ALAPARC Conference 2017

This past weekend, my advisor - Dan Warner - and I attended the 2017 Alabama Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation meeting at The _Solon Dixon Forestry Education Center. _While our lab’s research interest is not focused on conservation of reptiles and amphibians in the state of Alabama, we were there to share our work on evolution and ecology of invasive anoles in Florida. I presented a poster about how anole embryos are robust to urban incubation environments and Dan gave a talk about our labs work to investigate how natural selection varies across space and time.

We learned a lot other important conservation projects that institutions in Alabama (and 1 from Mississippi) are actively involved such as the Indigo snake reintroduction program, the status of Flattened musk turtle (only endemic turtle in the state), and much more.

After the presentations in the morning we all went on a herping excursion in Conecuh National Forest. Led by the likes of Jimmy Stiles, Jim Godwin (AL Natural Heritage Program), and Craig Guyer (Emeritus Professor of Auburn University) and with a little luck we spotted 16 species of amphibians and reptiles in one afternoon. The highlight of the day included a Gopher tortoise, a Diamond-back rattle snake, few water dog juveniles, and an eastern glass lizard.

An overall solid weekend of herping and networking with some awesome herpetologist in the region!