Snakes and lizards and Sharks, Oh My! (Conference thread)

[Dmmetler]

Today starts the 2016 JMIH. DD didn't need to be here for most of the stuff earlier today (executive meetings and a day long R workshop for grad students)' so we took the train down ridiculously early this morning.

 

What I noticed even more than last year is that once DD got here, she didn't need me, except that hotels don't let 11 yr olds stay alone. She's handled the conference check ins, and has been happily finding people she knows. She also met one of her favorite Elasmobranch biologists-who was walking around in a shark costume :).

 

Tonight was the SSAR travelogue, from the Herpetological curator at the Carnegie Museum, on finding new species in the Sahara and Amazon-lots of National Geographic Society funded projects. DD enjoyed it immensely. I'm a little surprised that there were only about 75 people in attendance, mostly the senior committee folks. I guess everyone wanted to party?

 

DD is tired, but happy :)

[Arcadia]

And here I was thinking of real sharks, like those off Australia's Sydney's beaches.

 

Glad she is having a good time and no issues with your hotel reservations.

 

ETA:

When we went with hubby to conferences, those with kids would skip the optional night sessions to be with their kids. Those without kids can be found drinking at the hotel bar lounge. Some would be out shopping.

Edited July 7, 2016 by Arcadia

[Dmmetler]

Oh, there's a lot of talks on real sharks-one of the societies is the American Elasmobranch Society. Real animals are in short supply, though-conference hotels tend not to like them around much, for some reason.

 

DD is also thrilled with the conference bag-maybe because this is the big centennial meeting and has a ton of attendees, instead of the usual tote bags, they gave the conference information in backpacks-really awesome ones with multiple pockets and sections, with the conference logo (including a fish, lizard, snake, and shark wearing Mardi Gras beads :) ). DD says we have to do co-op in the fall so she can show it off. She's also thrilled with the Mardi Gras beads that LSU's grad students are handing out to everyone they see :).

[Dmmetler]

This morning, Sylvia Earle on Deep sea explorations (and the importance of involving kids in the natural world and research), the conservation of Sawfish, and what we still don't know about Anoles (which has DD bouncing a bit. Anoles are fairly easy research subjects to find, comparably speaking...)

 

Taking a break from the 100 year retrospective stuff on the society before this afternoon's sessions, which will require running shoes. I think DD has us moving room to room every 15 minutes between the 8 tracks. The big social/party is tonight, which will probably be the only social event we actually go to.

[Dmmetler]

So far this afternoon, rattlesnake resilience, salamander dispersal, and frog dispersal, with some nice modeling. Taking a snack break before going back for snakes and lizards, as we move from the ASIH graduate student awards talks to the SSAR grad student awards talks. Tonight's party is at Mardi Gras World and features an open bar. Not sure we'll stay very long, but the floats are neat, and hopefully some of the young "accompanying person, child of X" name tags will be present and give DD some kids to hang out with (there are quite a few families here, and we've seen a few "accompanying persons" that are in DD's age group)

[Dmmetler]

I think my favorite talk so far was one that researched rattlesnake behavior due to the California droughts and discovered, contrary to media reports, rattlesnakes handle drought by curling up, burying themselves partially, and waiting for prey to come within range, and move less-so you're LESS likely to have a rattlesnake in your yard during drought conditions, not more.

[Dmmetler]

The party was crowded, loud, and had the potential to get quite rowdy-we looked at the floats, had dinner, and caught the first bus back to the hotel-and then went to find ice cream. It worked. DD collected a lot of Mardi Gras beads that the Louisiana area contingents were throwing from some of the floats. Another big day tomorrow.

[Dmmetler]

This morning has been awesome-lots of great talks (including one on Cottonmouths that are scavenging fish dropped by birds, researching San Francisco Garter snakes by doing mDNA analysis of poop, and putting transmitters on itty bitty horned lizards. DD also visited the posters and talked to the vendors-and there actually is a poster on a copperhead project from the Memphis Zoo/University of Memphis. We'll definitely be tracking that presenter down!

[Dmmetler]

Met the UM grad student working with copperheads. Apparently she came to UM planning to be a mammalologist (which UM is fairly strong in) and drifted into herpetology. She is working with the herpetologist at the zoo. We exchanged contact info, so hopefully we can stay in contact, and maybe DD can help out with her projects :). DD is bouncy :).

 

Plus we found out that the cocktail package has a pretty nice food spread. It may yet end up cheaper to have the more expensive room :).

