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August 2012 Open Access Publishing Volume 7, Monograph 2
The Department of the Interior was created in 1849 through the consolidation of several other offices. It was not until 1938 that the
first scientist was hired who conducted substantial research in herpetology and, then, in 1972 the Department employed its first
full-time herpetologist.
A History of Herpetologists and Herpetology
in the U.S. Department of the Interior
Monograph 2.
Jeffrey E. Lovich, Norman J. Scott, Jr., R. Bruce Bury, C. Kenneth, Dodd, Jr., and Roy W. McDiarmid
ISSN: 1931-7603 Published in Partnership with:
Indexed by: Zoological Record, Scopus, Current Contents / Agriculture, Biology & Environmental Sciences, Journal Citation Reports, Science Citation Index Extended,
EMBiology, Biology Browser, Wildlife Review Abstracts, Google Scholar, and is in the Directory of Open Access Journals.
A HISTORY OF HERPETOLOGISTS AND HERPETOLOGY
IN THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
MONOGRAPH 2.
JEFFREY E. LOVICH1, NORMAN J. SCOTT, JR.2, 3, R. BRUCE BURY4, C. KENNETH DODD, JR5,6,
AND ROY W. MCDIARMID7
1U.S. Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center, 2255 North Gemini Drive, MS-9394,
Flagstaff, Arizona 86001, USA, email: jeffrey_lovich@usgs.gov
2U.S. Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center, Piedras Blancas Field Station, Post Office Box 70,
San Simeon, California 93452-0070, USA
3Present address: Research Associate, Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 307, Creston, California 93432, USA,
email: amphibscott@gmail.com
4U.S.Geological Survey, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, 3200 SW Jefferson Way,
Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA, email: buryb@usgs.gov
5U.S.Geological Survey, Florida Integrated Science Center, 7920 N.W. 71st Street, Gainesville, Florida 32653, USA
6Present address: Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA,
email: terrapene600@gmail.com
7U.S. Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, National Museum of Natural History, Post Office Box 37012,
Washington, D.C. 20013-7012, USA, email: mcdiarmr@si.edu
The Contents of this manuscript are in the public domain.
Please cite this monograph as follows:
Lovich, J.E., N.J. Scott, Jr., R.B. Bury, C.K. Dodd, Jr., and R.W. McDiarmid. 2012. A history of herpetologists and
herpetology in the U.S. Department of the Interior. Herpetological Conservation and Biology 7(Monograph 2):1-45.
Table of Contents
A
BSTRACT
1
I
NTRODUCTION
1
S
COPE OF
C
OVERAGE
2
B
UREAU OF
B
IOLOGICAL
S
URVEY
:
O
UR
R
OOTS
2
Henry S. Fitch (1909-2009): A Pioneer
4
The National Museum Project of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
5
The Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
11
O
THER
H
ERPETOLOGISTS IN THE
D
EPARTMENT OF
I
NTERIOR
12
Bureau of Land Management
12
National Park Service
14
USGS Biological Resources Division
14
C
URRENT
S
CENARIO
14
National Museum Project
14
Southeastern U.S.-Caribbean: Florida Integrated Science Center
15
Arizona: USGS Southwest Biological Science Center
16
Desert Tortoise Research Project: Western Ecological Research Center
17
Other California Herpetologists: Western Ecological Research Center
18
Pacific Northwest: Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center
20
Rocky Mountain Science Centers
21
Brown Tree Snake Project: Fort Collins Science Center
21
Contaminants Research: Columbia Environmental Research Center
Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative
22
22
O
THER
I
NTERIOR
S
CIENTISTS
23
D
ISCUSSION
24
Acknowledgments
25
L
ITERATURE
C
ITED
26
Author Biographies
44
Herpetological Conservation and Biology 7(Monograph 2):1-45.
Submitted: 5 April 2011; Accepted: 13 October 2011; Published: 5 August 2012.
A
H
ISTORY OF
H
ERPETOLOGISTS AND
H
ERPETOLOGY
IN THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
J
EFFREY
E.
L
OVICH
1, N
ORMAN
J.
S
COTT
,
J
R
.2, 3,
R.
B
RUCE
B
URY
4,
C.
K
ENNETH
D
ODD
,
J
R
5,6,
AND ROY W. MCDIARMID7
1U.S. Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center, 2255 North Gemini Drive, MS-9394,
Flagstaff, Arizona 86001, USA, email: jeffrey_lovich@usgs.gov
2U.S. Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center, Piedras Blancas Field Station, Post Office Box 70,
San Simeon, California 93452-0070, USA
3Present address: Research Associate, Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 307, Creston, California 93432, USA,
email: amphibscott@gmail.com
4U.S.Geological Survey, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, 3200 SW Jefferson Way,
Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA, email: buryb@usgs.gov
5U.S.Geological Survey, Florida Integrated Science Center, 7920 N.W. 71st Street, Gainesville, Florida 32653, USA
6Present address: Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA,
email: terrapene600@gmail.com
7U.S. Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, National Museum of Natural History, Post Office Box 37012,
Washington, D.C. 20013-7012, USA, email: mcdiarmr@si.edu
Abstract.—The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) has a long and distinguished history of employing herpetologists to
conduct basic and applied research to better manage amphibian and reptile populations on public lands and even outside
the boundaries of the United States. This history extends back over 125 years with roots in the U.S. Biological Survey, the
Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service and later, the National Biological
Service. In more recent times, the DOI employed more professional herpetologists than any single organization in the
world, especially in the U.S. Geological Survey. In 1938, Henry Fitch was the first Interior scientist hired who conducted
substantial herpetological research. William and Lucille Stickel of the Fish and Wildlife Service conducted herpetological
research throughout the period from the 1940s-1980s but most DOI herpetologists were hired from 1975-80 with another
hiring spike from 2000-2005. The former spike was congruent with early versions of the Endangered Species Act while
the latter reflected growing recognition of global amphibian decline and the creation of the Amphibian Research and
Monitoring Initiative in DOI. Collectively, these herpetologists produced hundreds of books, scientific publications and
other scholarly publications, many of which are classics in the literature. In addition, many have served as officers and
on the boards of numerous scientific societies particularly those specializing in amphibian and reptile research. The DOI
shows a continuing commitment to funding herpetological research by hiring young scientists to replace the aging ranks
of herpetologists who started their careers in the 1970s. This commitment is critical given the global decline of both
amphibians and reptiles, including those found on public lands in the United States.
Key Words.—
Bureau of Land Management; Fish and Wildlife Service; herpetology; herpetologists; National Biological Service;
National Biological Survey; National Park Service; U.S. Department of the Interior
INTRODUCTION
Herpetology, or the scientific study of amphibians and
reptiles, has a long history. Interest in these disparate
classes of vertebrates has increased dramatically in the
last few decades due in significant measure to their
increasingly imperiled status. Recognition of global
amphibian declines (Wake 1991) coupled with similar
evidence for reptiles (Gibbons et al. 2000) fuels renewed
interest in these animals as reflected in an increase in
knowledge (Wake 2008). In an effort to distill this large
volume of knowledge, several institutions have
published historical overviews of their herpetological
research (e.g., Myers 2000; Rodríguez-Robles et al.
2003) for posterity.
At various times in the past, the U.S. Department of
the Interior (DOI), now through the U.S. Geological
Survey's (USGS) Biological Resources Division (BRD),
employed more research herpetologists (Ph.D.-level or
equivalent experience) than any other organization in the
world. This pattern continues today. Still, there is no
current overview of the development of herpetological
studies in this agency other than the brief summary
provided by Lovich and Scott (2004). Thus, the purpose
of this paper is to review the significant history and
development of herpetological research in the
Department of the Interior. We had several objectives
when we began this project: (1) review the historical
roots of herpetology back to the Bureau of Biological
Survey (BBS); (2) summarize the rapid expansion of
expertise starting in the 1970s onward; and (3) describe
Lovich et al.—Herpetologists in the Department of Interior.
2
the current composition and direction of herpetological
research in the Interior Department.
SCOPE OF COVERAGE
We attempted to include all known “herpetologists”
that have worked for the Biological Survey, Bureau of
Land Management (BLM), Fish and Wildlife Service
(FWS), National Park Service (NPS), the National
Biological Survey (NBS, later called National Biological
Service) and the USGS. Still, some are not presented
because they work primarily on applied problems
without a specific research focus on amphibians or
reptiles. For the purpose of this paper, we define a
herpetologist as: 1) someone with an advanced degree
(usually a Ph.D.) on a herpetological topic, 2) who
conducts most of their research on reptiles and
amphibians, 3) who is active in professional
herpetological societies, and, importantly, 4) who
considers themselves to be a herpetologist (Table 1).
Our objective was to be as inclusive as possible.
However, there are other research scientists in DOI who
have conducted research on herpetological topics during
their career but do not meet most of the criteria. For
example, some have carried out extensive research on
herpetological topics but do not consider themselves to
be herpetologists based on our communications with
them. These individuals are mentioned in passing or not
included in the present treatment at the sole discretion of
the authors. The contributions of these researchers are
no less important than those who are given more
coverage. We made every attempt to provide accurate
details of current affiliations and research interests, but
careers change rapidly in the 21st century. The
information presented was current as of early 2011 (with
a few exceptions). We apologize in advance for any
errors of omission or commission and encourage readers
to seek out more current information on staff web pages.
Literature citations throughout this paper are examples
of the modern breadth of herpetological publications
generated by DOI scientists; a comprehensive list would
be much more extensive and extend well back into the
20th Century. Acronyms are used liberally throughout
the paper and the reader should consult Table 1 for
guidance. In addition, we provide selected photographs
of various herpetologists, some of which have never
been published before. The photos are representative of
what was available to us and do not signify an attempt to
assemble a more comprehensive collection.
BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY: OUR ROOTS
The current herpetological program of the Department
of the Interior can be envisioned as the trunk of a large
tree, with roots extending back into the 19th Century.
Research herpetology in DOI can trace its beginnings to
the observations and collections made near the turn of
the 20th century by the U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey
(Fig. 1), under the direction of C. Hart Merriam (Fig. 2).
His perceptive recognition that the elevational life zones
in Arizona's San Francisco Mountains were analogous in
F
IGURE
1. Flag of the Bureau of Biological Survey that was
carried in a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C.,
USA, after WWI. The blue stars represent those Survey
employees who fought in this war, and the two gold stars (center
of field) represent those who died in action. Department of
Interior herpetologists, like others (Mitchell and Lovich 2010),
served in the American armed forces. (Photographed by Robert
Reynolds).
F
IGURE
2. Biological Survey members in the field at Lone Pine, Owens
Valley, California, USA, 13 June 1891. The photograph is apparently
erroneously marked 1929. Left to right: Vernon O. Bailey, C. Hart
Merriam, Theodore S. Palmer, and Albert K. Fisher. (Photograph from
Robert D. Fisher 2012).
Herpetological Conservation and Biology
3
many ways to the climatically controlled latitudinal life
zones of North America laid the groundwork for the
modern biogeography of the American West (Merriam
1890). Historical summaries of the early years of the
Biological Survey are presented by Henderson and
Preble (1935) and Fisher (2012) as summarized in Table
2. The reader is referred to these primary sources for
details beyond what we present in this paper.
Extensive bird and mammal collections were made by
the Biological Survey throughout North America,
including Mexico and Central America, the latter a
T
ABLE
1. Past and present research herpetologists (see Scope of Coverage for criteria for inclusion) of the Department of the Interior (DOI), with some or all of their
DOI assignments, and, where appropriate, their current U.S. Geological Survey affiliation and location. Due to numerous reorganizations, transfers, and associated
acronyms, complete institutional histories are not included for several individuals. A key to the acronyms used follows.
Herpetologists hired prior to year 2000 Herpetologists hired prior to year 2000 (continued)
Name Date Select affiliation history, current location Name
Date Select affiliation history, current location
Barry Baker
1999
FWS, NFWFL, Ashland, OR
Robin E. Jung
1996
CERC, Columbia, MO
Kristin Berry
1973
BLM, WERC, Riverside, CA
1998
PWRC, Laurel, MD (resigned 2003)
R. Bruce Bury
1972
USNM, NFWL Washington, D.C.
Jeffrey E. Lovich
1979
NFWL/Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
1977
NFWL, DWRC, NERC, Fort Colllins, CO
1991
BLM, WERC, Riverside and Palm Springs, CA
1993
FRESC, Corvallis, OR
2000
WERC, Sacramento, CA
Steve Busack
1972
USNM, NFWL, Washington, D.C.
2003
SBSC, Flagstaff, AZ
1989
FWS, NFWFL, Ashland, OR (left 1996)
Roy W. McDiarmid
1978
NFWL, DWRC, NERC, PWRC, Washington, D.C.
