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Mark O'Shea Answers Questions
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by ichabod on January 5, 2007
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Hi Mark,
I was wondering what it takes to become a herpatologist, I have been working with snakes for about 5yrs now and I cant see my self not working with snakes. I am a Docent at Potawattomi Zoo in South Bend, IN home of the "Notre Dame Fighting Irish"
I will be going back to school to get my vet tech degree. I just wanted to know what it takes.
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Mark O'Shea Answers Questions
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by Matt_Wall on January 6, 2007
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Hi Mark, Firstly I'd like to thank you for writing 'Venomous Snakes of the World' I got it for Christmas and it's a fantastic read which has greatly increased my knowledge of venomous snakes (and I still haven't finished it!).
Secondly, I was wondering if you've ever worked with or met Dr Bryan Fry? Like you he has been extremely helpful to me by explaining simple things (sometimes not so simple) that beginners such as myself sometimes feel embarrased asking experienced herpetologists about.
Finally, I hope to go to university next year to study animal biology and conservation and eventually go on to become a herpetologist. I was however (being the optimist that I am) wondering how I would go about becoming a herpetologist if I didn't get into university.
Thanks for reading, Matt.
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RE: Mark O'Shea Answers Questions
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by Mark_OShea on January 27, 2007
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Hi Chad (vietherp)
In December you asked me two more questions, sorry for not getting back soon but you know how it is ;)
No, the Malayan banded krait is not the only krait in S.E.Asia, though that common name could mean more than one species, and how you define S.E.Asia is also not explained. Obviously you include Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and peninsular Malaysia but S.E.Asia also includes Myanmar (Burma) in the northwest, Yunnan (China) in the north, and western Indonesia, plus the island of Borneo which is 2/3 Indonesian, 1/3 Malaysian and also contains the tiny sultanate of Brunei. The Andaman and Nicobar islands, which span from Myanmar to Sumatra, are Indian but they are still part of S.E.Asia. Then you might even extend S.E.Asia eastwards to include the Philippines, and some people even include eastern Indonesia (Sulawesi, Lesser Sundas, Makulu, West Papua), along with East Timor and Papua New Guinea and Palau, but I do not accept these last countrues consider them more Australasian. However, the kraits, Bungarus, are a mainland S. & S.E.Asian phenomenom which also venture onto the islands nearest to the mainland.
Here is a list of S.E.Asian Bungarus with the five that occur in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos asterixed:
B.andamanensis - Andaman krait (Andamans)
B.bungaroides - Cantor's krait (Myanmar)
B.candidus - Malayan krait*
B.fasciatus - banded krait*
B.flaviceps - red-headed krait*
B.magnimaculatus - Burmese krait (Myanmar)
B.slowinskii - Red River krait*
B.multicinctus - many-banded krait*
Your second question concerned a false viper in S.E.Asia and the answer is yes, Psammodynastes pulverentulus is the mock viper, a widespread colubrid snake thought allied to the natricines (watersnakes). It has a very viperine physique and head, slightly vertically elliptical pupils, adopts 'the position' and even has enlarged teeth in its mouth, but it is not a viper any more than Xenodon in S.America.
I have found these snakes are far apart as Thailand and the Philippines and its strikes me that there are probably more than one species hiding in what we call Psammodynastes pulverentulus. So many colubrids, so little time !!
There is a second species, P.pictus, on Borneo and Sumatra.
Hope that answers your questions,
Regards
Mark
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RE: Venomous snakes on West New Britain, PNG?
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by Mark_OShea on January 27, 2007
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Dear Ralph (Natrix)
You asked about available literature on the snakes of West New Britain and to be honest, apart from my A Guide to the Snakes of Papua New Guinea (1996 and out of print) there is no other field guide or popular book covering this region. There are scientific papers and you may be able to obtain some of them as pdfs or do a literature search in a good library using a variety of keywords. The papers by Sam McDowell are wll worth sourcing.
West New Britain is, conveniently enough, the western province on the island of New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago to the east of Papua New Guinea, the other province, being surprisingly named East New Britain! However, the Nakanai Mts are mostly found in ENB, not WNB which is dominated by the Whiteman Range. Still it really does not matter from a snakebite standpoint because none of these islands have any dangerous species.
Mainland New Guinea and its satellite islands (Karkar, Daru, Yule) are home to a reasonable array of elapids including eight species which can and do cause human fatalities. However move into the eastern archipelagos and the risk is hugely diminished even though elapids occur there.
Milne Bay Province island archipelagos are inhabited by the striped crowned snake (Aspidomorphus lineaticollis) and several mountain or forest snakes (Toxicocalamus spp.)
