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There once was a turtle looking to nest
Who couldn’t find a place that was best
The road shoulder was a trap… Read More
While most of us have seen our social lives struggle over these past two years, not all species were following social distancing rules. One species, in particular, has made significant leaps and bounds in their relational lives— the Oregon Spotted Frog
… Read More
Professionals who take care of biodiversity leave a priceless legacy for future generations. A young Canadian, Guillaume DeBlois, understood this and wanted to support them in their work by making it his mission to help save freshwater turtles. A member of the Canadian Herpetological Society's Board of Directors invited his mother to ask him a few questions to find out the story behind his journey. Here is the result of that exchange… Read More
In my opinion, temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD) is one of the weirdest but most interesting things about reptiles. In animals, sex determination is typically thought of in terms of sex chromosomes. For example, in species with an XY sex-chromosome system (such as humans), embryos possessing two X chromosomes will be genetically female, while those with both an X and a Y chromosome will be … Read More
Reptiles are not known for their behavioural complexity, and until recently I bought into that belief. In my lower year undergraduate classes, behavioural ecology and herpetology were taught separately. So, when I asked my current supervisor, Dr. Njal Rollinson, if I could do a third-year research thesis, I was shocked when he proposed a project on turtle vocalisations. First of all, turtles vocalise? And second of all, I can study behaviour AND turtles? This idea largely came from … Read More