Howard W. Campbell
1974
NFWL, Gainesville, FL (deceased 1981)
Philip A. Medica
1992
BLM, Las Vegas
Steven Christman
1975
NFWL, Gainesville, FL (resigned 1985)
1993
WERC, FWS, WERC, Las Vegas, NV
Donald R. Clark
1972
PWRC, Laurel, MD
Erin Muths
1995
MESC, Fort Collins, CO
1991
CERC, College Station, TX (retired 2000)
Erika Nowak
1992
FWS, NPS, WERC, SBSC, Flagstaff, AZ
P. Stephen Corn
1979
NERC, MESC, Fort Collins, CO
Robert P. Reynolds
1979
NFWL, DWRC, Belle Chasse, LA
1996
NOROC, Missoula, MO
1983
DWRC, NEC, NERC, PWRC, Washington, D.C.
C. Kenneth Dodd, Jr.
1976
FWS, Washington, D.C.,
Kenneth Rice
1998
FISC/SESC, Gainesville, FL
1984
DWRC, NERC, FCSC, FISC, Gainesville,
Gordon Rodda
1987
FWS, Tucson, AZ
FL (retired 2007)
1991
NERC, MESC, Fort Collins, CO (Retired 2012)
Charles Drost
1980
NPS, San Franciso, CA
Rick Scherer
1998
FORT, Fort Collins, CO
1984
NPS, Davis, CA
Cecil R. Schwalbe
1993
NPS, WERC, Tucson, AZ
1994
NPS, SBSC, Flagstaff, AZ
Norman J. Scott, Jr.
1974
NFWL, DWRC, NERC, Albuquerque, NM
Todd Esque
1987
NERC, Fort Collins, CO
1992
NERC, WERC, San Simeon, CA (retired 2001)
1991
BLM, WERC, St. George, UT
Donna J. Shaver
1981
NPS
1998
WERC, Las Vegas, NV
1993
FCSC, Corpus Christi, TX (returned to NPS 2003)
Gary M. Fellers
1979
NPS, San Francisco, CA
Lucille F. Stickel
1943
PWRC, Laurel, MD (retired 1982)
1993
WERC, Pt. Reyes, CA
William H. Stickel
1941
PWRC, Laurel, MD (retired 1982)
Robert N. Fisher
1998
WERC, San Diego, CA
Henry S. Fitch
1938
BBS, FWS, O'Neals, CA
1947
FWS, New Orleans, LA (resigned 1948)
Herpetologists hired after year 2000
Thomas H. Fritts
1978
NFWL, San Diego, CA
Michael Adams
2001
FRESC, Corvallis, OR
1979
NFWL, DWRC, Belle Chasse, LA
Christine Britton
2002
CERC, Columbia, MO
1982
DWRC, NERC, Albuquerque, NM
Larissa Bailey
2002
PWRC, Laurel, MD (resigned 2009)
1988
NERC, Washington, D.C.
Josh Ennen
2010
SBSC, Flagstaff, AZ (resigned 2011)
1998
MESC, Fort Collins, CO (retired)
Evan Grant
2003
PWRC, Laurel, MD
Steve Gotte
1988
PWRC, Washington, D.C.
Margar et S. Gunzburger
2004
FISC, Gainesville, FL (resigned 2006)
David E. Green
1999
NWHC, Madison, WI
Brian Halstead
2008
WERC, Sacramento, CA
Russell J. Hall
1977
PWRC, Laurel, MD
Steve A. Johnson
2002
FISC, Gainesville, FL (resigned 2004)
1996
FCSC, Gainesville, FL (retired 2006)
Kenneth Nussear
2004
WERC, Las Vegas, NV
Kristin M. Hart
1999
SESC, Gainsville, FL
Christopher A. Pearl
2003
FRESC, Corvallis, OR
Mark R. Jennings
1992
WERC, Davis, CA (appt. ended 2000)
David S. Pilliod
2006
FRESC, Boise, ID
K. Bruce Jones
1976
BLM, Las Cruces, NM
Robert N. Reed
2006
FORT, Fort Collins, CO
1978
BLM, Kingman, AZ
Walter J. Sadinski
2002
UMESC, La Crosse, WI
1985
FWS, Arlington, VA
Lora L. Smith
2000
FISC, Gainesville, FL (resigned 2002)
1988
EPA, Las Vegas, NV
Hardin Waddle
2005
FISC, Gainesville, FL
2006
USGS, Reston, VA
2007
NWRS, Lafayette, LA
Susan C. Walls
2002
NWRS, Lafayette, LA, FISC/SESC, Gainesville, FL
Key to Acronyms:
BBS Bureau of Biological Survey
BLM Bureau of Land Management
BRD Biological Resources Division, USGS
CERC Columbia Environmental Research Center, Columbia, Missouri
CPSU Cooperative Park Service Unit
DWRC Denver Wildlife Research Center, Denver, Colorado
EPA Environmental Protection Agency
FISC Florida Integrated Science Center (formerly Florida Caribbean Science
Center), Gainesville, Florida
FORT Fort Collins Science Center, Fort Collins, Colorado
FRESC Forest and Rangelands Ecosystem Science Center, Corvallis, Oregon
FWS U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
MESC Midcontinent Ecological Science Center, Fort Collins, Colorado
NERC National Ecology Research Center, headquarters Fort Collins, Colorado
NFWFL National Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory (FWS)
NFWL National Fish and Wildlife Laboratories, Washington, D.C.
NOROC Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center
NPS National Park Service
NWHC National Wildlife Health Center, Madison, Wisconsin
NWRC National Wetlands Research Center, Lafayette, Louisiana
PWRC Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, Maryland
SBSC Southwest Biological Science Center, Flagstaff, Arizona
SESC Southeast Ecological Science Center, Gainesville, Florida
UMESC Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, La Crosse, Wisconsin
USGS U.S. Geological Survey
USNM U.S. National Museum, Washington, D.C.
WERC Western Ecological Research Center, Sacramento, California
Lovich et al.—Herpetologists in the Department of Interior.
4
a legacy of extensive work done in the late 1800’s and
early 1900’s by Edward W. Nelson and Edward A.
Goldman (Henderson and Preble 1935).
These specimens became the Survey Collections,
housed in the U.S. National Museum of Natural History
(USNM), in Washington, D.C., and at the time, kept
separate from the main museum collections curated by
the Smithsonian Institution. Survey scientists produced
an impressive array of publications based on the
collections. Monographs covered the systematics,
biogeography, life history, and economic aspects of birds
and mammals from the Yukon, Hudson Bay,
Newfoundland, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay,
Puerto Rico, Uruguay, and many states and former
territories of the U.S. including Alaska (with the
Aleutians), Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia,
Hawaii, Idaho, Maryland, Texas, Washington, and
Wyoming. Some Biological Survey personnel collected
amphibians and reptiles during these faunal studies, and
significant collections often times were deposited in the
USNM shortly after their work (e.g., more than 900
herpetological specimens were collected during the
Death Valley Expedition [Stejneger 1893] and about
1820 resulted from the work of Nelson and Goldman in
Mexico [Goldman 1951]). A cursory search of catalog
records of amphibians and reptiles in the USNM located
more than 450 collections and 60,000 specimens that
resulted from the work of the Biological Survey and
DOI projects since the days of C. Hart Merriam, and the
work of documenting the herpetological diversity of
North America continues.
Henry S. Fitch (1909-2009): A pioneer.—Henry S.
Fitch, as a recent graduate from the University of
California at Berkeley, was perhaps the first Interior
biologist to carry out detailed ecological investigations.
Starting work for the Bureau of Biological Survey in
1938 as a rodent ecologist, his studies of the ecology of
Western Rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis) on the San
Joaquin Experimental Range in California are classics
(Fitch and Twining 1946; Fitch and Glading 1947), and
he did them without the help of radio transmitters!
Although herpetologists would like to claim Henry as
one of their own, he is probably better classified as an
animal ecologist; almost one-third of his more than 150
publications dealt with subjects other than reptiles or
amphibians (Fitch 1984; Fitch et al. 2000).
Disagreements between what managers thought they
wanted from his research and what Henry thought was
important to study complicated his early career. His
Forest Service hosts at the Experimental Range wanted
him to test baits and poisons for more effective rodent
control, whereas Henry was convinced that basic studies
of the life histories of pest species would be a more
fruitful research approach in the long run. When he was
ordered to stop working on rattlesnakes, he quit bringing
them into the station and, instead, measured them in the
field. As the story goes, the Forest Service
superintendent and local ranchers, antagonistic to
Henry's rattlesnake studies, conspired with the local draft
board to induct Henry into the Army in 1940 (Fig. 3).
When Henry was discharged in 1945, he returned to
the Experimental Range to finish his studies there. In
1947, "Washington" sent him to Louisiana, where he
initiated studies on Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris) seed
predators, deer browsing, and life histories of the
Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus) and Nine-
banded Armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus). Henry did
his usual outstanding job, culminating in a definitive
Armadillo life-history study (Fitch et al. 1952). In 1948,
he left government service for a position at the
University of Kansas where he worked until he retired.
Henry has always been a prolific producer of scientific
papers; in the four years after he left the Army, he
authored or co-authored 21 papers. Most of these were
based on his studies while employed by the government
(Fitch 1984).
T
ABLE
2. A brief timeline of events leading to the formation of the
Biological Survey and herpetology in the U.S. Department of the
Interior. Created from material presented by Fisher (2012;
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/history/bsphist2.htm
), Henderson and
Preble (1935), and other information from the authors’ files.
1885.–Precursor o
f Biological Survey (Section of Economic
Ornithology, Branch in the Division of Entomology, U.S.
Department of Agriculture) funded by Congress on 3 March. C.
Hart Merriam, Chief. Funding became available 1 July same year.
1886.–Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy, U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
1889.–Relationship established between the U.S. Department of
Agriculture and the U.S. National Museum concerning the care
and management of specimens resulting from biological
investigation by the Biological Survey.
1896.–
Division of Biological Survey, U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
1905.–Bureau of Biological Survey, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
1911.–Biological Survey collections moved from the U.S. National
Museum to the present National Museum of Natural History.
Personnel housed with collections.
1939.–Bureau of Biological Survey transferred from U.S. Department
of Agriculture to the U.S. Department of the Interior (along with
the Bureau of Fisheries from the U.S. Department of Commerce)
1940.–
Wildlife Division of the National Park Service transferred to
the Biological Survey
1941.–
Bureau of Biological Survey and Bureau of Fisheries
combined to create the Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department
of the Interior
1958.–Bird and Mammal Laboratories created
1972.–
Section of Herpetology added to Bird and Mammal
Laboratories
1993.–Creation of the National Biological Survey (“Survey” later
changed to “Service”)
1996.–
Transfer of the National Biological Service into the newly
created Biological Resources Division of the U.S. Geological
Survey on October 1.
Herpetological Conservation and Biology
5
His service and research at the San Joaquin
Experimental Station made a lasting impression on
herpetologists and he returned there for later visits (Fig.
4). Summaries of Henry’s highly productive career and
tributes to his mentorship can be found in two recent
editions of Reptiles & Amphibians magazine (2010,
Volume 17, Nos. 1 and 2), as well as in Duellman
(2009).
The National Museum Project of the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service.—In 1941, the Bureau of Biological
Survey, along with the Bureau of Fisheries, became the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The FWS Bird
and Mammal Laboratories retained the statutory
responsibility for curation of the Survey collections,
which continued to increase through the efforts of
Service biologists. Prompted by the 1969 passage of the
Endangered Species Conservation Act, a Section of
Herpetology was formed in the Bird and Mammal
Laboratories comparable to existing sections devoted to
birds and mammals. At this point, the FWS curatorial
responsibilities at the USNM were broadened to include
the collections of reptiles and amphibians from North
America, broadly defined as the area from Alaska and
Canada to the Panama-Colombia border. In 1973, the
center was renamed the National Fish and Wildlife
Laboratory (NFWL).
After receiving his Ph.D. at the University of
California at Berkeley in 1972, R. Bruce Bury (Fig. 5)
was hired as a Research Zoologist and Chief of the new
Herpetology Section. To our knowledge, he was the
first scientist in the Department of Interior hired
specifically as a herpetologist. Besides being the curator
of the North American collection, he also assisted with
the listing of endangered species, identified parts and
products of crocodilians and sea turtles for the FWS
Division of Law Enforcement, and developed an active
program of field research. After five years, Bruce found
that his first and foremost interests were as a field
biologist, and he moved from the USNM to a new field
station in Fort Collins, Colorado, to pursue research in
the great outdoors. In the 1970s and 1980s, he
conducted field work throughout the Southwest and
Pacific Northwest, including tortoise studies in
Mexico and surveys on National Wildlife Refuges
across the country (Florida, Texas, Nebraska, Colorado,
Washington). When he started, only one species of
Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) was recognized in
the United States but recently it was split into two
species (Murphy et al. 2011): Agassiz’s Desert Tortoise
found north and west of the Colorado River retained the
old name, and Morafka’s Desert Tortoise (G. morafkai)
FIGURE 3. Henry S. Fitch in the Army Pharmacy School, El Paso,
Texas, USA, August 1941. For more information, see “Historical
perspective: Henry S. Fitch. Henry S. Fitch as told to Alice Fitch
Echelle” in Copeia 2000:891–900. (Photograph courtesy of Alice
Echelle).