New Britain (WNB & ENB) has only one elapid, Muller's crowned snake (Aspidomorphus muelleri), a widespread species of which I recently caught a couple of examples in Oro Prov., a snake which can and will bite and can cause illness but has not caused death. So people may have got sick from bites, but not died. Only one snakebite is documented from Muller's snake so anything you can learn would be very useful for when I complete the second edition of Snakes of PNG.
New Ireland, further to the east, also has A.muelleri.
Manus Province, to the north, had zero elapids
The final province, the most easterly, is N.Solomons or Bougainville Province (not to be confused with the Solomon Islands across the border) and here there are three endemic and monotypic genera Salomonelaps, Loveridgelaps and Parapistocalamus, although in truth Loveridgelaps has not been recorded from the PNG side of the border, but on the close-by Solomon's Shortlands island.
So cave away to your hearts content and "don't fear the reaper", not if he is using snakebite as his method of harvesting souls.
If you are after a list of species occuring in New Britain that is more difficult because new frogs, especially the direct-breeding Platymantis, are being described with surprising regularity and without a specialist who knows these species you will not be able to identify them. As for skinks, they are legion in New Guinea. You will have your work cut out I promise. You will need to make a voucher collection but will not be able to export it so you will need to deposit it at the National Museum of PNG and if you are conducting research you will need a research permit, which is not like a tourist or business visa. PNG is not the easiest country in which to carry out fieldwork.
Good luck and apply for your permits many months before you plan to leave
Mark
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RE: Mark O'Shea Answers Questions
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by Mark_OShea on January 27, 2007
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Hi Isaac (ichabod)
What does it take to become an herpetologist ?
Well it takes different things depending where you want to go.
First let us define herpetologist because it is a much abused term, many people claim to be herpetologists who are not strictly herpetologists.
Herpetology is that branch of zoology than involves the study of reptiles and amphibians (although in the past the term batrachologist was applied to the latter and the French still use the term). However, the important word here is the tenth in that sentence 'study', the study of reptiles etc. not the keeping of them in captivity, the breeding of them etc.
People have kept tropical fish for generations and they call themselves aquarists, those that breed fish call themselves aquaculturists, and those that study them in museums or in the field are generally known as ichthyologists as in the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (est.1913).
It is just that no alternative term existed for reptile keepers and breeders until someone coined 'herpetoculturists' obvious really, can't imagine why it took so long.
Herpetoculturists keep and breed reptiles
Herpetologists study them, really study them, genetics, phylogenetics, taxonomy, natural history, distribution, physiology, veterinarian, toxinology dar de dar de dar.....
So wanting to work with reptiles does not mean you have to become an herpetologist (the 'h' is silent like in 'erbs or 'otel so it should be 'an herpetologist', though few speak it that way).
To breed reptiles commerically, to work with them at the keeper level in a zoo, to engage in any number of activities which involve reptiles, one does not need a degree or even formal education, just passion, enthusiasm and knowledge, all of which can be learned or gained on the job.
But to become a proper herpetologist, engaged in field research or the laboratory study of venoms, DNA or reptilian parasitology, then one needs education and the higher level one can achieve the further one can climb up the ladder of success. Even in zoos, if one wished to achieve senior keeper status, then a qualification is usually desirable since you may well be required to publish an important breeding record in the International Zoo Yearbook and that is a lot easier using skills picked up in traditional educational programmes.
I note that you are going back to school to get your vet tech degree.
That shows dedication and I applaud your move. Having already worked in a zoo collection you will also be better equiped with plenty of ideas from the real world, than kids coming straight from school. To use a military analogy, a top sargeant with a tour of duty under his belt may be more clued into what is going on than the most highly qualified West Point graduate, having learned through practical rather than theoretical methods. It is a case of finding the happy medium between education and experience and that is why I continually push kids to study (see March Reptiles p.28) but also see the value of gap-years and field experience. I did my first degree as a mature student in my early 20's, having already made three field trips overseas including one to Borneo. I found I had more to contribute to lectures than someone younger than myself who had only ever seen the inside of a classroom, and I was better equiped and more willing to learn too.
In a nutshell, you asked me what to do but I reckon you are already doing it. Good luck to anyone who goes back to education to better their chances of achieving their ultimate goal.
Mark
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RE: Mark O'Shea Answers Questions
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by Mark_OShea on January 27, 2007
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Hi Matt
Thanks for your comments on Venomous Snakes of the World. if you enjoyed it you will be pleased to know that Boas and Pythons of the World is coming out soon, already available in the UK as I have copies and will be offering signed copies of both on my website www.markoshea.tv (along with sets of the postage stamps I designed on Dangerous Snakes of PNG). I hope to set up a paypal system for overseas purchased BUT shipping books from the UK is expensive due to our postal system. I can have a book sent to me from the US three-times for about the same amount it costs me to send the same book in the other direction. This is obviously an unhelpful factor when it comes to me selling signed copies of my own books. Anyway I digress.
