Roger A. Repp left his mother’s womb and entered the world as a herpetologist. Upon graduating from high school, he followed the career-path advice of Ray Pawley who was Curator of Reptiles at the Brookfield Zoo. Ray told him: “Get into a trade, kid; that is where the money is.” Roger did exactly that, and five years later, earned his journeyman tool and die maker degree. There was indeed a lot of money in that calling, and any free cash that remained after paying bills was spent in equal parts on gas and beer to get him where the herps could be found. He moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1981, and with the formation of the Tucson Herpetological Society in 1988, his interest in the local herpetofauna exploded into a rabid passion. Roger has maintained consistent field documentation of all species of snakes, several lizard species, and all turtles encountered in Arizona from 1989 through 1999, and broadened that dataset to include all herps encountered since the year 2000. In March of 2001, he joined forces with Dr. Gordon Schuett to begin a 15-year long radio-telemetry study on four species of rattlesnake, as well as the Gila Monster (Heloderma suspectum). He has authored or coauthored over 20 peer-reviewed papers, and has published over 100 herp-related articles in various herp society newsletters. He currently publishes a monthly column in the Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society, and is enjoying his second year of retirement doing what he loves most: spending time in the field with the animals that keep him in Arizona.

 

 

Talk title: More Luck than Brains: The Opportunistic Discovery of Hatchling Gila Monsters in a Semi-Urban Nest