FIGURE 4. Henry S. Fitch and family members visiting the San Joaquin
Experimental Station, California, USA, 15 June 1981. (Photograph
courtesy of Alice Echelle).
FIGURE 5. Sandalio Reyes (left), Jefatura Forestal y de la Fauna,
México, and R.B. Bury (right), USGS, during a desert tortoise survey
on Tiburon Island, México 1978/79. (Photograph by P. Steven Corn).
Lovich et al.—Herpetologists in the Department of Interior.
6
restricted to the east side of the river.
While in Washington, D.C., Bruce hired Stephen D.
Busack as his assistant; Steve later received his Ph.D. at
the University of California at Berkeley. Bury and his
team pursued studies in three major arenas, all in the
western United States: The effects of off-road vehicles
on desert herpetofaunas (Busack and Bury 1974; Bury et
al. 1977), Agassiz’s Desert Tortoise (Gopherus
agassizii) biology (Medica et al. 1975), and the ecology
of herpetofauna in the Pacific Northwest (Bury 1973;
Bury and Martin 1973).
From the 1920s to the 1980s, the FWS’s primary
constituents were farmers, duck hunters, and other
economic and resource consumptive-based interests, and
there was considerable resistance to hiring in the narrow
“esoteric” field of herpetology, a bias reflected in
scientific publications even in recent times (Bonnet et al.
2002). In 1973, a mammalogist, Clyde Jones, became
director of NFWL. Clyde, a far-sighted leader, saw the
need for herpetologists more clearly than most of his
FWS colleagues. Part of Clyde's reasoning was that on
all mammal collecting trips, a herpetologist was needed
to clean out the rattlesnakes before the mammalogists
could set their trap lines!
Clyde Jones knew how to make the system work
effectively to accomplish agency objectives. Because
the FWS hierarchy saw no need to employ high-priced
scientists to work on lowly reptiles and amphibians, he
hired herpetologists to do everything except study
reptiles and amphibians. Howard W. "Duke" Campbell
(Fig. 6) was recruited from the FWS Office of
Endangered Species to lead a new field station in
Gainesville, Florida, to study the biology of Manatees
(Trichechus manatus); Norman J. Scott, Jr. (Fig. 7) was
hired to study monkeys in Africa and desert rodent
ecology at a new field station at the University of New
Mexico; and Thomas H. Fritts (Fig. 8) was brought on
board in 1978 to lead an extensive aerial survey of
marine birds, mammals, and sea turtles in the Gulf of
Mexico. Fritts was located at a newly created field
station in a World War II ammunition bunker on
property owned by Tulane University in Belle Chasse,
Louisiana. In this period, Bury worked on projects
related to energy development in the Rocky Mountain
region. Collectively, these biologists produced
publications on amphibians and reptiles, yet much of
their “day job” work focused on applied or practical
projects funded by land-management agencies (e.g.,
Bureau of Land Management).
In 1978, Jones lured Roy W. McDiarmid from the
University of South Florida to replace Bury as the
NFWL curator in the Division of Amphibians and
Reptiles at the Smithsonian Institution’s National
Museum of Natural History. Roy's primary research
interests were centered in the Neotropics. Since coming
to the National Museum, he has authored or co-authored
more than 70 papers on the systematics, biogeography,
ecology, and behavior of tropical amphibians and
reptiles, that include descriptions of a genus, 20 new
species, and several tadpoles; aspects of herpetological
natural history; and several site or regional herpetofaunal
studies (e.g., Greene and McDiarmid 1981, 2005;
McDiarmid and Foster 1981; Thomas et al. 1985; Cadle
and McDiarmid 1990; McDiarmid and Altig 1990;
Savage and McDiarmid 1992; Morales and McDiarmid
1996; Cocroft et al. 2001; McDiarmid and Savage 2005;
F
IGURE
6. Duke Campbell. The photograph appeared in the Foreword
(p. 2) of the H.W. Campbell memorial
issue of the Bulletin of the
Florida State Museum (Bulletin of the Florida State Museum,
Biological Sciences 28:1–4, i-vii). (Photographer unknown).
F
IGURE
7. Left to right: Cecil Schwalbe, Norm Scott, and Charlie
Painter (New Mexico Department of Game
and Fish) at San
Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona, removing
American Bullfrogs (Lithobates catesbeianus). (Photographer
unknown).
Herpetological Conservation and Biology
7
McDiarmid and Donnelly 2005; Cisneros-Heredia and
McDiarmid 2007). Roy also has edited and/or
contributed to a volume on measuring and monitoring
biodiversity in amphibians (Heyer et al. 1994), a
companion volume on mammals (Wilson et al. 1996), a
major treatise on the biology of tadpoles (McDiarmid
and Altig 1999), and a taxonomic review of snake
species of the world (McDiarmid et al. 1999). He
recently completed a volume on measuring and
monitoring biodiversity of reptiles (McDiarmid et al.
2012) and has three other book projects underway.
Jeffrey E. Lovich (Fig. 9) started his federal career in
1979 working for Roy McDiarmid, George Zug, and
Ron Heyer in the Division of Amphibians and Reptiles
at the USNM. There, Roy and the other curators
instructed Jeff in basic museum skills. Jeff’s graduate
work focused on the ecology and systematics of
freshwater turtles under the direction of Carl Ernst at
George Mason University, where he obtained an M.S.
degree, and later he worked under the direction of Whit
Gibbons at the University of Georgia, Savannah River
Ecology Laboratory (SREL) where he earned his Ph.D.
studying sexual size dimorphism in turtles (Gibbons and
Lovich 1990, Lovich and Gibbons 1992). Under the
influence of his mentors, he started a career-long interest
in turtles including Diamondback Terrapins (Lovich and
Gibbons 1990; Gibbons et al. 2001) and turtles formerly
in the genus Clemmys (e.g., Lovich et al. 1991, 1992,
1998). His research eventually led to publication of two
editions of the book Turtles of the United States and
Canada, co-authored with Carl Ernst (Ernst et al. 1994,
Ernst and Lovich, 2009), descriptions of four new
species of turtles, including Cuora evelynae from Asia
(Ernst and Lovich 1990) and three Graptemys from the
southeastern United States (Lovich and McCoy 1992;
Ennen et al. 2010), and a variety of other papers on the
biology, conservation, and systematics of freshwater
turtles and other topics (Grant et al. 1992; Lovich 1994;
Lovich et al. 1996; Gibbons et al. 1997; Hinton et al.
1997). He also co-edited the book, Biological Diversity:
Problems and Challenges (Majumdar et al. 1994).
Robert P. Reynolds was added to the USNM staff in
1983. Prior to arriving at the National Museum, Bob
completed his Ph.D. in 1978 with Norm Scott at the
University of New Mexico where he studied a
community of mammal-eating snakes in Chihuahua,
Mexico (Reynolds 1982; Reynolds and Scott 1982).
F
IGURE
8. Left to right: Jose Trevino, Director General de la Fauna Silvestre, Chihuahua, Mexico; R.B. Bury; David J. Morafka, California
State University–Dominguez Hills
; Thomas H. Fritts, USGS; Clarence 'Jack' McCoy, Carnegie Museum; and Pablo Dominguez, Fauna
Silvestre, Mexico. They are on a stop at a village in State of Chihuahua, Mexico in 1982. (Photographed by Dean Biggins).
F
IGURE
9. Photo identification badge for Jeff Lovich. (Photograph of
the Smithsonian Institution, 1981).
Lovich et al.—Herpetologists in the Department of Interior.
8
Bob also worked on the Gulf of Mexico studies with
Tom Fritts at Tulane’s Belle Chasse Research Center
from 1979 to 1980, and then served as the resident
herpetologist for the Charles Darwin Research Station,
Galapagos, Ecuador, from 1980 to 1983 (Reynolds and
Pickwell 1984). Steve Gotte (Fig. 10) and James
Poindexter joined the museum herpetology project in
1988, following Steve’s completion of his M.S. on turtle
nesting with Carl Ernst at George Mason University and
James finishing his B.S. with George Middendorf at
Howard University. Reynolds, Gotte, and Poindexter all
assist Roy (Fig. 11) in his curatorial duties and
sometimes take the lead on research projects. Steve
continued to work with turtles early in his DOI career
(e.g., Congdon et al. 1992; Gotte et al. 1994, Lovich et
al. 1996) and more recently has participated in
herpetological surveys in Latin America, mostly in Peru
and Honduras (Reynolds et al. 1997; McCranie et al.
2001; Wilson et al. 2003) and studies of snake taxonomy
(Gotte and Wilson 2005; Zug et al. 2011). Bob has
published the results of faunal and systematic studies
done in Central and South America (Reynolds 1990;
Reynolds and Foster 1991; Reynolds and Icochea 1997;
Middendorf and Reynolds 2000; Reynolds et al. 2001;
Hollowell and Reynolds 2005; Bolaños et al. 2008;
MacCulloch et al. 2007), and contributed chapters on
voucher specimens to the amphibian, mammal, and
reptile monitoring volumes (Heyer et al. 1994; Wilson et
al. 1996; McDiarmid et al. 2012).
Joining the Gainesville Field Station of NFWL in
1974, Duke Campbell ran the Manatee project, but he
and his protégés, Steven P. Christman and Charles R.
Smith, developed a vigorous auxiliary herpetological
research program (Campbell et al. 1974, 1976; Campbell
and Christman 1982a, 1982b; Smith 1982). Duke was
an outstanding field and laboratory herpetologist, and an
international leader in the biology and conservation of
sirenians and crocodilians (Campbell and Irvine 1978).
He died of lung cancer in 1981. A measure of the
respect that Duke commanded among his colleagues are
the two volumes of collected studies dedicated to his
memory (Dickinson 1982; Scott 1982a) and the
dedication of a building in his honor at the University of
Florida’s Ordway-Swisher Biological Station in
Melrose, Florida. The Campbell building currently
houses the station’s library and visiting researcher
facilities.
Steve Christman continued to give the Florida
program a herpetological twist. Prior to joining FWS, he
served as an U.S. Army Ranger in Viet Nam and then
completed his Ph.D. dissertation on variation in Florida
snakes (Christman 1980). He was a man of
all-consuming passions; his maxim was that "anything
worth doing is worth overdoing." First it was
herpetology and, under Duke's tutelage, he rapidly
became an expert in Florida’s ecosystems. At about the
same time, he took up competitive bass fishing with all
of the high tech boats and other expensive paraphernalia
that go with it. He became highly proficient at his
hobby. Ornithology and botany became his next
obsessions, and he headed up a research project on
Greentree Reservoir Management at White River
National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Arkansas that
combined both interests (Christman 1984).
Unfortunately, after a difference of opinion with FWS
direction, Steve resigned in 1985. He currently works as
a private consultant in Florida and remains a leading
F
IGURE
10. Steve Gotte with a snapping turtle. (Photographer
unknown).
F
IGURE
11. Roy McDiarmid in 2006 conducting curation duties.
(Photograph courtesy National Museum of Natural History, Research
Training Program Archives)
Herpetological Conservation and Biology
9
expert on the plants and animals of the imperiled Florida
scrub community.
In 1976, C. Kenneth (Ken) Dodd, Jr. joined the Office
of Endangered Species (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
as Staff Herpetologist. Over eight years, he was
responsible for listing more than 40 species and
initiating conservation efforts resulting in the
establishment of Green Cay and Sandy Point National
Wildlife Refuges for endangered reptiles. He was most
proud of these efforts, although most of his friends and
colleagues knew little of his role in the early history of
endangered species protection. In 1984, Ken transferred
to a research position in the Gainesville Florida Field
Station. This was not unwelcomed as Ken cringes at the
sight of a snow flake or road ice.
In Gainesville, Ken became one of Interior's most
productive herpetologists, carrying out definitive studies
of an impressive list of endangered reptiles and
amphibians, including the Amargosa Toad (Bufo nelsoni;
Altig and Dodd 1987), the Red Hills Salamander
(Phaeognathus hubrichti; Dodd 1991), the Striped Newt
(Notophthalmus perstriatus; Dodd 1993a; Dodd and
LaClaire 1995), the Flattened Musk Turtle (Sternotherus
depressus; Dodd 1988a, 1990; Dodd et al. 1988), and the
Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta; Dodd 1988b;
Dodd and Byles 2003). In between, he found time to
study the ecology of several additional Florida species
and communities (Dodd 1992, 1993b, 1994, 1995, 2001;
Dodd and Cade 1998).
In 1979, supervision of the FWS herpetological
projects moved west when Clyde Jones became the
Director of the Denver Wildlife Research Center
(DWRC). Clyde left the Service when DWRC was
disbanded in 1982, and the supervision of FWS
herpetologists moved to Fort Collins under the newly
formed National Ecology Research Center (NERC).
Other elements of DWRC that studied predators and
pests became part of Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service, Department of Agriculture.
