maligned, says snake biologist