Yes, I know Bryan Fry, we are old friends, he worked on a film in the second series of O'Shea's Big Adventure entitled Sea Serpents, when we caught plenty of seasnakes off Queensland Western Australia. He has paid me a visit at West Midland Safari Park and I last saw him at the Exotic Venomous Snake Forum at Melbourne Zoo, on my way home from PNG in Nov 2006, where I had been asked to present the plenary lecture and a quiz on venomous snakes (which Bryan won).
With regards to your last comment about becoming an herpetologist without going to university, see the previous reply to ichabod.
At university you would learn skills you could never pick up reading reptile books at home or wandering the field and woods with a snake stick.
Regards
Mark
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Mark O'Shea Answers Questions
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by JeremyTMoore on January 28, 2007
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Hello Mark O'Shea I am one of your biggest fans. I hope you are still answering these. I have to ask you a few questions. 1) Did you ever encounter any Big Headed Amazon River Turtles? 2) Were you nervous around those Alligator Snappers? 3) What do you think of the Sea Snake Species? 4) People say I shouldn't keep my Sea Snakes in captivity, but I have a few that are thriving and have been for 3 1/2 years now, Do you think I should stop?
Thats all I would like to know. I wish you luck with your life, and I hope to hear some answers from you.
Jeremy T. Moore
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RE: Mark O'Shea Answers Questions
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by Mark_OShea on January 30, 2007
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Hello Jeremy, yes I continue to answer questions when I have a little time.
You asked four questions, so I will try to respond.
1) Amazon big-headed turtles. I have been to the Amazonian countries quite a few times over the past 20years and seen quite a few river turtles from a distance but they are very wary so I have only caught a few, mostly Podocnemis unifilis or smaller Phrynops, Rhinoclemmys and Platemys.
2. No I am not nervous around alligator snappers, but I reckon they should be nervous around people since man has pushed them to the edge throughout most of their range.
3. "What do I think os seasnake species ?"
Which one, or all of them ?
There are 57 species of true seasnakes and 8 species of sea krait (Laticauda). I have encountered only 10 of the seasnakes and 4 of the sea kraits, but I find them fascinating. The diversity is vast, totally oceanic Pelamis compared to aquatic Laticauda, coral reef dwelling Aipysurus to turbid estuarine Enhydrina and mangrove mud-flat dwelling Parahydrophis, even land-locked lake or river species, dietary specialists and generalists, rare and common species, Oriental and Australasian species, wide-spread and reef endemics, bethnic and pelagic species.
4. Some seasnakes may do okay in captivity, a few may thrive but many have such specialised diets (on species of blenny or one species of eel) that it is almost impossible to maintain them away from their home ranges. You say you have kept seasnakes but you don't say which species. I looked at your profile and the seasnake in the picture looked like a thick-bodied Aipysurus, but the shelved supraocular, pointed snout and especially the apparently laterally placed nasal openings were curious, most seasnakes have dorsally positioned nasal openings. Yellow-bellied seasnakes, which do okay in captivity on small pelagic fish, are listed in your profile, banded seasnakes (of which there are 33 species in genus Hydrophis) but you also refer to a "green seasnake" but that is not a common name with which I am familiar - please elaborate.
Is this an olive seasnake Aipysurus laevis, it is most like that species apart from the nostrils. They are actually quite docile, despite a large specimen having fangs that will penetrate a wetsuit, and they are territorial and curious and off PNG they innocently hassle divers on particular bommie dives.
There is a fold down the underside of the snake in the picture which suggests this is one of the species capable of flattening its entire body when swimming, and that rules out many species with wide or semi-wide ventral plates because in order to do this some seasnakes have evolved to possess ventral scales hardly larger than the lateral or dorsal scales and they tend to have a pair either side of the ventral midline so that the body can fold neatly. That would fit with Aipysurus.
If you are doing well and the snakes are healthy I do not think you should stop, I think you should publish.
Mark
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RE: Mark O'Shea Answers Questions
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by JeremyTMoore on January 30, 2007
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Yes I am refering to Olive Sea Snakes. I thank you for your answer. I am refering to pretty much all Sea Snakes. I am searching for a Stokes and have been for a few years. I wish you well
Jeremy T Moore
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RE: Mark O'Shea Answers Questions
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by Mark_OShea on February 1, 2007
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Hi Jeremy
Thought it must be an olive, not a bad ident. from a low res. colour cast picture. They are fairly placcid and can be quie common and inqusitive too.
Join the club, I was looking for a Stokes' on Ashmore & Hibernia Reefs but did not find one. Found about eight other species, in numbers too, but no Stokes'. Why Stokes' ? big fat, ugly, unfriendly things. I beleive they are fairly generalist feeders though so they should be maintainable in captivity, unlike some of the real specialists.
Mark
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