When NERC was formed, Bruce Bury was already in
Fort Collins. He had continued his off-road vehicle
studies (Bury 1980; Bury and Luckenbach 1983;
Luckenbach and Bury 1983) and his investigations of
Agassiz’s Desert Tortoises took on new life, culminating
in a comprehensive edited volume on the tortoises of
North America (Bury 1982). Also, long before the
current hyperawareness of the problems facing
amphibian populations, Bruce and two Interior
colleagues, Gary Fellers and Ken Dodd, published a
detailed review of the conservation needs of the
amphibians of the United States (Bury et al. 1980).
In 1979, Bruce recruited a Ph.D. student at Colorado
State University, P. Stephen Corn (Fig. 12), to help with
his ongoing studies of the ecology and status of small
mammals, frogs, and salamanders in the Rocky
Mountains and the Pacific Northwest. This association
continued after Steve’s graduation in 1982 and has been
extremely productive (Bury 1983; Bury and Corn 1988a,
b, 1995; Corn 1994a, b, c, d; Corn and Bury 1986, 1989,
1991a, b; Corn and Vertucci 1992). They also
collaborated on Agassiz’s Desert Tortoise studies (Bury
and Corn 1995). As a necessary part of their
investigations they developed methods of studying these
difficult subjects (Bury and Corn 1987, 1991; Bury and
Raphael 1983; Corn and Bury 1990). On the side, Bruce
continued to nurture his collegiate love affair with the
Western Pond Turtle, Actinemys marmorata (see Bury
and Wolfheim 1973; Bury 1986).
Upon completion of his Gulf of Mexico studies in
1982, Tom Fritts moved from Louisiana to the
Albuquerque field station of DWRC at the University of
New Mexico. There he worked on tortoises in Arizona,
México, and the Galápagos Islands (Fritts 1983, 1984;
Fritts and Jennings 1994; Germano and Fritts 1994) and
ranid frogs in New Mexico. He also initiated his studies
of the Brown Tree Snake (Boiga irregularis; Fritts et al.
1987, 1989). The snake, an introduced predator on
Guam, was rapidly eating to extinction several native
species of skinks and geckos and most of the island's
avifauna. Tom continued to lead this project (Fritts
1988) after he moved to Washington, D.C. in 1988 to
head up the FWS National Museum Project.
Tom recruited Gordon H. Rodda (Fig. 13) in 1987 for
a position at the University of Arizona Cooperative
Wildlife Research Unit in Tucson, Arizona. Gordon had
been working on crocodilians and Iguana in Panamá and
Venezuela. He became an integral part of the Brown
Tree Snake research team, and in 1991 joined other
FIGURE 12. Steve Corn with toads. (Photograph by Erin Muths).
Lovich et al.—Herpetologists in the Department of Interior.
10
scientists at the NERC laboratory headquarters in Fort
Collins, Colorado. The collaboration between Gordon
and Tom Fritts resulted in a flurry of publications, not
only on the Brown Tree Snake (Rodda et al. 1992), but
also on many aspects of the ecology of island faunas,
including a cover article on Brown Tree Snakes in
BioScience (Rodda et al. 1997), papers on the protection
of island biotas from introduced predators (Rodda and
Fritts 1992; Rodda et al. 1998), a review of the effects of
biotic introductions on insular ecosystems (Fritts and
Rodda 1998), and snake problem management (Rodda et
al. 1999).
Norm Scott (Fig. 7, 14) started out at the New Mexico
Field Station (with centers changing from NFWL to
DWRC to NERC, etc.). He studied the status and
ecology of monkeys in Colombia, Panamá, Costa Rica,
and Cameroon (Scott et al. 1976; Zucker et al. 1996), but
he also found time to make extensive herpetological
collections in Colombia, Cameroon, and Baja California
(Scott 1982b). He organized and edited a symposium
"Herpetological Communities" held at the 1977
combined herpetological society meetings at the
University of Kansas (Scott 1982a). As time passed, the
FWS began to support research on reptiles and
amphibians, and Norm was allowed to work on Harter's
Water Snake (Nerodia harteri) in Texas (Scott et al.
1989), the Sacramento Mountains Salamander (Aneides
F
IGURE
13. Gordon Rodda and Marie Timmerman ca. 1993 in the
office in Fort Collins, Colorado. (Photographed by Jeff Lovich).
F
IGURE
14. Norm Scott (left) with Jeff Lovich (center) and Whit Gibbons (right: University of Georgia, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory),
San Simeon State Park, California, January 2001. (Photographer unknown).
Herpetological Conservation and Biology
11
hardii; Ramotnik and Scott 1988; Scott and Ramotnik
1992), and the five declining species of New Mexican
leopard frogs (Rana spp.; Scott and Jennings 1985;
Jennings and Scott 1993). He also contributed to a
manual of standard survey methods for amphibians
(Crump and Scott 1994; Scott 1994; Scott and
Woodward 1994).
In 1980, Norm accompanied a group of government
biologists to Paraguay. There they teamed up with
Peace Corps volunteers, students of the Universidad
Nacional de Asunción, and Paraguay's Servicio Forestal
to initiate a national biological inventory based in the
newly formed Museo Nacional de Historia Natural del
Paraguay. This cooperation has continued to the present
time. He helped survey the status of Paraguayan
crocodilians in 1986 (Scott et al. 1990) and 1993 (King
et al. 1994) and has continued to support the Museo,
which is fully staffed and functional with important
collections in all major taxonomic groups (Romero
Martinez 1996).
The Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.—Two
herpetological graduate students from the University of
Michigan, Lucille F. (Fig. 15) and William H. Stickel,
were hired in the early 1940s to help staff the new FWS
Patuxent Research Refuge, Maryland. This wife and
husband team collaborated in scientific research at
Patuxent for almost 40 yr. Bill was hired first, but he
was drafted into the military during World War II and
never finished his Ph.D. While serving in the Pacific,
Bill managed to collect and send to the USNM more
than 300 specimens from New Guinea. Meanwhile,
Lucille continued to work on her doctorate, completing it
in 1949.
The Stickels specialized in the new and burgeoning
field of pesticide studies, helping make the Patuxent
Wildlife Research Center (PWRC) a world leader, first
in DDT, and later in all pesticide research (L.F. Stickel
1951, 1973; W.H. Stickel 1975). Like Fitch, the Stickels
pursued studies on a wide range of vertebrate animals,
most of the studies pesticide related, but they still found
time to publish a classic ecological treatise based on a
35-year study of a population of the Black Rat Snake
(Elaphe obsoleta, sometimes called Pantherophis
alleghaniensis) at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
(Stickel et al. 1980). Bill also published papers dealing
with snake systematics and biology (W.H. Stickel 1943,
1951; Stickel and Cope 1947).
In 1973, Lucille broke the gender barrier to become
the first woman director of an FWS laboratory. She
managed to break away from a heavy administrative
load long enough to personally monitor the growth,
movements, and population dynamics of local Eastern
Box Turtles (Terrapene carolina). In what has to be one
of the longest running studies of any reptile or
amphibian population, she started fieldwork as a junior
biologist in 1944 and made the last observations as
laboratory director in 1981 (L.F. Stickel 1950, 1978,
1989; Stickel and Bunck 1989).
About the same time that the NFWL herpetological
team was being assembled, Lucille Stickel was also
hiring herpetologists. Donald R. Clark, Jr.,
graduated with a Ph.D. from Henry Fitch's program
at the University of Kansas where he completed a
F
IGURE
15. Lucille Stickel. (File photo: Photographer unknown).
F
IGURE
16. Russell Hall. (Photographer unknown).
Lovich et al.—Herpetologists in the Department of Interior.
12
dissertation on the Western Worm Snake
(Carphophis vermis; Clark 1970). He came to Patuxent
in 1972 and was initially assigned to study contaminants
in bats. However, he also found time to continue his
studies of snake and lizard biology begun at Texas A&M
University (Clark 1974; Clark and Kroll 1974; Clark and
Fleet 1976) and collaborated with PWRC colleagues on
studies of contaminants in reptiles and amphibians (Hall
and Clark 1982; Clark and Krinitsky 1985). In 1991,
Don moved to the Patuxent field station at Texas A&M
University in College Station, Texas, where he continued
to work with reptiles and amphibians, as well as other
vertebrates. Most of his research dealt with contaminants
(Clark et al. 1998, 2000), but he also continued his
studies of basic snake biology (Clark et al. 1997). He
retired in 2000.
Russell J. Hall (Fig. 16), another of Henry Fitch’s
students, was added to the PWRC staff in 1977. Russ's
research started off with some of the earliest
contaminant work done on amphibians and reptiles (Hall
1980; Hall and Swineford 1979, 1980, 1981; Hall and
Kolbe 1980; Hall et al. 1979; Heinz et al. 1980), but he
was rapidly shunted off into administrative
responsibilities.
OTHER HERPETOLOGISTS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF
THE INTERIOR
It was not until the late 1970s that two other agencies
of the Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) and the National Park Service,
began to recognize their responsibilities towards the
scientific management of reptiles and amphibians. With
this realization, they also began to hire herpetologists.
Bureau of Land Management.—In 1991, Jeff Lovich
departed the University of Georgia, Savannah River
Ecology Laboratory to accept a position with BLM in
Riverside, California. Having focused his research
career to that point on turtles, he joined a group of BLM
biologists, including Hal Avery, Kristin Berry, and Bill
Boarman, who were working on issues related to the
ecology, conservation, and management of Agassiz’s
Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii). The three worked
for Kristin Berry (Fig. 17) who had completed her Ph.D.
on Common Chuckwalla (Sauromalus ater) behavior
under noted herpetologist Robert Stebbins at U.C.
Berkeley in 1972 (Berry 1974). Later, she established a
major Agassiz’s Desert Tortoise research program while
employed by BLM, conducting research on virtually
every aspect of Agassiz’s Desert Tortoise biology (e.g.,
Berry 1986).
Shortly after he was hired by BLM, Jeff Lovich
initiated studies on the ecology of Agassiz’s Desert
Tortoises at a wind energy development near Palm
Springs (Lovich et al. 1999; Lovich and Daniels 2000).
After a year in Riverside, he became the Lead Wildlife
Biologist for the Palm Springs office of BLM working
on a more eclectic group of species, including the
Coachella Valley Fringe-toed Lizard (Uma inornata;
Barrows et al. 1995) and Flat-tailed Horned Lizard
(Phrynosoma mcallii; Nicolai and Lovich 2000). During
F
IGUR E
17. Kristin Berry at a Desert Tortoise study site in the Soda
Mountains, Mojave Desert, California in 2002. (Photographed by
Dominic P. Oldershaw).
F
IGURE
18. Phil Medica noosing a lizard at Hemenway Marina, Lake
Mead National Recreation Area. (Photographer unknown).
Herpetological Conservation and Biology
13
his time with BLM, he became interested in the ecology
of invasive plant species (DeLoach et al. 2000, Lovich
2000, Lovich and de Gouvenain 1998) and the impacts
of human disturbance on ecological processes in the
California desert (Lovich and Bainbridge 1999).
With more than 30 years of experience in the
Southwest, Philip A. Medica (Fig. 18) is a familiar name
to most desert biologists. He finished his Master's
degree at New Mexico State University in 1966, and
started a Ph.D. program at Brigham Young University.
Then Phil embarked on a career studying all aspects of
animal ecology in the Mojave and Colorado deserts.
Although best known for his work with the Department
of Energy on the Nevada Test Site, Phil worked
throughout the California deserts with Fred Turner of the
University of California at Los Angeles producing a
series of classic papers on Side-blotched Lizards (Uta
stansburiana), Flat-tailed Horned Lizards, and Agassiz’s
Desert Tortoises. In 1992, he was hired as an ecologist
by the Las Vegas District office of BLM to work on
various ecological studies that included numerous
Agassiz’s Desert Tortoise conservation issues (Bury et
al. 1994b, Germano et al. 1994).
Like Jeff and Phil, Todd C. Esque (Fig. 19) came to
USGS from BLM via a FWS connection, starting with
NERC in Ft. Collins, Colorado in 1987. While there, he
became closely allied with herpetologists Bruce Bury
and Steve Corn and completed a Master's degree at
Colorado State University (CSU) studying the foraging
ecology of Desert Tortoises. In 1991, he began work as
an ecologist for BLM in their St. George, Utah Field
Office. His continued association with Bruce resulted in
a fruitful collaboration on the book "Biology of North
American Tortoises", in which Todd contributed to three
chapters (Bury et al. 1994a; Esque and Peters 1994;
Germano et al. 1994). Later, he contributed to another
book on Morafka’s Desert Tortoise in the Sonoran
Desert (Esque et al. 2002). Besides his tortoise work,
Todd has experience with other taxa including the Desert
Slender Salamander (Batrachoseps aridus), Flat-tailed
Horned Lizards, and amphibians in the Rocky
Mountains. His colleague in St. George, Lesley DeFalco
(Fig. 20), produced a significant compendium of
information on the Agassiz’s Desert Tortoise of the
United States (Grover and DeFalco 1995) in addition to
conducting her own research on tortoise foraging
ecology. Both now work in the Henderson office of
USGS, just outside of Las Vegas.
