Chicago Herpetological Society

May General Meeting - 5/28/08

Speaker: Michael Lanoo

Topic:  "Herpetofauna of Shennongjia National Reserve, Hubei Province, China"

Kevin Messenger is a graduate from NC State University, receiving his B.S. in zoology in May of 2006. Three days after graduating he was on a plane to China for four months to study herps in a remote region of central China. His job was to survey the 800,000 acre forests of Shennongjia National Reserve; a location that previously had never been surveyed for herps. Not only was he going to be spending most of his time hiking the backwoods of China, but none of the reserve officials knew English very well, meaning Kevin had to have a crash course in Mandarin before going over.

His study in China entailed surveying for herps at various field stations dotted throughout the reserve, ranging from 2,000 ft to 10,000 ft. Part of his job was to introduce western techniques for finding herps, as well as provide the reserve with any sort of conservation measures he could think of along the way. Several obstacles were encountered during the trip, such as poor ID guides and a mandatory assistant that just happened to be afraid of snakes! Kevin’s research in 2006 was only half of his project (a study he is ultimately planning to use towards a Master’s degree); he plans to return for a one month stay later this year in July, and then wrap up his study with one more summer session, currently planned for 2009.

His talk will primarily be a slide show of some of the amazing animals from this region, interspaced with some graphs and notes on some of his results.

Presently, Kevin works full time as an emergency vet tech in Raleigh, NC, while continuing to take post-baccalaureate classes (mostly Chinese) as he shops around for a graduate school.

Other Things Happening