Back in the days, when I was young....

Dedicated exclusively to field herping.

Moderator: Scott Waters

Post Reply
User avatar
jonathan
Posts: 3689
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 8:39 am
Contact:

Back in the days, when I was young....

Post by jonathan »

I was going through old pictures as I clear out my stuff and I found some of my very early herping life. Too bad I basically had a 15-year hiatus in the middle, because I started out strong.


Doesn't look like I had any ingrained fear of snakes. My dad bred a few corn snakes way back then:

Image




Don't play with your snake food!

Image




Here's my dad about that time, doing his thing:

Image




Okay, not quite herping, but my early experiences in the outdoors.

Image

Image




Apparently my early snake hook training was done with a backscratcher. Can anyone ID the species?

Image




This is me in fifth grade. I brought a box turtle, White's treefrog, and corn snake to school for show-and-tell, and the teacher liked my talk about them so much (both natural history and pet care) that she sent me around to give the talk at every grade level in the school. Interestingly, over 90% of 1st graders were willing and excited to touch the snake, while only about 50% of 6th graders would do it.

Image

Image




This is a normal male corn snake that my dad had hatched and reared, and an amelanistic female corn that had been dropped off at the zoo. It was my introduction to genetics - I bred them to each other, then bred one of the offspring back to the mom, leading to half of the offspring being amelanistic themselves. I did the punnett squares myself.

p.s. - I also apparently liked that shirt.

Image




A couple falconry pics to end it.

Image

Image




p.s. - I noticed none of these pictures involved actual field herping. Simple reason - dad took me hiking. Mom had the camera. Thus, all the early snake catching and salamander flipping was never recorded for posterity.
User avatar
Christopher
Posts: 140
Joined: June 22nd, 2010, 8:53 pm
Location: SFL
Contact:

Re: Back in the day, when I was young....

Post by Christopher »

Some great pics, looks like great raising for a herper! What/where did your father work if I can ask?
User avatar
reptilist
Posts: 653
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 9:30 am
Location: Clifton, Arizona

Re: Back in the day, when I was young....

Post by reptilist »

Yeah....

Who's yer daddy?
mikemike
Posts: 1207
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 1:37 pm
Location: Ft. Smith, Arkansas
Contact:

Re: Back in the day, when I was young....

Post by mikemike »

Great post, Jonathon. Between living in more houses than I am old, and nearly as many towns, I have no idea if there are still pics of me around anywhere from herping. I too used to take snakes and turtles to class for show and tell when I was little. I also had a mullet and exclusively wore dinosaur shirts it seemed like.
User avatar
jonathan
Posts: 3689
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 8:39 am
Contact:

Re: Back in the day, when I was young....

Post by jonathan »

My dad worked at the California Alligator Farm in Anaheim, which was basically a zoo filled almost exclusively with reptiles, including 20 of the 25 species of crocodilians. He later moved to the Sacramento Zoo and then the Oregon Zoo (formerly the Washington Park Zoo), which he recently retired from.
User avatar
Erik_NorCal
Posts: 73
Joined: July 16th, 2010, 10:13 am
Location: East Bay

Re: Back in the day, when I was young....

Post by Erik_NorCal »

Nice Kestrel. My favorite bird. :thumb:
User avatar
RockRatt Rich Morgan
Posts: 141
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:03 pm

Re: Back in the day, when I was young....

Post by RockRatt Rich Morgan »

jonathan wrote:My dad worked at the California Alligator Farm in Anaheim, which was basically a zoo filled almost exclusively with reptiles, including 20 of the 25 species of crocodilians. He later moved to the Sacramento Zoo and then the Oregon Zoo (formerly the Washington Park Zoo), which he recently retired from.
Very cool Jonathon. I too brought many reptiles in when I was in 4th grade and had show and tell. The weird part I remember is the teacher LET me bring in the snakes (Rosy's of course) into the classroom but made me leave the mice outside the classroom. I was PLANNING on showing the kids how snakes ate. I said planning because ALL the mice died being left outside in a glass cage in the sun. Was the Alligator Zoo in Ananheim or Buena Park? I ask because my FAVORITE place to go when I was little was the Alligator Zoo/Farm (cannot remember exactly what it was called) that I remember was located right accross from Knotts Berry Farm? I loved that place. They also had some primates and other stuff from what I kind of remember, but I definetely remember all the alligators and Crocodiles.
User avatar
jonathan
Posts: 3689
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 8:39 am
Contact:

Re: Back in the day, when I was young....

Post by jonathan »

RockRatt Rich Morgan wrote:Was the Alligator Zoo in Ananheim or Buena Park? I ask because my FAVORITE place to go when I was little was the Alligator Zoo/Farm (cannot remember exactly what it was called) that I remember was located right accross from Knotts Berry Farm? I loved that place. They also had some primates and other stuff from what I kind of remember, but I definetely remember all the alligators and Crocodiles.
Yes - that was this spot, right across from Knott's. They had spider monkeys and ostriches - those were the only non-herps in the whole place, I believe.