Bruce Jones got his first federal job with BLM while
still a graduate student at New Mexico State University
in 1976. While there, he conducted a reptile and
amphibian survey in the Peloncillo Mountains of
southwest New Mexico, and later did extensive surveys
and studies for BLM in Arizona, working on reptiles
(Jones 1990) and their communities (Jones et al. 1985).
Bruce later transferred to the US Fish and Wildlife
Service’s Endangered Species Office replacing Ken
Dodd. He left Washington, D.C., and worked for the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where he
developed a comprehensive landscape ecology program.
In 1990 Bruce went back to the University of Nevada,
Las Vegas for a Ph.D., where he studied historical
ecology and phylogenetics in horned lizards
(Phrynosoma) under Brett Riddle. In 2006 Bruce left
EPA to take a job as the Chief Scientist for Geography in
USGS, and in 2008 he became the Chief Scientist for
Biology. Currently Bruce is the President of the
International Association of Landscape Ecologists and
serves on editorial boards for Ecological Indicators and
the International Journal of Environmental Monitoring
and Assessment. His current interests are in multi-scaled
assessments of riparian ecosystems (Jones et al. 2010),
climate change/land-use interactions (Opdam et al 2009),
and the nexus between climate change and phylogenetics
FIGURE 19. Todd Esque somewhere near St. George, Utah.
(Photographer unknown).
FIGUR E 20. Lesley DeFalco, collecting data somewhere in the Mojave
Desert. (Photographer unknown).
Lovich et al.—Herpetologists in the Department of Interior.
14
using reptiles as case studies. In 2011 Bruce moved
back to Las Vegas, Nevada to take an assignment as a
Senior Landscape Ecologist in the USGS National
Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center. There he
will conduct research on climate/land-cover change
response models and climate change vulnerability
assessments. He plans to get involved in the emerging
issue of climate change and lizard species decline.
National Park Service.—Gary M. Fellers started his
career as a staff biologist in the San Francisco office of
the National Park Service in 1979, but he soon
transferred to a research position at Point Reyes National
Seashore, Marin County, California. He has carried out
research on a wide range of organisms, including plants
(Clark and Fellers 1987), Island Night Lizards (Xantusia
riversiana; Fellers and Drost 1991a, b), bats and other
small mammals (Drost and Fellers 1991), and
amphibians on NPS lands in the mountains of central
and northern California (Fellers and Drost 1993).
Gary has provided protocols for surveying amphibians
and other small animals on Park Service lands in
California (Fellers and Drost 1989). He has also been
very active in amphibian conservation, participating in
an early publication on the subject (Bury et al. 1980).
Gary was chairman of the California-Nevada Working
Group of the Declining Amphibian Populations Task
Force of the World Conservation Union (IUCN).
From 1984 to 1990, Cecil R. Schwalbe (Fig. 21) was
the Arizona State Herpetologist. He then took a research
position at the University of Arizona, where, in 1993, he
became part of the NPS’ Cooperative Park Service Unit
(CPSU), a position that he occupied for just six months
before it was merged with the newly formed National
Biological Survey. He and his students have studied
Morafka’s Desert Tortoise (Dickinson et al. 1995; Bailey
et al. 1995) and other reptiles and amphibians in
southern Arizona and México.
Donna Shaver was brought from NPS into the
National Biological Survey to continue her work on
Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles (Lepidochelys kempii) at
Padre Island, Texas. She developed an international
reputation for her groundbreaking work to reestablish
this critically endangered species in the United States
(e.g., Shaver and Miller 1999; Fontaine and Shaver
2005). In 2003, however, Donna’s position was shifted
back to the National Park Service. Because of her
outstanding dedication to sea turtle conservation, Donna
was named the ABC News “Person of the Week” on 29
July 2005.
USGS-Biological Resources Division.—In 1993, the
Secretary of the Department of the Interior, Bruce
Babbitt, combined the research biologists working for
the diverse agencies of the Department into a single new
agency, the National Biological Survey (NBS). All of
the research herpetologists in FWS, NPS, and BLM were
swept up in the amalgamation. After a brief period
under the name National Biological Service (still NBS),
the organization was combined with the USGS in 1996
and changed its name again to the Biological Resources
Division (BRD) of the USGS.
THE CURRENT SCENARIO
National Museum Project.—With the formation of
NBS, the entire Department of the Interior’s museum
section was transferred to the Patuxent Wildlife
Research Center and became the Biological Survey Unit.
Roy McDiarmid and Robert Reynolds, ably assisted by
Steve W. Gotte and James Poindexter, form the USGS
Herpetology Project in the Division of Amphibians and
Reptiles and continue with curatorial activities (e.g.,
Gotte and Reynolds 1998; Reynolds et al. 2007).
Roy's most recent expeditions were to the celebrated
"tepuis," the lofty sandstone mesas that loom high above
lowland rainforests near the borders of Venezuela,
Brazil, and Guyana (Givnish et al. 1986; McDiarmid et
al. 1988; McDiarmid and Gorzula 1989; Donnelly et al.
1992; Myers et al. 1993; Kizirian and McDiarmid 1998;
McDiarmid and Donnelly 2005; Barrio-Amorós et al.
2010). His current research focuses on the biology,
systematics, biogeography, and conservation of the
reptiles and amphibians primarily of the western
hemisphere, with a continuing focus on describing
new or unusual species (e.g., Cisneros-Heredia and
F
IGURE
21. Cecil Schwalbe, somewhere in the Sonoran Desert.
(Photographer unknown).
Herpetological Conservation and Biology
15
McDiarmid 2006a, b; Padial et al. 2006a, b; Morales and
McDiarmid 2009; Albuquerque and McDiarmid 2010),
elucidating interesting life-history information (Altig and
McDiarmid 2006, 2007; Furness et al. 2010), and
providing perspective on other aspects of science (e.g.,
Frost et al. 2009). At the same time Roy is hard at work
with Ron Altig on a book of species accounts for North
American larval amphibians and with Jonathan
Campbell on volumes 2 and 3 of Snake Species of the
World.
Bob Reynolds became station leader of the Biological
Survey Unit in 1998 and assumed administrative duties
for the entire section, which includes mammalogists,
ornithologists, and museum specialists. He continues to
make collecting trips to tropical America, especially
Guyana, to share in the curation of the North American
herpetological collections, and to serve as herpetological
editor for the Proceedings of the Biological Society of
Washington. Bob is currently collaborating on an
annotated and illustrated checklist of the amphibians and
reptiles of Guyana with Jay Cole, Carol Townsend, Ross
MacCulloch, and Amy Lathrop.
Southeastern U.S.-Caribbean: Florida Integrated
Science Center.—Biologists in the herpetology program
at the Florida Integrated Science Center (FISC) have
conducted research on reptiles and amphibians in the
Southeastern United States and Caribbean for more than
30 years. The project began with studies that assessed
status and distribution of amphibians and reptiles in
threatened Florida biotic communities. Herpetological
research under Duke Campbell and Steve Christman
centered on three main topics: the Cross Florida Barge
Canal project (conducted in Ocala National Forest), the
effects of forest management on non-game wildlife
(conducted at St. Marks NWR), and the effects of
phosphate mining on herpetofauna (conducted in
Osceola National Forest). This work resulted in a series
of publications (Campbell and Christman 1982a, 1982b;
Smith 1982), although much of the data remain
unpublished. An assessment of habitat changes at St.
Marks NWR over a 28-yr period was published using
data from the earlier study combined with intensive
surveys at the same locations using the same techniques
sampled in the mid-2000s (Dodd et al. 2006).
Since then, research has expanded to focus on the life
histories, diversity, and importance of amphibians and
reptiles in a wide variety of Southeastern and Caribbean
ecosystems. USGS scientists pioneered the development
of herpetofaunal community sampling techniques, now
adopted throughout the world. Since the mid-1980s,
research has centered on communities, guilds, and
individual species, focusing especially on the status of
Southeastern amphibians, the ecology of amphibians and
reptiles inhabiting the endangered Longleaf Pine
community of the Coastal Plain, the management and
restoration of island herpetofaunas, and the life history
of declining, endangered, and threatened species.
Ken Dodd continued to work with local amphibian
faunas (Dodd and Barichivich 2007). Research projects
have included a major effort to inventory the diverse
amphibian fauna of Great Smoky Mountains National
Park (Dodd 2003, 2004; Dodd and Dorazio 2004), a
project with the Florida Department of Transportation
studying ways to alleviate snake and other small animal
mortality on Payne's Prairie State Preserve, through
which runs a stretch of highway (U.S. 441) near
Gainesville that is well known to snake collectors the
world over (Dodd et al. 2004), an inventory of the
Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park in the Bahamas (Dodd
and Franz 1996), and a long-term project on the
population biology of the Florida Box Turtle (Terrapene
F
IGURE
22. Susan Walls with a Milksnake (Lampropeltis
triangulum) at Cedar Glade State Natural Area, Tennessee.
(Photographed by Joe Mitchell).
F
IGURE
23. Jeff Lovich with a Sonora Mud Turtle (Kinosternon
sonoriense; photo left) and Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans;
photo right) at Montezuma Well, Montezuma Castle National Monument,
Arizona, April 2008. (Photographed by Sheila Madrak).
Lovich et al.—Herpetologists in the Department of Interior.
16
carolina bauri) on Egmont Key in Tampa Bay
(Langtimm et al. 1996; Dodd 1997a, 1997b, 2005; Dodd
and Griffey 2005). The Egmont Key project also led to
a book on North American box turtles (Dodd 2001). In
addition, Ken edited three books on Russian amphibians
and, like Roy McDiarmid, has served as President of the
Herpetologists’ League, one of the three main
international herpetological societies based in North
America. Ken served as Principal Investigator for the
Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI)
in the Southeastern US (see below), and continues to
write on conservation biology issues (Dodd 1997c; Dodd
and Smith 2003; Schlaepfer et al. 2005; Dodd et al.
2012). He retired in 2007.
Two of Ken’s Ph.D. students from the University of
Florida (Lora Smith, Steve Johnson) worked as term
appointments with Ken on the Southeastern ARMI
project. Lora’s research was focused on the Okefenokee
National Wildlife Refuge (Smith at al. 2006), whereas
Steve worked primarily at St. Marks National Wildlife
Refuge (Johnson and Barichivich 2004). In 2004,
Margaret Gunzburger was hired to continue ARMI
research in the Southeast. Margaret received her Ph.D.
from Florida State University, where she worked on
larval amphibian ecology. Margaret’s research focused
on trapping techniques and the effects of salinity on
amphibian communities (Gunzburger 2007; Gunzburger
et al. 2010). Margaret left USGS in 2006, and her
position was filled by Susan Walls (Fig. 22), the USGS
ARMI coordinator in the South-central US. Susan
received her Ph.D. from the University of Louisiana-
Lafayette, and later held a post-doc position at Oregon
State University. Susan continues in this position where
her research focuses on amphibian trends and the effects
of climate change on amphibians (Walls 2009).
Kristen Hart was hired at the Southeast Ecological
Science Center (SESC), formerly Florida Integrated
Science Center (FISC) by Russ Hall in 1999. She has
been studying the ecology of Mangrove terrapins (Hart
et al. 2007; Hart & McIvor 2008) in the Florida
Everglades, as well as the ecology of sympatric juvenile
Green Sea Turtles (Chelonia mydas; Hart 2008; Hart &
Fujisaki 2010). She also leads a sea turtle tagging and
tracking project in the Dry Tortugas National Park (Hart
et al. 2010; Hart 2010). In her spare time, she co-
authored a major review of the use of molecular
techniques in turtle research (FitzSimmons and Hart
2007) and another major review on satellite telemetry of
marine megavertebrates (Hart and Hyrenbach 2009).
She also worked with her fishing colleagues to tackle a
unique sea turtle problem in the Blue Crab fishery in
North Carolina (Avissar et al. 2009), where she was
located during her Ph.D. research at Duke University
Marine Lab. Recently, Kristen has been playing a key
role in research on exotic Burmese Pythons (Python
molorus) in the Everglades (Fujisaki et al. 2009;
Mazzotti et al. 2010).
The Southeastern Herpetology Project has been
extremely fortunate to have outstanding young
herpetologists serve on seasonal field crews or much
longer term wildlife biologists who contributed not only
muscle, but also creative ideas to ongoing projects.
Many of them went on to careers in federal and state
agencies or academic research and conservation,
including C.R. Smith, Howard Kochman, James Stuart,
Kevin Enge, Bert Charest, Russell Burke, Kelly Irwin,
Jayme Waldron, Kevin Smith, Jeff Corser, Julia Earl,
Denise Gregoire, Jennifer Staiger, Mary Brown, and
Jamie Barichivich. Their names appear extensively
throughout the publications list of the (now) Southeast
Ecological Science Center (see publication list at:
http://fl.biology.usgs.gov/Center_Publications/Publicatio
ns/publications_06_to_08.html).
