St. Charles, MO. serpentryan@yahoo.com |
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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.
My schooling included two years at Florissant Valley Community College. I then transferred to the University of Missouri - St. Louis and graduated in 2010 with a major in Biology. I continued my schooling and earned a masters degree from Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville in Environmental Science.
In addition to college, I have also held several 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. I've also worked for the Missouri Department of Conservation in the Fishery Department. These have also been a tremendous learning experience. I've seen quite a few different herps at both of these Department of Conservation jobs. My photo sessions didn’t stop, even at work! I now work for a company that protects the environment.
Now, in my adulthood, I am still enjoying nature like I did when I was a kid. With all of my adult obligations, my free time has now become more limited, however, I still find time to devote to my passion.
I created this web site back in 2001 for many reasons. The main reason for this site was to share my field herping experiences and photos with anyone who has an interest. Up until 2013, I maintained picture pages of the different species of snakes that I found each year. 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 tried to put field guide style pictures on this site, for easy identification purposes. I currently just post all of my pictures in my Facebook Photo Albums as I no longer have the time to maintain the web pages.
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