Romulus Whitaker

Earlier this week, I had the pleaure of interviewing (e-interviewing in this case) the Indian conservationalist and herpteologist Romulus Whitaker. Whenever I interview people, I take some time to read about their career and track down at least the abstracts, and often the full texts of their publications. In this case, I came across this article from 1994 about Romulus Whitaker by his (then) wife Zai Whitaker-
"I married a croc man"

It's a nice piece of science writing and an insight into the enviably eccentric life that a career in biology can bring.

Today, Rom is perhaps best known for his work with the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station: a fascinating-sounding place that combines research, conservation and public educational roles.

The interview will appear in the next issue of "Practical Reptile Keeping" magazine (pub: Kelsey).

Serval and Jaguar conservation, tracking turtles and the usefulness of cigarette butts- links of the day

Serval, Leptailurus serval, London Zoo. Image (copyright) Victoria Neblik 2010. All rights reserved.

Hi. Welcome to Weirdbeautiful.

The first of today's links of the day is to the African Serval Conservation Organisation's homepage - http://www.servals.org/home.htm. There is no reason for this link, other than that I think they are magnificent creatures and that, although they are much less threatened than many other big cats, it would be a crying shame if "we" were to lose them. You might think, from its markings, that the serval is a relative of the jaguar, but it is actually more closer kin to the caracal and cheetah. There's more information on servals here- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serval including information on their range, behaviour, unusually high kill-rate and the fact that the ancient Egyptians kept them domestically and worshipped them as gods.

The second link is to this piece by Elisabeth Rosenthal from the New York Times about the conservation of another big cat- The Jaguar in Costa Rica-
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/science/earth/12jaguar.html?pagewanted=1&ref=science

The final link is this rather odd science article about using discarded cigarette butts to protect steel pipes from rusting...(there's a reason this blog is called "weirdbeautiful")

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100513/sc_nm/us_butts


My own news is that my latest interview- a conversation with leading turtle expert Prof. John Davenport- is now on sale in Practical Reptile Keeping Magazine. Prof Davenport talks about his recent research, the difficulties of tracking turtles and the wildlife of Bermuda. Copies of the magazine are available for worldwide delivery from here- http://www.practicalreptilekeeping.co.uk/pages/main.php?nav=latest

Image of the day- Dormouse by Arno Laurent

Garden Dormouse, Eliomys quercinus. Image by Arno Laurent. Reproduced in accordance with the image's Creative Commons 3.0 licence. Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eliomys_quercinus01.jpg - see this website for more licence details.


My own recent news is that my latest interview- a piece with Darren Mann (the Assistant Curator of the entomology department of Oxford University's Museum of Natural History)has been published- in Practical Reptile Keeping magazine, as usual and should be on the shelves in newsagents in the UK any day now. Darren is a world expert on cockroaches and dung beetles, so his interview is predictably entertaining. You can find details of local stockists of the magazine (within the UK) and of international subscriptions [here]

Interview with Dr Paul S Hamilton of Reptile and Amphibian Ecology International

Earlier this week, I completed an interview with herpetologist and rainforest explorer Dr Paul S. Hamilton of Reptile and Amphibian Ecology International (RAEI).

RAEI is a non-profit organisation that accepts volunteers and interns for scientific expeditions in the rainforests of Ecuador and runs various wildlife photography courses in the Amazon rainforest. Their website is www.reptilesandamphibians.org/ . RAEI has been in the news a lot lately because of this press release , which talks about new species they discovered on a recent trip to Ecuador. 30 new species of frog and a new snake species, to be precise.

Dr Hamilton told me about these new rain frogs and snail-eating snake that were discovered on his most recent trip to the Amazon, Ecuador's exceptional biodiversity and about RAEI's new study area- the Rio Bigal Biological Reserve- in the North West of the country.

I am happy to say that the interview is due to go on sale in the UK in Practical Reptile Keeping magazine in the next couple of days.

As usual for Practical Reptile Keeping, in the UK, you can get a copy in J. S. Sainsbury's supermarkets, W.H. Smiths and high street newsagents. International subscriptions are available from [here].

Interview with Jean-Pol Vigneron now on sale in UK

Good Morning, Welcome to Weirdbeautiful,
Greetings from Belgium, where I am spending the week talk biophysics with staff at the University of Namur.
I am happy to say that my interview with the head of this department- Prof. Jean-Pol Vigneron- is now on sale in the UK in Practical Reptile Keeping magazine-

http://www.practicalreptilekeeping.co.uk/pages/main.php?nav=magazine

I posted a little while back about this interview-
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2010/01/rickets-reptiles-and-insect-echnology.html

Rickets, Reptiles and Insect-echnology

Good Morning. Welcome to Weirdbeautiful.

This week, the news seems to be full of medical, rather than wildlife stories.
The latest one of interest (to me, at least) is this one about a dramatic rise in the rates of rickets in school children-
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100121/thl-rickets-rise-for-inactive-children-d831572.html
You can find links to other major science news/stories of the week further down this page.

The big wildlife story at the moment is still this one-
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18397-transparent-frogs-tiny-geckos-and-snailsucking-snakes.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

about "Reptiles and Amphibian Ecology International"'s study of wildlife in the western Ecuadoran cloud forest. The scientists found a host of new and unusual animals so it has been all over the news.

For my part, I did an interview yesterday with Prof. Jean-Pol Vigneron of the University of Namur (FUNDP)for Practical Reptile Keeping magazine. Prof. Vigneron has done a great many studies on colouration in various animals- especially insects and has been instrumental in developing a number of products- including coloured paper, paints and glass coatings- from his discoveries- so I had a long talk to him about that. The tortoise beetle above- Charidotella egregia changes colour from transparent to red when threatened and is one of the things that Prof. Vigneron has studied. Image copyright J-P.Vigneron, 2009, all rights reserved.

Interview with Dr. Phil Bishop

One of the really wonderful things about my job is that I get to talk to people who interest me about things that interest them the most. This week, I got to interview New Zealand-based amphibian expert Dr. Phil Bishop for Practical Reptile Keeping magazine. So far, all of my interviews have been interesting experiences for me and proof- (if such a thing is needed)- that it is not just the fluffy and "cute" animals in the world that have "fans". The interview should be on sale in January but I'll post more about that nearer the time. In the meantime, you can find more information on amphibian conservation work in New Zealand [here] and Dr Bishop's work [here]