Herpetologist

Meet Herpetologist
Jeff Beane!

written by Jeff Beane
photographed by Melissa McGaw

As a herpetologist, Jeff Beane's job is to catch and study reptiles and amphibians all across North Carolina. In the process, he's learned to love and appreciate Nature.

As far back as I can remember, I wanted to be a herpetologist.

What's that? Herpetology is the study of reptiles (turtles, snakes, lizards, alligators) and amphibians (frogs, toads, salamanders), so a herpetologist is someone who studies these creatures.

I'm the Herpetology Collections Manager at the N. C. State Museum of Natural Sciences. The museum documents the natural history of North Carolina by maintaining collections and data. My job includes caring for
the museum's large research collection of preserved amphibians and reptiles, or "herps," as we call them. The collection is a lot like a library, with preserved specimens instead of books. Certain things about animals can only be learned by studying preserved specimens, just as some things can only be learned by studying live animals.

Many of the museum's specimens are maintained as vouchers, to document a species' occurrence at a certain locality. For every reptile and amphibian species in North Carolina, the museum keeps records on where it occurs, what it eats, how big it gets, how many young it has, how common or rare it is, how it varies in different parts of its range and other basic information.

What I Do

My work includes studying animals in the field; collecting, preserving and cataloging specimens; updating data files and range maps; responding to public requests for information; presenting programs; and writing and publishing articles. My job is nearly always interesting and I never get tired of it.

I spend a lot of time in the office and lab, but the most enjoyable part of my job is field work. I kept herps as pets when I was young, but soon realized that what they did in the wild was much more interesting and important than what they did in cages. One project I am working on is a radio telemetry study with several species of reptiles in the North Carolina Sandhills. Attaching a radio transmitter to an animal allows a researcher to follow its movements and learn about its home range, habitat requirements and activity patterns. Animals I am studying with telemetry include the chicken turtle, southern hognose snake, northern pine snake and eastern coachwhip—all of which are uncommon and declining in North Carolina.

Another project I am involved in is "Project Bog Turtle." This is a conservation effort initiated by the North Carolina Herpetological Society that helps protect the bog turtle, which is a threatened species. We locate and study populations and work to preserve habitat. I also travel all over the state collecting specimens and data and surveying herp populations.

I'm Not Afraid of Snakes!

I have lived in North Carolina all my life and have been interested in its richly varied herpetofauna for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I was fascinated with the negative emotions many people felt toward these animals—especially snakes. I was taught to fear snakes, but chose instead to learn about them for myself. The more I've learned, the more I've come to love and appreciate Nature and all its components, and the harder it has become for me to understand fear or hatred of anything in Nature. To me, snakes are remarkably interesting and beautiful, and are really very much like other animals. I've worked with venomous snakes for many years and have never been bitten. Our own activities—the cars we drive and chemicals we poison our environment with—are far more dangerous.

Sometimes people ask me what my favorite reptile or amphibian is. It would be hard to pick just one, but several of my favorites include bog turtles, hognose snakes, pine snakes, coachwhips, rattlesnakes, kingsnakes, glass lizards, gopher frogs, river frogs, barking and pine barrens treefrogs and tiger salamanders. I have a weakness for creatures that are rare or declining because of human activities, and today that includes most reptiles and amphibians.

Caring for Herps

There are many reasons why we should care about reptiles, amphibians and all other Iiving things. They are part of our world—part of a very complex system that developed over a long period of time and that works extremely well. It is a serious mistake to disrupt that system. We should instead make every effort to understand and respect Nature, because our own future depends upon it.

When he attaches radio transmitters to turtles, frogs and snakes, Jeff can easily track them using radio telemetry. This is one way that Jeff learns about the behavior of reptiles and amphibians in the wild.

Read and Find Out

A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, Third Edition, Expanded, by Roger Conant and Joseph T Collins, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998.
Amphibians and Reptiles of the Carolinas and Virginia, by Bernard S. Martof et al. University of North Carolina Press, 1980.
I Wonder Why Snakes Shed Their Skins And Other Questions About Reptiles, by Amanda O'Neill, Kingfisher Books, 1996.
Reptiles of North Carolina, by William M. Palmer and Alvin L. Braswell, University of North Carolina Press, 1995.
Frogs, Toads, Lizards and Salamanders, by Nancy Wilson Parker, Greenwillow, 1990.
Amazing Snakes (Eyewitness Juniors), by Alexandra Parsons, Jerry Young (Photographer), Random Library, 1990.

Herpetologists don't spend every day outside catching snakes and frogs. Jeff spends plenty of time inside his office at the N. C. State Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh caring for the museum's large collection of preserved specimens.

What Does It Mean?

herpetology: the study of reptiles and amphibians

vouchers: specimens used to document or prove that a certain species occurs in a certain area

radio telemetry: a method of tracking wild animals by implanting them with transmitters and using a receiver to locate their signal

radio transmitter: a small device that emits a radio signal which can be picked up by a receiver and used to locate animals

chicken turtle: a rather uncommon aquatic turtle with a very long neck, found in the Coastal Plain of North Carolina

southern hognose snake: a small, spotted snake with an upturned snout, found in sandy areas of the North Carolina Coastal Plain

coachwhip: North Carolina's longest snake species—a slender, fast-moving snake found in the southern Coastal Plain; its tail resembles a braided whip

bog turtle: the smallest and rarest turtle in North America, found in certain spring-fed wetlands in the Mountains and western Piedmont of North Carolina

herpetofauna: reptiles and amphibians, collectively