Marcus wins thrice with his rattlesnake photos.

Congrats to Marcus for taking home several awards in the recent TRU research photo competition.  Marcus’ photo of a big male rattler feasting on a red squirrel won best field photo (see below) and the People’s Choice Award.  He also won Best Caption for a second photo two male snakes in combat.  Clearly living with snakes has its virtues.  Read the entire story and see all the other great photos by clicking HERE.  

3rd international Biology of the Pitvipers meeting

Just returned from the 3rd Biology of the Pitvipers meeting in Rodeo, New Mexico.  Dana, Stephanie and Marcus all started the conference off with great presentations (and KL even presented a poster with Val Law).  After the conference a field trip took us all into the saguaro ecosystem which was a far, far cry from our northern rattlesnake study sites.

TRU successfully hosts the 2018 Canadian Herpetological Society

Largely thanks to our lab, TRU hosted the 2018 annual meeting of the Canadian Herpetological Society. from September 21-24th.   In addition to the actual meeting (with over 120 delegates in attendance), a one-day workshop on road ecology and mitigation was held on Friday.  Dr. Christine Bishop, a frequent Environment Canada collaborator with our research group, won the career-achievement award from the Society, and the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre (which supports much of our work on snakes in the Okanagan) won a prestigious award for their institutional contribution to the conservation of amphibians and reptiles in Canada. 

Past and present graduate students along with many undergraduates volunteered their time to make the event a success.  Thanks go out to everyone who chipped in their time.

 

 

Stephanie’s road ecology research highlighted by The Canadian Press

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.