Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello, any herpatologists here? i am planning on taking herpatology in college in the summer, how long will it take to complete? what kind of money do herpatologists make? i also plan to get a minor in toxicology, so i can study rattlesnakes. any input is welcomed! thanks in advance! -matthew

I believe most of the good herpetology programs will be where there are good hereptologists. I know University of Texas supposedly had a good program, and I remember someone talking about UC Davis, but you will need to look school by school. As far as money, get used to not having much of it. It is a great job, but definitely not one where you are endowed with a great number of financial benifits so to speak.
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Andy Maddox
AIM: SurfAndSkimTx04
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Yahoo:surfandskimtx04
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

You won't "major" in Herpetology. You will major in Biology/Zoology with the emphasis on Herpetology. After you get the basic Biology and Zoology courses successfully under your belt you can get into a Herpetology program to branch off into your individual area of interest. To my knowledge, there are no specific degrees in Herpetology, at least in the U.S. The degree will be in Biology. Your Masters work and Graduate work will be related to Herpetology. As Andy said, most Universities with large Biology Departments will offer a Herpetology program. I know that Auburn University and UGA have good Herpetology programs.

By the way, you can study rattlesnakes (or any other group of animals) without being a Toxicologist. You can certainly have double majors and go for higher degrees in both disciplines. That's quite an aggressive goal, but if you can do it, go for it.

hey matt- first of all i would like to commend you for wanting to go into herpetology in college. i am a third year at UC Davis and we have the best herpetology class in that nation for undergraduates. the other people were right in that you will not find a herpetology major in this country but your best bet if you come to uc davis is to choose evolution and ecology as your major. then work your ass off to get a research position in a lab on campus. then work your ass off there and get enough credibility for your professor to work with you and sponsor your own research project. i curently work in an aquatic ecology lab which specializes in amphibian and invertebrate ecology. there is however a professor on campus that works with rattlesnake venom and we do have an environmental toxicology program however the toxicology you're thinking of isn't the kind of toxicology offered in college. if you choose to do toxicology you'll more likely end up studying pollution effects on amplibians than the properties on venom. biochemistry is the field you'll need to get into for venom analysis to study protien and enzyme make up of venoms and their effects, etc. as far as money goes you'll probably be broke for the first decade or so of your career but if you pursue it long enough you might find yourself with a professorship at a university which is where you can make a decent amount of money. herpetology affords you many other opportunites. you get to travel generally free of charge and all of your research costs get picke up by a grant. (that is if you're lucky enough for someone to give you 200K for your project). the advantage of all of this is total acedemic freedom in designing and carrying out your experiment. i hope this answers some of your questions. if you have the commitment and the drive to work your ass off for what you want its a great path to take. if you have any other questions feel free to email me at Schell_19@hotmail.com put herpetology/herpetologist in the subject line. cheers -Schell-

The only way one can make a living wage in that discipline is to teach others how to do it...and be broke. One other way, though it takes a rather large backing financially to do it on your own is to work in venom extraction & processing.

~~Greg~~

Or get your own TV show....

You could always just hold your baby out over a hungry crocodile...Seems to work for some people
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Andy Maddox
AIM: SurfAndSkimTx04
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Yahoo:surfandskimtx04
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

It works REALLY well for some people..haha..
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**Alyssa**
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