[k.son]

....I thought you were talking about sales people by the title. I'm glad this is an excited post of events. It sounds like you are learning/experiencing so much along with your child. I am only starting to plan my homeschooling path..my children are not even school age yet.

[Dmmetler]

Today was lightning talks (5 minute talks, usually on preliminary data or interesting offshoots). The most interesting one was that Brown Tree snakes, when faced with an "unclimbable" cylinder designed to keep them out, actually form a ring around th cylinder, quite literally tie themselves in a knot, and then wiggle up in that ring, which was an interesting side finding in a study on anti-predator guards, because no snake has previously been observed to climb that way before. She also got to hear about some cool studies on arboreal snakes at Rutgers.

 

The afternoon was social behavior in reptiles. This is one DD has been looking forward to, because one of the research/advocacy orograms she has been helping to support financially for years (her book royalties automatically go to them, and she has sent them about $500 this year alone) was speaking, letting her meet someone she's been working with for years. She also had a nice talk with Gordon Burghardt (who has been one of the biggest names in ethology for decades) about the possibility of amphibian social interactions, and how she might track it, so she has lots of ideas for observing and tracking the frog behavior in her pond, since right now there is almost nothing on social behavior in anurans.

 

She's had a chance, this week, to meet several grad students who she previously knew only through twitter-and who apparently didn't realize her age. In all cases, it took a short time, often very short, before they were discussing research and advocacy concerns just like on Twitter. Which is kind of cool-the students who meet her as a kid in the lab or in the field first seem to accept her, but she's treated more like a little sister. The grad students who met her first on social media and got to know her there before realizing her age, really do treat her like a fellow researcher and advocate. In many respects, it seems she HAS the peer group she desires. They're just masters and doctoral herpetology students, advocates, and researchers, scattered across the globe.

 

At tonight's poster session, she got to meet a couple of the UNR grad students in the EECB program, plus several other students doing some neat stuff at other colleges and universities.

 

This evening, we explored the French Quarter. Only my kid would find Mardi Gras beads with snakes and turtles on them. I'm not sure what she's going to do with the large quantity of beads she's collected this trip (they're currently on a hanger in the hotel closet).

 

She is one happy (and high energy) kid. It's like soaking up all this stuff all day charges her batteries. I'm exhausted and my brain feels full:).

[Dmmetler]

Good morning so far-DD got 3 books, including one on reptiles and amphibians in folklore and mythology in the ASIH grad student raffle. She also got a new edition of a college general bio text with online code, which sells for $177 on Amazon :), and a Zoogeography book. Talks were on conservation and working with local communities for animals on the ICUN Red list.

 

The silent auction closes in a half hour, so we're sticking around the hotel long enough to see if DD won anything and how high her lots went for. I've talked her into skipping the afternoon talks (which aren't of super-high interest) in favor of the Audubon insectarium.

[Dmmetler]

She is coming home with some really cute stuff from the silent auction-several stuffed lizards, a handmade makeup bag with a tropical herp print, two toy frogs, and a frog notepad. Her lots did well, too.

 

Now, to escape from herps and go see bugs. DD has a friend speaking at 4:30 that she'd like to be at, but we have a few hours.

[Dmmetler]

We went to see the insectarium, which is quite nice (and, as it turned out, gave free admission to JMIH attendees), and came back for three more talks, one on pesticide exposure in Northern Leopard frogs, one on the newly described species of frogs in Vietnam (and that they were discovered and basically immediately started steps to out them on the ICUN red list, because they all have tiny home ranges which are being destroyed for coffee and tea)-this was by one of DD's Tweeps, an Australian amphibian biologist, and finally one on the genetics of iguanas in Florida-legend has it that they all came from three iguanas brought back from Mexico and kept in a backyard in the 1970's, and except that their genetics more closely match iguanas from Honduras, turns out they really all are closely enough related to have come from that limited of a gene pool-proving that apparently, yes, a couple of released pets CAN have major invasive species concerns down the road.

 

There was a party tonight, followed by the live auction, but both are things DD's mentor explicitly forbids her from attending. Apparently it can get quite wild...

 

 

 

We had a nice dinner, and DD happily and excitedly gave DH the rundown on the talks. And now, I'm taking advantage of DH having come with us-because he's at the pool with an excited, bouncy kid, while I collapse in the hotel room, because keeping up with DD at a herp Conference is hard work!

 

Really wish there were such a thing as a herpetology magnet school...unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that's called grad school!