Few government administrators are able to maintain a
credible research record, but Russ Hall, former FISC
director, was an exception. Although he was a full-time
administrator, Russ produced an average of more than
one publication per year during the latter part of his
career. Besides continuing the Patuxent box turtle
studies initiated by Lucille Stickel (Hall et al. 1999) and
other faunal studies (Hall 1994), he was interested in
discovering the possible effects of contaminants on the
reproduction of the Florida Red-bellied Turtles
(Pseudemys nelsoni) that put their eggs in American
Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) nests. He retired in
January 2006.
Arizona: USGS Southwest Biological Science
Center.—Under the National Park Service, members of
the Cooperative Park Study Unit of the NPS at the
University of Arizona were part of the host university's
faculty with teaching and research responsibilities. Now
a member of the USGS, Cecil Schwalbe continues his
relationship with the university from his office on
campus. Well-known for his expertise with Sonoran
Desert reptiles and amphibians, he and his many students
have a wide variety of ongoing projects covering the
ecology, status, and trends of populations of diverse
species including ranid frogs (Schwalbe and Rosen
1988; Rosen et al. 1995), Barking Frogs (Craugaster
augusti; Goldberg and Schwalbe 2004), Morafka’s
Desert Tortoise (Swann et al. 2002; Edwards et al. 2004;
Dickinson et al. 2005), and rattlesnakes (Lowe et al.
1986; Holycross et al. 2002). In addition he made
important contributions to studies of the effects of fire
and alien grasses on Sonoran Desert vegetation and
wildlife (Esque et al. 2003, 2004).
Between research assignments, Jeff Lovich (Fig. 23)
spent approximately 12 years serving in research
management positions within USGS, including stints as
Director of the Western Ecological Research Center
Herpetological Conservation and Biology
17
(WERC) in Sacramento, Chief of the USGS Grand
Canyon Monitoring and Research Center in Flagstaff,
and Deputy Director of the Southwest Biological
Science Center (SBSC). In 2008, he received a
Fulbright Senior Specialist Award to teach graduate
ecology at Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech,
Morocco, and while there conducted research on the
geographic variation in sexual size dimorphism of the
Stripe-necked Terrapin (Mauremys leprosa; Lovich et al.
2010a). During his tenure as a USGS manager, he
continued to conduct research in the southwest including
studies on Agassiz’s Desert Tortoises (Lovich and
Daniels 2000), Western Pond Turtles (Lovich and Meyer
2002), Gila Monsters (Heloderma suspectum; Lovich
and Beaman 2007), and the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive
Management Program in Grand Canyon (Gloss et al.
2005; Lovich and Melis 2007).
Jeff returned to research full time in 2009 to once
again pursue herpetological interests related to turtle
ecology and taxonomy. His current research, funded by
the California Energy Commission, provides a rare
opportunity to study the long-term demography and
reproductive ecology of Agassiz’s Desert Tortoises at a
wind energy generation facility near Palm Springs,
California (Lovich et al. 2011a, Lovich et al. 2011b).
Jeff hired Josh Ennen (Ph.D., University of Southern
Mississippi, 2009), another herpetologist, to coordinate
the tortoise project. They recently co-authored a paper
describing a new species of turtle from Mississippi,
Graptemys pearlensis (Ennen et al. 2010), the 57th native
turtle species recognized in the U.S. (Ernst and Lovich
2009) at that time. Together with Charles Drost, they
are also studying the ecology of the Sonora Mud Turtle
(Kinosternon sonoriense) in central Arizona (Drost et al.
2011; Lovich et al. 2010b). Josh left USGS in 2011 to
teach at Maryville College in Tennessee, but he and Jeff
are continuing their collaboration on the effects of
utility-scale wind and solar energy development on
wildlife (Lovich and Ennen 2011).
Charles Drost began his career in 1981 as a field
technician for Gary Fellers and the National Park
Service, studying the Island Night Lizard (Xantusia
riversiana) on Santa Barbara Island, California (Fellers
and Drost 1991a, b). He also carried out field inventories
for vertebrate and invertebrate species on the Channel
Islands, as well as studies of field survey methods for
amphibians (Fellers and Drost 1994). He continued
work for the Park Service in Davis, California,
highlighted by studies of declining amphibian species in
northern California (Cascades Frog, Rana cascadae;
Fellers and Drost 1993) and the Sierra Nevada (Drost
and Fellers 1996). The latter work replicated a survey
transect across the Sierras originally carried out by
Joseph Grinnell and Tracy Storer and associates, and
documented major declines in virtually all of the
amphibian species in the area. Charles moved to
Flagstaff, Arizona in 1994 to work on amphibian and
reptile inventories (Drost 2005) and researches declines
in the Northern Leopard Frog (Lithobates pipiens) in
northern Arizona and southern Utah (Oláh-Hemmings et
al. 2010). As a naturalist, Charles has also worked on
small mammals, birds, cave invertebrates, and island
plants.
Erika M. Nowak began working for the DOI in 1992,
as a seasonal biological technician for Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge, where she conducted herpetological
inventories. In November 1992 she joined the Colorado
Plateau Research Station (Flagstaff, Arizona), then a
Cooperative Unit of the National Park Service, and has
remained through the Unit’s association with the
National Biological Service and later the USGS
Southwest Biological Science Center. She completed
her Ph.D. in the Student Career Experience Program
with the USGS in 2009. Her projects include focal-
animal telemetric studies of venomous reptile ecology
and management (Nowak et al. 2002; Kwiatkowski et al.
2008; Nowak et al. 2008), inventory and monitoring of
reptiles and amphibians on federal and other lands
(Persons et al. 2008), and research on the Narrow-
headed Gartersnake (Thamnophis rufipunctatus) and
Mexican Gartersnake (T. eques megalops) in Arizona.
Desert Tortoise Research Project: Western
Ecological Research Center.—Shortly after the
formation of the NBS, an informal alliance of
herpetologists was assembled within the agency called
the Desert Tortoise Research Project (DTRP). The
purpose of this group was to bring the collective research
expertise of the NBS to bear on the Desert Tortoise
situation. With the Mojave "population" of the tortoise
(now G. agassizii) federally listed as threatened under
the Endangered Species Act in 1990, and publication of
the Recovery Plan for the species in 1994, a huge
demand was created among government agencies for
information that would speed recovery and eventual
delisting of the species. Kristin Berry continued her
focus on Agassiz’s Desert Tortoise having produced a
large number of publications on a wide variety of topics
including health and disease (e.g., Berry and Christopher
2001, Christopher et al. 2003), relocation (McCoy and
Berry 2008), assessments of the taxonomic status of
tortoises throughout their range (Berry et al. 2002,
Murphy et al. 2007, 2011), and many other topics.
As originally constituted, the DTRP consisted of John
Oldemeyer as coordinator, Hal Avery, Kristin Berry, Bill
Boarman (Fig. 24), Lesley DeFalco, Todd Esque, Jeff
Lovich, and Phil Medica. Of these, only Jeff and Phil
are typically called herpetologists. While the rest have
conducted significant research on the Desert Tortoise,
several have research foci well outside the realm of
herpetology (e.g., Kristan and Boarman 2003). Changes
Lovich et al.—Herpetologists in the Department of Interior.
18
included the retirement of Oldemeyer and the departure
of Boarman and Avery to other endeavors.
Phil Medica (Fig. 25) has a long history of studies on
Agassiz’s Desert Tortoise including investigations of the
behavior and survival of translocated animals and
evaluation of range-wide censusing techniques, all
conducted from the Las Vegas Field Station of WERC.
Todd Esque is especially interested in the effects of
habitat alteration (Esque et al. 2010) in the Mojave
Desert, especially the effects of fire on tortoises. Both
Todd and Lesley completed Ph.Ds at the University of
Nevada, Reno; Todd studied the effects of fire on desert
ecological processes, and Lesley determined the effects
of elevated CO2 on native and exotic desert plants. Both
continue to work out of WERC’s Henderson Field
Station.
Although not an original member of the DTRP,
Kenneth E. Nussear was a member of the FWS Desert
Tortoise Recovery Plan Assessment Committee. He
joined WERC in 2004 after completing his studies at
Colorado State University (B.S. Zoology, 1994) on
lizard physiology, and the University of Nevada, Reno
working on biophysical ecology and the distributional
limitations of Agassiz’s Desert Tortoises, earning a
Ph.D. in 2004. His research focuses on the physiological
ecology of desert ectotherms, especially Agassiz’s
Desert Tortoise. Recent studies involve thermal biology
(Nussear et al. 2000), hibernation (Nussear et al. 2007),
aspects of monitoring (Nussear and Tracy 2007), and
conservation physiology (Tracy et al. 2006). He has also
worked on GIS decision support modeling (Heaton et al.
2008) and habitat suitability and connectivity modeling
for Agassiz’s Desert Tortoise (Nussear et al. 2009).
Other California herpetologists: Western Ecological
Research Center.—All USGS herpetologists in
California are part of the Western Ecological Research
Center, headquartered in Sacramento. Gary Fellers,
located at Point Reyes north of San Francisco, is leading
research into the causes of declines of amphibian
populations in northern California, especially in the
Sierra Nevada (Drost and Fellers 1996; Shaffer et al.
2000). He has continued research into small mammal
biology (Fellers 1994; Pierson and Fellers 1998), survey
techniques (Fellers and Drost 1994; Fellers et al. 1994;
Fellers and Freel 1995; Fellers 1997), and the effects of
contaminants on amphibian populations (Sparling and
Fellers 2007, 2009). Other research is focused on the
biology of the threatened California Red-Legged Frog
(Rana draytonii) at Point Reyes.
Robert N. Fisher (Fig. 26) at the San Diego State
Field Station has a multitude of enthusiastic scientists,
technicians, and students engaged in research projects
throughout southern California and in the Pacific Basin.
Their longest running project is the regular monitoring
of hundreds of drift fence arrays, including more than
3300 pitfalls and 1400 snake traps, scattered over most
of southern California from the southern Sierra Nevada
and the Mojave Desert to the Pacific Coast, and from the
Whittier Hills to the Mexican border. His program has
also been working for a decade with federally listed
amphibians in southern California including population
assessments, adaptive management, and conservation
genetics.
At the same time, Robert is continuing scientifically
productive partnerships with his colleagues, including
Brad Shaffer (formerly at the University of California,
Davis, now at the University of California, Los Angeles)
and other USGS scientists such as Amy Vandergast, Jay
F
IGURE
24.
Bill Boarman in Zion National Park. (Photographer
unknown).
F
IGURE
25. Phil Medica at the Nevada Test Site, Mercury, Nevada,
June 1966. (Photographer unknown).
Herpetological Conservation and Biology
19
Diffendorfer, and Erin Boydston. Some of their recent
contributions have dealt with the genetics of the reptiles
and amphibians of southern California and the south
Pacific (Keogh et al. 2008; Leache et al. 2009), their
movement ecology (Diffendorfer et al. 2005), spatial
distribution modeling and genetic landscape analysis
(Vandergast et al. 2008; Delaney et al. 2010) and natural
and anthropogenic threats to their persistence (Riley et
al. 2005; Perry et al. 2008; Rochester et al. 2010).
Robert also is a co-author of the definitive work on the
status and distribution of the fishes of southern
California (Swift et al. 1993) and is author or co-author
on seven sections in the upcoming book on inventorying
and monitoring reptiles just released by University of
California Press (McDiarmid et al. 2012).
Mark R. Jennings (Fig. 27) worked in Davis as part of
the NERC/WERC lineage between 1992 and 2000. He
first completed an in-depth study of the possible effects
of a rise in sea level on endangered animals surrounding
San Francisco Bay, among them the San Francisco
Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia). Mark
operated throughout California with regular
data-gathering trips to the Piedras Blancas Field Station.
Mark is one of the people that agencies go to first for
information concerning the distribution and status of
reptiles and amphibians in California (Jennings and
Hayes 1994a; Jennings 1995). His summary work
“Amphibian and Reptile Species of Special Concern in
California” (Jennings and Hayes 1994b) is a succinct
review of the biology, distribution, and status of 48 taxa
of the most vulnerable of California's species. The
detailed distribution maps, based on museum specimens,
are the remarkable results of many years of hard work on
Mark's part, and all of the species' identifications have
been verified by him personally. Mark is also an
accomplished ichthyologist (Mills et al. 1996).
In 1993, after 18 years with the FWS stationed at the
University of New Mexico, Norm Scott moved to the
Piedras Blancas Field Station of the Western Ecological
Research Center in central coastal California. He
continued work begun in New Mexico (Farley et al.
1994; Ford and Scott 1996), reviewed the evolution of
the herpetofaunas of North American grasslands (Scott
1996), and continued his Paraguayan studies (Aquino et
al. 1996). Norm, Galen Rathbun, and Mark Jennings
finished up a cooperative project with the California
State Department of Transportation investigating the
effects of highway-bridge building on a suite of aquatic
reptiles, amphibians, and fish (Rathbun et al. 2002;
Bulger et al. 2003; Scott et al. 2008). A long-time
Research Associate of the Smithsonian Institution, Norm
retired in 2001. Since then, he has been working on
Paraguayan reptiles and amphibians with South
American scientists (Scott and Aquino, 2005; Scott et al.
