KHS

This past weekend, one of my phenomenal research students, Rebecca Benjamin, and I attended the Kansas Herp Society Meeting in Wichita, KS. These meetings are a great forum for talking and learning about the latest amphibian & reptile research, as well as a place to meet others who share our interests. I presented our rattlesnake research and had the opportunity to listen to some really interesting and informative talks about herps. We also got to experience a little of the Wichita nightlife at the KHS Social in Old Town, which was a lot of fun. Probably the best thing about these meetings, though, is that my students get to become part of and contribute to the scientific community.

Vote!

The message promoted by today's blog entry is a simple one. Get out and vote tomorrow! I plan to get up EARLY in the morning to walk to my polling place so that I can get back here in time for my office hours. So whatever it takes for you, get to the polls between 6:00am and 7:00pm and vote - and remember that if you are in line by 7, you will still be counted!

ACUBE '08

Last Thursday through Saturday, more than half of the RU Biology Department faculty (Drs. Scholes, Salem, Wills, Evans, and I) attended the 52nd annual meeting of the Association of College and University Biology Educators (ACUBE) at Hopkinsville Community College in Hopkinsville, KY. We were able to share some of our ideas about teaching, and at the same time pick up some innovative ideas from colleagues at other institutions. This meeting also gives us a forum in which to provide and receive feedback about teaching biology, and meet some new people with whom we share many interests. This is a fantasatic organization, and we had a lot of fun in Hopkinsville. Next year, Rockhurst is hosting the meeting; so we will have the opportunity to invite our colleagues to KC and show them how great Rockhurst is!

Monty

Last Friday over Fall Break I took my snake, Monty (above), to visit Mrs. Teel's Biology Class at Notre Dame de Sion High School. He is an incredibly mild-mannered snake - ball pythons "ball up" when frightened, and are thus not at all aggressive. Monty and the girls adored one another. He liked the attention and the novel surroundings (this was not his first public appearance), and the girls in the class thought he was quite cute and friendly. It's always great for me to see people who have never before touched a snake warm right up to Monty. In the process, they also learn a lot about reptiles without even realizing they're learning! In this way, he is a fantastic tool by which to educate the public, and it doesn't hurt that he is so cute.

This week in rattlesnakes...

On Sunday night, Rebecca (a Rockhurst research student), Joey (a KU research student) and I were prompted by necessity to perform an emergency field operation on Colt-45, mother of the baby rattlers mentioned last week. To briefly summarize our original project before going on, last year our research team salvaged a population of these snakes, whose habitat was subject to imminent destruction, by moving them to a secure site. In order to evaluate their success, we surgically implanted 8 of these snakes with internal radio-transmitters. Since this process began in April of 2007, we have tracked these snakes throughout their active seasons. When we went out to track Sunday morning, we found that Colt was no longer emitting a radio signal, though we saw her in the birthing shelter (rookery). We knew that something was wrong, though we didn't know the extent. Rather than taking her from her babies or collecting all of them as we took her in to perform exploratory surgery, we set up a make-shift surgical facility in the middle of the prairie near the rookery and commenced the procedure. She was recovering from an infection from her initial implantation this summer, and the transmitter antenna had been exposed through this wound, causing it to become brittle and eventually break off of the transmitter. The transmitter and antenna had to be removed, and we opted not to replace them in order to speed her recovery. Following surgery, we placed her back in with her babies and waited for her to come out from under the anasthesia. She and the babies have since abandoned the rookery and we are hoping that she is successful in her search for food before they enter the den for the winter in the next few weeks.

Baby rattlesnakes!

Last week, one of our gravid ("pregnant") female rattlesnakes gave birth! Rattlesnakes are unusual in that they retain the embryos inside the female's body, incubate the internalized eggs throughout the warm summer months, and give live birth toward the end of summer. The picture is of one of 6 observed offspring from the female we call Colt-45 (the radio frequency that her implanted transmitter emits is 045), with a Bic added by a student for scale. They are small versions of the adults at about 6-8 inches in length, with only a tiny button for a rattle. Their mother will stay with them for up to two weeks in the birthing shelter, or rookery, protecting them from predators and other danger. They will soon shed their skin for the first time and then follow their mother's scent to the den to overwinter. The healthy birth of at least 6 babies is incredibly exciting for our conservation project, as it ensures that this new addition to the population will utilize the den at our relocation site and that they will establish themselves there as permanent residents.

Hurricane Ike

As of yesterday, I now have 4 Texans and a small poodle staying with me as a result of Hurricane Ike. My family is from southeast Texas (precisely where Ike is heading in this picture), an area that underwent a mandatory evacuation in the middle of the night on Thursday. The entire region is currently being pummeled by this devastating storm, and I think the hearts of the people in KC are with the people in Texas and Louisiana. That Midwest hospitality has been evident in the last two days, as everyone here has been incredibly receptive and sympathetic toward them. So I think we should extend that spirit to the other victims and evacuees and let them know that our thoughts are with them.