My name is Ryan Thies and I am 24 years old. I was a born field herper in Ferguson Missouri.  When I was about 5 years old, I became hooked on snakes.  I remember rolling down the hill in my backyard with some friends and spooking my first snake ever.  I later learned it was an eastern garter snake.  From that point on I was hooked on snakes.  I started receiving books of all kinds.  It wasn’t long before I was identifying common snakes on my own.  While in my first year of high school, I received my first camera.  Needless to say, my passion for herps was kicked up a notch.  Now my weekends were spent photographing reptiles and amphibians.  Each year I got better at finding and photographing these beautiful animals.  Currently, I am still enjoying nature like I did when I was a kid.  Each weekend is a new trip.  My time has now become more limited.  I have a job to maintain and school work to keep up with.  However, I still find time.

Osage Copperhead
Photographed in St. Genevieve County Missouri

I spent two years at Florissant Valley Community College and am currently attending the University of Missouri in St. Louis with a major in biology. I have been there for three years now, so my time there is almost complete.  I look forward in the near future to graduating with my Bachelors degree and pursuing my Masters degree.

I have also held a couple of jobs over the last few years.  In the spring of 2005, I was an intern at the herpetarium for the St. Louis Zoo.  I learned a lot from the experience and I know the new knowledge will fit in fine with my future lifestyle.  I've worked for the Missouri Department of Conservation.  I disposed of invasive plant species like:  bush honeysuckle, serecia lespediza, johnson grass and sugar maple; while at the same time, maintaining the natural environment.  This also has been a tremendous learning experience.  I have also seen quite a few different herps at this job.  My photo sessions don’t stop, even at work!

I created this web site for many reasons.  The main reason for this site is to share my field herping experience with anyone who wants to know about it.  After all, pictures speak louder than words.  A description of events leading up to a photo can never be beat.  The second reason for this site is to help those in need of an identification.  I maintain a yearly picture page of snakes.  There are also many different species of reptiles and amphibians on my lifelist pages so people can go through and identify the reptiles and amphibians they have seen.  I try to put field guide style pictures on this site, for easy identification purposes, but as most of you know, many animals don’t cooperate.  Therefore, I take what I can get.  

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