Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What are the options for making a living in herpetology (breeding, zookeeper, selling milked venom?) And do any colleges have a Herpetology major.

>>What are the options for making a living in herpetology (breeding, zookeeper, selling milked venom?) And do any colleges have a Herpetology major.

The potential options are as diverse as the animals themselves. It can range from breedin snakes in your basement (which some people have done quite lucratively with rare species or unusual morphs), all the way up to getting a Ph.D. and conducting research at a University (and a Ph.D. opens lots and lots of doors, allowing you to obtain scientific permits to study rare animals in protected nature reserves for example).

As for what to study, that can range from zoology (with a herp bias of course) through to biochemistry or molecular biology. Which University to target is quite dependent on what angle you want to take.

All the best
Bryan
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Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry
Deputy Director
Australian Venom Research Unit
University of Melbourne

www.venomdoc.com

thanks. Im probably looking for a master's degree. i have about four years to look. Are you the same person who made those discoveries about "non-venomous snake" venom? What education did you go through?

I have a feeling I will end up workin at a zoo with a small breeding project. But I would love to work in the field but I don't know what the options are and the education needed. I would want to be very hands-on and not sit in like a lab and look in microscopes. The only things I could think of would be photograpaphy or selling venom or something and neither of which seem like they would be stable enough. So pretty much I would like to work for someone, in the field, and hands on, does such a job exist?

>>I have a feeling I will end up workin at a zoo with a small breeding project. But I would love to work in the field but I don't know what the options are and the education needed. I would want to be very hands-on and not sit in like a lab and look in microscopes. The only things I could think of would be photograpaphy or selling venom or something and neither of which seem like they would be stable enough. So pretty much I would like to work for someone, in the field, and hands on, does such a job exist?

There is every sort of job available. The key is to create a unique niche for yourself. If you are passionate enough, it will all work out

Cheers
Bryan
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Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry
Deputy Director
Australian Venom Research Unit
University of Melbourne

www.venomdoc.com

>>thanks. Im probably looking for a master's degree. i have about four years to look.

Never too early since it will stimulate you about what you feel is best as well as providing good motivation

>Are you the same person who made those discoveries about "non-venomous snake" venom?

Yep

> What education did you go through?
I have two undergraduate honours degrees (molecular biology and scientific philosophy) as well as a Ph.D. in biochemistry.

Cheers
Bryan
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Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry
Deputy Director
Australian Venom Research Unit
University of Melbourne

www.venomdoc.com

Venom research might be an option to look in to. What is the requred education? Is it difficult to find jobs in venom research? Do you spend more time in the field or lab and which do you enjoy more?

>>Venom research might be an option to look in to. What is the requred education? Is it difficult to find jobs in venom research? Do you spend more time in the field or lab and which do you enjoy more?

Venom research is a broad area of study, ranging from biochemistry to genetics to molecular biology to pharmacology/physiology. As with other areas of research, to truly open all the doors a Ph.D. is a must.

I spend about half my time in the field and half in the lab. I love being out catching the snakes (since my research is driven by my love and wonderment for the animals themselves) but I also thrive on the lab discoveries (finding cobra-toxins in ratsnakes gave me quite a thrill!).

Cheers
Bryan
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Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry
Deputy Director
Australian Venom Research Unit
University of Melbourne

www.venomdoc.com

This is my first time checking out and posting on the kingsnake.com forums.
This is a question that is commonly asked. I get e-mails on this a lot so here is an article I wrote on my site to help people become herpetologists and how they should prepare for it. There are also three other links on there written by other herpetologists. These links helped me a lot and I figure others will need them too. http://snakeman1982.com/Herpetologistarticle.asp

Hope this helps,
Robert Jadin
www.snakeman1982.com

Great advice below in the other posts....first I am not aware of any BS degrees specifically in herpetology in the states (used to be, but I am not aware of any current programs) as most students at an accredited college/university are required to take a stack of general education courses (english, psych, history, etc.) and then your major courses, which could be as part of a biology or zoology major for example. But, you could find an institution that has a good herpetologist that would be willing to take you on for some undergraduate research (and also take a herpetology class as well). Not trying to recruit, but for example, I am an assistant professor at a small liberal arts college called Malone College in Canton, Ohio. Besides the biology major, we also have a BS Zoo Science major that will be up and running next fall (2004) in collaboration with the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. I also have a collection of approximately 225 reptiles (mainly pythons and crocodilians) that are used for behavioral and population genetics research....all conducted by undergraduates that work with me on these projects. I have one student researching the use of chemosensory modalities during underwater foraging in crocodilians, another doing molecular genetics (mtDNA) to resolve the systematic relationships of several python species, another doing caudal luring in response to varying levels of satiation in the dumerils boa, and yet another doing SEM/TEM (electron microscopy) on the structure of gustatory papillae in the tongue of crocs, just to name a very few. This is just an example of how to get involved (also many graduate students would love to have a dedicated undergrad to help with field/lab data collection). My advice is to find somebody that might be doing some research of interest, and see if you could tag onto some of the research. In our case since we only have an undergraduate degree in biology/zoo science, we place our emphasis on these students to give the sufficient background on how to conduct experimental/field research (and even get some publication/speaking experience as well). As Bryan mentioned the opportunities are endless, but the degrees are the stepping stone(s) to those opportunities. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions at all.

Cheers,
Chris

Christopher K. Carmichael, Ph.D.
Department of Natural Sciences
Malone College
515 25th Street, N.W.
Canton, Ohio
Tel: 330-471-8175
Email: ccarmichael@malone.edu