Did you go in the early 1980s? You probably saw my dad if you did. He did many (if not most) of the public talks and such. I still have the video he made for the local school district where he talks about alligator and crocodile features, behavior, and conservation.
craigb
Posts: 638
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 6:02 am
Location: Southern Cal.
Contact:

.

Post by craigb »

.
User avatar
jonathan
Posts: 3689
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 8:39 am
Contact:

Re: Back in the day, when I was young....

Post by jonathan »

craigb wrote:very cool!
I know I must have seen him. I was there 6-8 times in the late 70s and early 80s.
I loved the huge nile croc they had, and the cobras!
Yah - I think his exact dates there were 1981 to 1983. He used to walk out on a board that went over those two huge niles - I remember thinking that was the scariest thing ever when I was little. I think the big one went a really fat 14 feet. I don't remember the cobras that well, except that one was part of his show. He told me much later that it managed to strike him on the boot once, which is the closest he's ever come to being tagged.
craigb
Posts: 638
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 6:02 am
Location: Southern Cal.
Contact:

.

Post by craigb »

.
User avatar
klawnskale
Posts: 1211
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:09 pm

Re: Back in the day, when I was young....

Post by klawnskale »

"when I was young"... that's a hoot! So what is old? Anyone over 40?
User avatar
jonathan
Posts: 3689
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 8:39 am
Contact:

Re: Back in the day, when I was young....

Post by jonathan »

klawnskale wrote:"when I was young"... that's a hoot! So what is old? Anyone over 40?

Well, Ahmad wrote it when he was 18, so I'd say anyone over 15-16 is old. But Ahmad was from right here in South Central, where you grow up fast. ;)
User avatar
klawnskale
Posts: 1211
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:09 pm

Re: Back in the day, when I was young....

Post by klawnskale »

jonathan wrote:
klawnskale wrote:"when I was young"... that's a hoot! So what is old? Anyone over 40?

Well, Ahmad wrote it when he was 18, so I'd say anyone over 15-16 is old. But Ahmad was from right here in South Central, where you grow up fast. ;)
Ahmad? Who is Ahmad?
User avatar
klawnskale
Posts: 1211
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:09 pm

Re: Back in the day, when I was young....

Post by klawnskale »

Well, bless you, Jonathan, whatever the future brings your way, I hope it will only be good...
User avatar
RockRatt Rich Morgan
Posts: 141
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:03 pm

Re: Back in the day, when I was young....

Post by RockRatt Rich Morgan »

jonathan wrote:
RockRatt Rich Morgan wrote:Was the Alligator Zoo in Ananheim or Buena Park? I ask because my FAVORITE place to go when I was little was the Alligator Zoo/Farm (cannot remember exactly what it was called) that I remember was located right accross from Knotts Berry Farm? I loved that place. They also had some primates and other stuff from what I kind of remember, but I definetely remember all the alligators and Crocodiles.
Yes - that was this spot, right across from Knott's. They had spider monkeys and ostriches - those were the only non-herps in the whole place, I believe.

Did you go in the early 1980s? You probably saw my dad if you did. He did many (if not most) of the public talks and such. I still have the video he made for the local school district where he talks about alligator and crocodile features, behavior, and conservation.
That is VERY COOL. I would think I would have gone when I was probably 7-11 years old so about 78 to 82 somewhere in between..I HATED to see it close, I have grown up in Buena Park so I was used to it being a fixture for years.
User avatar
jonathan
Posts: 3689
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 8:39 am
Contact:

Re: Back in the day, when I was young....

Post by jonathan »

klawnskale wrote:
jonathan wrote:
klawnskale wrote:"when I was young"... that's a hoot! So what is old? Anyone over 40?

Well, Ahmad wrote it when he was 18, so I'd say anyone over 15-16 is old. But Ahmad was from right here in South Central, where you grow up fast. ;)
Ahmad? Who is Ahmad?

A hip-hop one-hit wonder who wrote the lyrics that I was quoting when I titled the post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVgTeHhpsYM
User avatar
klawnskale
Posts: 1211
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:09 pm

Re: Back in the days, when I was young....

Post by klawnskale »

Okay; now I'm clear. I'm from an older generation.
User avatar
Crazins
Posts: 269
Joined: June 14th, 2010, 6:49 pm
Location: My car

Re: Back in the days, when I was young....

Post by Crazins »

Freaking adorable. Thanks for posting that. I love the pic of you with the backscratcher/snake hook. That's what my kids are going to be like.
-Marisa
Post Reply