2006; Motte et al. 2009). His latest effort, with Pier
Cacciali, will culminate in an annotated, distributional
checklist of the reptiles of Paraguay.
Galen Rathbun (Fig. 28), better known as a
mammalogist for his research on West Indian Manatees
(Trichechus manatus), Sea Otters (Enhydra lutris), and
other species, retired in 1999 after making significant
contributions to the knowledge of California Red-
Legged Frogs and Western Pond Turtles on the central
California coast. He is now a Research Associate of the
California Academy of Sciences and makes regular trips
to Africa, where he is studying sengis (elephant shrews;
Macroscelididae) with colleagues from Africa and
Europe (e.g., Rathbun 2009).
Brian Halstead, a newcomer to Interior, is a Wildlife
Biologist with WERC. Brian’s graduate research with
Henry Mushinsky and Earl McCoy at the University of
South Florida (USF) focused on the predator-prey
F
IGURE
26. Robert N. Fisher with crab at Palmyra Atoll. (Photographer
unknown).
F
IGURE
27. Mark Jennings, Piedras Blancas Light House, San
Simeon, California, January 1999. (Photographed by Jeff Lovich).
Lovich et al.—Herpetologists in the Department of Interior.
20
interactions of the Coachwhip (Coluber flagellum) and
North American Racer (C. constrictor) with the Florida
Scrub Lizard (Sceloporus woodi; Halstead et al. 2008,
2009). Since graduating with his Ph.D. in Biology from
USF in 2008, he has been studying California
gartersnakes (Halstead et al. 2011). Brian’s primary
research interests are population ecology, conservation
biology, herpetology, and Bayesian statistics.
Pacific Northwest: Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem
Science Center.—Bruce Bury (Fig. 29), the first
research herpetologist hired by the Department of the
Interior, moved to the NBS Forest and Rangeland
Ecosystem Science Center (FRESC) in Corvallis,
Oregon, in 1993. He continues to publish the results of
former and present projects, with a major research focus
on the effects of logging, fire, and other perturbations on
amphibians of the Northwest forests (Bury 1994, 1997,
2004, 2008; Olson et al. 1997; Adams et al. 1998, 2001;
Palen et al. 2002; Pearl et al. 2009), especially
plethodontid salamanders and stream amphibians (Bury
and Adams 1999). Further, he continues writing about
Agassiz’s Desert Tortoise (Bury and Corn 1995; Bury
and Luckenbach 2002) and has produced another edited
volume on North American tortoises (Bury and Germano
1994). At the same time, Bruce has not forgotten
Western Pond Turtles (Bury and Germano 1998;
Germano and Bury 1998; Germano and Bury 2009; Bury
et al. 2010).
He was fortunate to have hired many outstanding field
biologists in temporary or term (usually 3–4 yr)
appointments, many of whom became professional
biologists. Key employees in recent years included
Michael J. Adams (Ph.D., University of Washington)
and Donald J. Major (Ph.D., Utah State University). He
also mentored Christopher A. Pearl (M.Sc, University of
Oregon) who obtained a permanent position at FRESC.
Bruce also was the research adviser for Tanya Wahbe
(Ph.D., University of British Columbia) and served on
committees including those of David Germano (Ph.D.,
University New Mexico) and Niels Leuthold (M.Sc,
Oregon State University).
Michael J. Adams was hired at FRESC in 2001 to
expand studies on factors affecting amphibian declines
regionally. He has produced many quantitative studies
on chytrid fungus (Adams et al. 2010), UV-B radiation
(Adams et al. 2005), grazing effects (Adams et al. 2009)
and introduced predators (Adams 2000; Adams et al.
2003; Adams and Pearl 2007). In 2004, Chris Pearl was
hired as a Wildlife Biologist to support ARMI and
amphibian research questions in the Pacific Northwest.
He has published on a wide variety of topics such as
regional assessments (Funk et al. 2008; Pearl et al.
2009), Saprolegnia fungus on amphibians (Petrisko et al.
2008), chytrid fungus (e.g., Pearl et al. 2007), and
introduced predators (Pearl et al. 2003, 2004, 2005) on
amphibians. He has also studied pollen stratigraphy
(Walsh et al. 2010) and, more recently, invasive crayfish
in the Pacific Northwest.
David Pilliod was hired at the FRESC in 2006 as a
Research Ecologist. His research focuses on
understanding how wildlife populations and
communities respond to changes in their environment
and improving methods for monitoring these responses.
Much of his recent work has examined sagebrush-
associated wildlife, including insects, reptiles, and small
mammals. He examines questions related to the effects
on wildlife from non-native species (Pilliod and Peterson
2001; Pilliod et al. 2010a), disease (Muths et al. 2008;
Petrisko et al. 2008; Pilliod et al. 2010b), and land
F
IGUR E
28. Galen Rathbun at Piedras Blancas Light House, San
Simeon, California, October 1998. (Photographed by Jeff Lovich).
F
IGURE
29. Bruce Bury diving into marsh at Cuatro Cienegas,
México to catch an aquatic box turtle. (Photographed by Dean
Biggins).
Herpetological Conservation and Biology
21
management (Pilliod et al. 2003; Pilliod and Wind
2008). He has studied the ecology of the Long-toed
Salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum), Boreal Toad
(Anaxyrus boreas), Columbia Spotted Frog (Rana
luteiventris), and Rocky Mountain Tailed Frog
(Ascaphus montanus) since 1995 (Pilliod et al. 2002;
Funk et al. 2005; Karraker et al. 2006; Murphy et al.
2010). David is currently Co-chair of the Northwest
Chapter of Partners in Amphibian and Reptile
Conservation, an international organization of public and
private partnerships dedicated to the conservation of
reptiles and amphibians and their habitats.
Rocky Mountains Science Centers.—In 1996, Steve
Corn moved to the interagency Aldo Leopold
Wilderness Research Institute but was supervised
through the Midcontinent Ecological Science Center
(MESC: formerly called the National Ecology Research
Center [NERC] and later the Fort Collins Science Center
[FORT]) in Fort Collins, Colorado. Steve is now
supervised through the Northern Rocky Mountain
Science Center (NOROC) in Bozeman, Montana.
Although Steve continued to be involved with research
on Agassiz’s Desert Tortoise in the Mojave Desert
(Anderson et al. 2001), most of the work in the Rocky
Mountains has been directed toward amphibian decline
topics, including monitoring (Corn et al. 2005a),
population studies (Muths et al. 2006), methods
development (Corn et al. 2000), and effects of stressors,
including acid precipitation (Vertucci and Corn 1996),
ultraviolet radiation (Corn and Muths 2002), fire
(Hossack and Corn 2007), introduced fish (Knapp et al.
2001), and climate change (Corn 2005). Particular
attention has been paid to the Boreal Toad (Anaxyrus
boreas), which has undergone serious declines in the
southern Rocky Mountains (Muths et al. 2003). Steve
has been assisted since 1999 by Blake Hossack (Ph.D.
University of Montana, 2011). Blake published papers
on the effects of fire and disease on amphibians
(Hossack et al. 2006, 2010). Steve has taken on several
editorial tasks (Herpetological Review, Northwestern
Naturalist, Herpetological Conservation) and is
currently an associate editor for Journal of Herpetology.
Before leaving Fort Collins, Steve recruited Erin
Muths (Fig. 30), fresh from her dissertation work on
kangaroos at the University of Queensland, Brisbane,
Australia, to assist with his research on amphibians in
the Rocky Mountains. Erin continued Steve’s work on
amphibians in northern Colorado at what is now the Fort
Collins Science Center (FORT) and expanded regional
efforts into Wyoming where collaborations among Steve
Corn, Blake Hossack, David Pilliod, Rick Scherer and
Erin are ongoing (Muths et al. 2008). Her areas of
emphasis include population dynamics (Muths et al.
2006, Muths et al. 2010), disease (Muths et al. 2003;
Muths et al. 2008), and conservation (Muths and Dreitz
2008). Erin has been associate editor for Herpetological
Conservation and Biology and is currently co-Editor-in-
Chief of the Journal of Herpetology. Rick Scherer
(Ph.D. Colorado State University, 2011) has worked for
Erin at FORT since 1998. Rick’s primary research has
been on amphibian population dynamics (Scherer et al.
2005; Scherer 2008; Scherer et al. 2008). He is an
Associate Editor for Herpetological Conservation and
Biology.
Brown Tree Snake Project: Fort Collins Science
Center.—Tom Fritts moved from the National Museum
to MESC in Fort Collins, Colorado (formerly National
Ecology Research Center, now Fort Collins Science
Center) in 1998. His main activity was leading the
Brown Tree Snake project but that expanded into general
studies of the impacts of invading species on insular
faunas (Fritts and Rodda 1998; Perry et al. 1998; Rodda
et al. 1998). His expertise was enlisted for a project to
eliminate the introduced Wolf Snake (Lycodon aulicus)
from an islet near Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. Tom
also maintained his long-term studies in the Galápagos
Islands. He is now retired.
Gordon Rodda was the other permanent USGS
member of the Brown Tree Snake team. He continues to
study the biology of the snake and the herpetofaunas of
Guam and the Northern Marianas (Collins and Rodda
1994; McCoid et al. 1995). He led the editing team and
made several contributions to a book on two problem
F
IGURE
30. Erin Muths. (Photographer unknown).
Lovich et al.—Herpetologists in the Department of Interior.
22
snakes of the western Pacific: the Brown Tree Snake on
Guam and the Habu (Trimeresurus flavoviridis) on
Okinawa (Rodda et al. 1999). Gordon also worked on
the ecology of Tiger Salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum)
in Colorado. He retired in 2012.
Gordon hired Bob Reed in 2006 to work on the snake
project and an expanding research program on invasive
Burmese Pythons and other giant constrictors. Bob was
schooled by a number of herpetologists. Harry Greene
was his undergraduate advisor at U.C. Berkeley, after
which he received his M.S. at Arizona State for his
research on Grand Canyon rattlesnakes under the
direction of Michael Douglas (Reed and Douglas 2002).
Bob then received his Ph.D. at Auburn University in
Craig Guyer’s lab. While at Auburn, he won a Fulbright
Fellowship to work with Rick Shine at the University of
Sydney; work at Auburn and Sydney focused on
macroecology of reptiles, with side projects on sea kraits
and other taxa (Reed and Shine 2002; Shine et al. 2002).
Bob then moved to the Savannah River Ecology
Laboratory in South Carolina for a post-doc with Whit
Gibbons (Reed and Gibbons 2003) before spending a
few years as an Assistant Professor at Southern Utah
University (SUU). While at SUU, he produced a risk
assessment for invasive snake species (Reed 2005) and
initiated an ongoing project on ecology of Boa
Constrictors (Boa constrictor) in the Cayos Cochinos
islands off Honduras, which resulted in the largest mark-
recapture dataset available for this species (Reed et al.
2007). As a Research Wildlife Biologist with USGS in
Fort Collins, he works with a wide range of staff and
collaborators in Guam, Florida, and elsewhere, with
research emphases on invasive reptile topics including
control tool development, snake ecology, risk
assessment, and prevention, as well as more general
herpetological topics (Reed and Rodda 2009; Reed et al.
2010).
Contaminants Research: Columbia Environmental
Research Center.—As discussed elsewhere in this
paper, DOI herpetologists, especially Don Clark, Gary
Fellers, Russ Hall, and Don Sparling, established a
strong reputation for quality research on contaminants.
Christine Britton (formerly Bridges) continued the
tradition of studying the effects of environmental
stressors on amphibian populations at the Columbia
Environmental Research Center (CERC) in Columbia,
Missouri (Bridges and Little 2005).
Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative.—
The decline and extinction of many amphibian taxa
throughout the world has sparked considerable interest in
the biology and biogeography of this group (Houlahan et
al. 2000; Stuart et al. 2004). Although the causes of
declines are complex and may be interrelated (Corn
2000; Blaustein and Kiesecker 2002; Collins and Storfer
2003), research efforts are underway to determine the
status and trends of amphibians even in areas where
declines have not been recorded. Crucial to recognizing
declines is the need for current information on the
distribution of amphibians across a landscape, so that
species and populations can be monitored for signs of
imperilment (Heyer at al. 1994). Accordingly, much
attention has been directed at how to monitor
amphibians (Dodd et al. 2012). As such, monitoring
approaches have evolved from individual perceptions of
abundance and simple counts made at sampling
locations, to complex mathematical and model-driven
assessments of status. In this emerging field, USGS
scientists have been leaders in developing sampling
approaches, statistical analyses, GIS applications, and
database management.
As part of the interest in monitoring amphibians, in
2000 the US Congress authorized the USGS to
undertake a national assessment of the status of
amphibians within the United States and to develop a
research program designed to detect trends and identify
factors that might be causing declines. This program,
the Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative
(ARMI), currently focuses on Department of Interior
lands, which are largely under the jurisdiction of the
National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, and the Bureau of Land Management. Details
of this program are available elsewhere (Corn et al.
