Episodes

Hello again everyone! Welcome to Episode Ten! I like that double-digit number. For this episode, we’re talking with Rob, AKA SmetLogik, a YouTube content creator par excellence when it comes to documenting herps and herp adventures. Rob, Jennifer and son Nick recently relocated from the Denver area to Tucson, Arizona, and I caught up with Rob a few weeks ago in their new home. I really like Rob’s approach to the herp vid medium – he’s got a great sense of style and flair, as does son Nick (also,...

Hello everyone! Episode Nine finds us both in and out of the water with photographer/herper Matt Sullivan. Two shows in a row where we dip ourselves in the drink to visit with fascinating creatures! We’ll have time to dry off before our next installment, but for the moment, we’ll talk with Matt about his experiences photographing both herps and cool aqua-creatures. Matt’s underwater camera housing is featured in photo left – an awesome rig. Matt’s photography portfolio page is 9 Miles North (lo...

Hello everyone! For Episode Eight, we take a deep breath and submerge ourselves into the world of the Hellbender via a conversation with Nick Burgmeier. When it comes to cryptobranchids (hellbenders are in the family Cryptobranchidae, along with the Chinese and Japanese giant salamanders), Nick is a subject matter expert. I enjoyed talking with Nick on the subject, especially since he and his colleagues have made great progress in protecting Indiana hellbenders. Nick is featured in the photo at ...

Hello again everyone! Episode Seven features a conversation I had with Bob Ferguson, recorded in the New Jersey Pine Barrens last month. I got to spend some time in the field with Bob and he was nice enough to spend an hour or so putting down the interview. In the photo, Bob is on the left with me and Nate Nazdrowicz, taken at Snake Road in southern Illinois (back in the days when we could be in close proximity). In our conversation we talked about herping in both local and exotic locations, adv...

Hello everyone! Here in Episode Six we’re trying something a little different – we’re talking about origin stories. How did YOU come into the world of amphibians and reptiles? Everyone has a story, and on this show we’ve got five people telling us about theirs. Four of the interviews were recorded in Peru in January 2020, and one just a few weeks ago. Some of these folks I met for the first time in Peru, and the rest I’ve known for some time. Jill Rials is from Mesa, Arizona, and the critter sh...

Hello everyone, and welcome to Episode Five! In this episode I talk with Peter Mooney, a birder, world traveler, and herper from the era when it was called “snake hunting”. A New Jersey native, Mr. Mooney served his country in Vietnam, and afterwards he spent time in teaching school in Jasper County, South Carolina. Along the way he knew many of the old-school east coast herpers. I’ve spent time with Pete in Peru and in Cuba (he’s on the far left in the photo, taken in Havana) and I’ve gotten t...

Hello everyone, and welcome to Episode Four! My apologies for being a few days late, I was doing some out-of-state herping. In New Jersey. And it was great! But that’s another story for another time. Back in January, I interviewed Bryan Hughes in the Peruvian Amazon, during a bit of afternoon downtime. Brian and his wife Liz own and operate Rattlesnake Solutions, a Phoenix / Tucson company specializing in rattlesnake removal, and in techniques to keep rattlers away from homes and businesses. Th...

Hello again everyone! Thanks so much for your support, and your kind comments and messages! Much appreciated. This is the Episode of the Bushmaster! This past January I sat down with Matt Cage in my tambo (AKA jungle hut) and we chatted about bushmasters (known locally as “shushupes“. This photo is an in situ shot of the first bushmaster that Matt and I found in 2013. Since then we’ve paid attention to the habitat and weather preferences for this serpent, and have learned how to find shushupes ...

Hello everyone and welcome back! For Episode 2: The Python Problem, I chat with Mike Rochford, who certainly has a unique perspective on the issue of Burmese pythons in the Everglades, and elsewhere in Florida. I interviewed Mike back in January of 2020, and along with the skinny on Python bivittatus, he was kind enough to provide me with this photo, taken in Florida. Burms are awesome serpents, and it’s not their fault that they are where they are – the photo speaks more to human folly than any...

Hello everyone and welcome to the So Much Pingle Herpetology Podcast! This first episode is short and sweet – just an introduction to the show that describes how this thing is gonna roll. Conceived last summer and kicked off last winter, we’ll start off with some episodes recorded as far back as January. I’m only a couple of months behind my target start date, thanks to a bit of a pandemic-related hiatus. Show notes and links to the episodes will appear here at somuchpingle.com, and there’s als...