2005b, 2005c; Dodd 2005; Muths et al. 2005).
Both new and established USGS scientists have been
enlisted by ARMI, and they now spend much of their
time conducting research and coordinating research
efforts on amphibian status and trends. These include
more senior biologists Bury, Corn, Fellers, Fisher, and
Schwalbe. At the same time, the ARMI program has
allowed an influx of new research herpetologists in the
last decade
After finishing her Ph.D. on amphibian ecotoxicology
at the University of Wisconsin in 1996, Robin Jung
started her career at the USGS Columbia Environmental
Research Center as a postdoc (Karasov et al. 2005). In
1998, she moved to the PWRC to work on amphibian
monitoring at Big Bend and Shenandoah National Parks
as part of a PRIMENet (Park Research and Intensive
Monitoring of Ecosystems Network) grant (Carpenter et
al. 2001; Jung et al. 2000, 2002a, 2002b). In 2001,
Robin was hired to coordinate Northeast ARMI where
she focused studies on vernal pool amphibians and
terrestrial and stream salamanders in partnership with
National Park Service and National Wildlife Refuge
biologists (Grant et al. 2005; Jung et al. 2005). In 2005,
she left her position at Patuxent. Recently, Robin co-
edited the book Urban Herpetology with Joseph Mitchell
and Breck Bartholomew (Mitchell et al. 2008).
Larissa Bailey completed her Ph.D. at North Carolina
State University and started at PWRC in late 2002 as a
Herpetological Conservation and Biology
23
post-doc with James Nichols. Larissa replaced Robin
Jung in September 2004 as the coordinator of the USGS
Northeast Amphibian Research and Monitoring
Initiative. Her research focuses on amphibian
population dynamics and factors that influence
amphibian distribution. With ARMI, she has been
involved in developing quantitative methods that use
presence-absence information to estimate the probability
that an area is occupied by a species (MacKenzie et al.
2006). In 2009, Larissa accepted a faculty position at
Colorado State University.
Evan Grant (PWRC) joined USGS in March of 2003.
He started his Ph.D. at the University of Maryland,
College Park in 2005. After graduation he joined the
ARMI research team as the Northeast Coordinator in
2009. His research focuses on the movement ecology of
stream amphibians (Grant et al. 2010), especially at large
spatial scales (Grant et al. 2005, 2009).
Walt Sadinski earned his Ph.D. from Penn State
University in 1991. After a number of positions in
which he worked on various aspects of amphibian
ecology for universities, The Nature Conservancy, and
the US Fish and Wildlife Service, he joined the Upper
Midwest Environmental Science Center (UMESC) of
USGS as a Research Ecologist in 2002. Walt’s principal
responsibility is to implement ARMI in the 13 states of
the Upper Midwest (Muths et al. 2005).
Susan Walls of the National Wetland Research Center
(NWRC/SESC) received her Ph.D. in Environmental
and Evolutionary Biology from the University of
Southwestern Louisiana. Most of her research focuses
on amphibian biology, especially larval amphibians. She
was one of the first researchers to suggest that increases
in UV radiation were responsible for amphibian declines
(Blaustein et al. 1994, 1995), and she made important
contributions regarding the effects of climate change on
amphibian populations (Walls 2009; Blaustein et al.
2010). Susan transferred to the SESC in Gainesville in
2006 and now serves as the ARMI coordinator in the
southeastern US.
Hardin Waddle (NWRC) received his Ph.D. from the
University of Florida at Gainesville in 2006 while
working at FISC. Hardin is the ARMI biologist at the
National Wetlands Research Center, Lafayette,
Louisiana. He is very interested in applying quantitative
models of species occurrence to amphibians (Waddle et
al. 2008, 2010).
David E. Green, an amphibian pathologist at the
National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC), has been with
the ARMI program since its beginning in 2000. In the
1990’s, he became involved in amphibian declines and
disease investigations as a result of participating in > 50
field trips with Richard Highton (University of
Maryland) to survey and collect plethodontid
salamanders throughout the eastern US. He is involved
with continuous monitoring of the health status of
amphibians on ARMI monitoring sites, diagnostic
investigations of spontaneous amphibian morbidity and
mortality events nationwide, and various funded special
projects such as characterization of watermolds on
amphibian eggs, development of molecular screening
methods for the pathogenic chytrid fungus
(Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) in surface waters and
sediments, and identification of amphibian diseases in
national fish hatcheries. Projects have included directed
and funded studies with USFWS, University of Puerto
Rico, University of Virginia, and Department of Defense
on the prevalence of deformed amphibians on national
wildlife refuges, the role of infectious diseases in the
declines and probable extinctions of three endemic
eleutherodactylids in Puerto Rico, molecular
characterization of novel amphibian diseases, and health
screening of amphibians and snakes on military bases in
southeastern states. From 1999–2006, David necropsied
> 7,000 amphibians (egg masses, larvae, metamorphs
and adults) from all but two states nationwide.
Publications include Green et al. (2002), Burrowes et al.
(2004), Converse and Green (2005a, 2005b), Green and
Converse (2005a, 2005b), Green and Muths (2005),
Green and Dodd (2007). The ARMI program continues
to evolve and the reader is referred to
http://armi.usgs.gov/ for more up to date information.
OTHER INTERIOR SCIENTISTS
Other USGS biologists working with reptiles and
amphibians include Kathryn Converse and Carol
Meteyer (NWHC), Roger Hothem (WERC), Don
Sparling (formerly of PWRC, later at Southern Illinois
University), and Tim Gross (formerly of FISC). They
have conducted research on contaminants issues. Sam
Droege (PWRC) helped design and develop the North
American Amphibian Monitoring Program (NAAMP)
and, with colleagues at PWRC, undertook studies of
methods for monitoring amphibians in Big Bend and
Shenandoah National Parks. Douglas Johnson (formerly
of the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center)
maintained a national registry of amphibian deformities.
Cindy Ramotnik (FORT) studied the effects of logging
on the Sacramento Mountains Salamander (Aneides
hardii; Ramotnik and Scott 1988; Scott and Ramotnik
1992; Ramotnik 2005). She currently is stationed at the
Museum of Southwestern Biology at the University of
New Mexico were she continues curatorial duties for
important USGS Biological Survey Collections
(http://www.msb.unm.edu/USGS/). Ray Carthy (Fish
and Wildlife Cooperative Research Unit, University of
Florida) and his students are studying sea turtle ecology
in Florida and elsewhere, as well as developing
standardized monitoring protocols for Gopher Tortoises
(Gopherus polyphemus) on Department of Defense
lands, and Glenn Wylie (WERC) has radiotracked and
Lovich et al.—Herpetologists in the Department of Interior.
24
studied the Giant Garter Snake (Thamnophis gigas) in
California for many years and collaborates with Brian
Halstead (above). Ken Rice (FISC in south Florida) is
an American Alligator specialist who has also worked on
Pig Frogs (Lithobates grylio) and Cuban Treefrogs
(Osteopilus septentrionalis).
Other DOI bureaus also contain notable herpetologists.
Melinda Knutson, formerly of the Upper Midwest
Environmental Sciences Center and now with FWS, has
done work on habitat associations of amphibians and
participated in the Amphibian Research and Monitoring
Initiative of USGS (Knutson et al. 2004). Stephen
Busack received a Ph.D. studying biogeography of
reptiles and amphibians in the region surrounding the
Straits of Gibraltar (e.g., Fritz et al. 2006) under David
Wake at U.C. Berkeley in 1985. From 1989 to 1996 he
was the Chief, Section of Morphology, FWS, National
Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory (NFWFL) in
Ashland, Oregon. He retired as Director of Research
and Collections at the North Carolina State Museum of
Natural Sciences in 2006 but continues to publish
herpetological papers (Busack and Lawson 2008). Barry
Baker of FWS carries on the tradition of “forensic
herpetology” at the NFWFL (Baker 2008).
DISCUSSION
The information presented in this paper makes it clear
that the DOI has a long and distinguished history of
supporting herpetological research with roots that extend
back to the original U.S. Biological Survey. Visionaries
like Clyde Jones and Lucille Stickel recognized the
importance of having professional herpetologists in the
ranks of government research organizations. Their
initiatives were directly responsible for the present
world-class herpetological research programs in
contaminants and active research programs on the status,
conservation, and biodiversity of amphibians and
reptiles. However, a significant number of research
herpetologists in Interior were hired in the 1970s, and
they are now retired or in the latter part of their
government careers.
The need has never been greater to maintain a cadre of
research herpetologists to provide land managers and
decision makers with information on how to better
manage this increasingly imperiled group of organisms.
A multitude of factors continue to cause worldwide
declines of reptiles (Gibbons et al. 2000) and amphibians
(Wake 1991; Houlahan et al. 2000; Stuart et al. 2004).
Global amphibian decline is in the headlines regularly;
about half of the 58 turtle species in the United States are
in need of conservation action (Ernst and Lovich 2009),
and most of the world's crocodilians, with the exception
of the American Alligator, are critically imperiled
(Baillie and Groombridge 1996). It will take a renewed
commitment on the part of government managers to
replace these scientists and maintain the quality and
integrity of federal herpetological research. When the
FIGURE 31. The cumulative number of publications cited in the bibliography of this paper from 1890–2010. The list of citations is not
exhaustive but still reflects the increased contribution of Department of Interior herpetologists over time.
Herpetological Conservation and Biology
25
hiring dates shown in Table 1 are plotted with five year
intervals, two peaks are evident: one in the period from
1975-1980 and a slightly larger one from 2000-2005.
The first spike may be related to early versions of the
Endangered Species Act and the need to collect
information on imperiled species of reptiles and
amphibians. The latter hiring spike is congruent with
widespread recognition of global amphibian decline and
genesis of the Amphibian Research and Monitoring
Initiative in DOI. The fact that there is a new crop of
recently recruited, bright, young DOI herpetologists
suggests that such a commitment is recognized and
being implemented.
How have DOI herpetologists contributed the vital
information needed to manage reptiles and amphibians
on public lands across the United States? The most
tangible product generated is in the form of rigorous,
peer-reviewed scientific publications (Fig. 31). As
environmental problems become ever more complex, the
need for reliable, objective scientific information grows.
An estimate of the number of publications produced by
only the top five most productive Interior herpetologists
is estimated to exceed 500! A total estimate of output
would likely approach or exceed 1,000. Yet knowledge
produced is not always knowledge applied (Pouyat et al.
2010). Application of knowledge by federal agencies
has not always been effective, but techniques are
available to improve integration of science, policy, and
natural resource management (Pouyat et al. 2010).
DOI herpetologists have also provided valuable
service to scientific societies, especially the American
Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists,
Herpetologists’ League, and the Society for the Study of
Amphibians and Reptiles. A short list of selected
appointments is given in Table 3 but there are others.
Herpetological research in the Department of the
Interior is not uniformly distributed throughout the
United States. At the present time there are as many as
33 herpetologists still working in the USGS-BRD (Table
1). Most are scattered throughout the west (22) with
only 11 in the central and eastern United States. There is
an understandable lack of herpetologists in the Hawaiian
Islands and Alaska, but there are also significant gaps in
the Northeast, the Midwest, Texas, and Puerto Rico.
The Southeast is also generally understaffed, especially
given the diversity of amphibians and reptiles with
attendant problems that occur there. These gaps will
have to be filled if the needs of managers for credible
scientific information are going to be met in the future.
TABLE 3. Department of the Interior scientists have held (or hold) significant service appointments in major herpetological societies. The
following is a selected list of those appointments, past and present. Abbreviations are as follows: AH – Applied Herpetology, ASIH –
American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, CCB – Chelonian Conservation and Biology, HC – Herpetological Conservation, HCB
– Herpetological Conservation and Biology, HL – Herpetologists’ League, ISSCA –
International Society for the Study and Conservation of
Amphibians, JH –Journal of Herpetology, SSAR – Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, WCH – World Congress of Herpetology.
Name
Position
Society/Journal
Barry Baker
Editorial Board
AH
Kristin Berry
Editorial Board
CCB
R. Bruce Bury
Henry S. Fitch Award recipient
ASIH
Editor-in-Chief
HCB
Editorial Board
AH
Steve Corn
Editor
SSAR, HC
Ken Dodd
Past President
HL, ISSCA
Board of Directors
SSAR, ASIH
Board of Councilors
HL
Associate Editor JH
Tom Fritts
Past President
SSAR
Board of Directors
SSAR
Jeff Lovich
Board of Councilors
HL
Co-Editor
CCB
Editorial Board
ASIH
Roy McDiarmid
Past President
ASIH, HL, SSAR
Board of Directors
SSAR
Distinguished Herpetologist
HL
International Herpetological Committee
WCH
Editorial Board
AH
Erin Muths
Associate Editor
HCB
Co-Editor-in-Chief
JH
Rick Scherer