Herpetologist's New Books Shed Light on Reclusive, Maligned Snakes
Michael Dorcas
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9/15/2004
Contact: Bill Giduz 704/894-2244 or bigiduz@davidson.edu
Believing that scientists have responsibilities to those both within and outside the “ivory tower” of academe, Davidson herpetologist Michael E. Dorcas is publishing both popular guides and academic tomes about snakes.
A Guide to the Snakes in North Carolina, which can be found in museum gift shops, visitor centers, parks and other centers of tourism, offers snapshot information and photos for quick identification of the thirty-seven species of snakes found statewide. North American Watersnakes, which was published this summer by the University of Oklahoma Press, offers serious herpetologists in-depth, referenced information on fourteen non-venomous species found throughout the United States. Next year Dorcas will publish another volume oriented towards the lay audience entitled Snakes of the Southeast that covers fifty-three species.
Dorcas co-authored the latter two volumes with his long-time research mentor, J. Whitfield Gibbons, a professor of ecology at the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory.
These are the first books published by Dorcas, a life-long lover and scholar of the reptiles and amphibians that many people either demonize or dismiss. Dorcas, on the other hand, views snakes, frogs, salamanders, lizards, and turtles as valuable species whose populations indicate how well humans are caring for the natural environment.
It all began at age thirteen, riding in his father’s car down a Texas road. Spotting a big snake, Dorcas commanded, “Stop the car!” The teenager leaped out and grabbed a six-foot bull snake. He kept “bull snake number one” in captivity for several years, studying its lifestyle and habits. “I was a scientist even then, identifying it by a number rather than a name,” he explained. “I didn’t figure it was worth giving a name to any animal that couldn’t hear me say it.”
A couple of years later, Dorcas signed up as a volunteer in the herpetarium at the Fort Worth Zoo, and his imperative toward biology has never wavered.
The cover of Dorcas's "Guide to the Snakes of North Carolina"
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He began his teaching career as a public school biology instructor, then decided to undertake graduate studies in zoology. He earned his Ph.D. from Idaho State University, writing a dissertation about the physiology and ecology of the small rubber boa snake. After spending three years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, he joined the Davidson College faculty in 1998.
He has become the leader of a flourishing teaching and research enterprise at the college. Dorcas founded and directs Davidson’s Herpetology Laboratory, conducting research that employs radio telemetry, surgically implanted data loggers, and geographic information systems to discover the habits of these reclusive creatures. He serves as associate editor for the journal Herpetologica, and is also director of the Central Carolina Amphibian and Reptile Initiative.
As many as ten students at a time are enlisted as his research associates, helping gather and analyze data on animal populations and behavior on the college’s 220-acre ecological preserve, and in farm ponds and areas around town under development. Many of the forty articles Dorcas has published in professional journals include Davidson research students as first authors.
He and his students have also established an educational web site called North Carolina’s Amphibians and Reptiles that is the most frequently visited site of its kind for the state. They present educational programs to school and community groups, and Dorcas works frequently with local public officials and developers to minimize the damage of development on local ecosystems. In recognition of his efforts, The North Carolina Wildlife Federation named him as “Environmental Educator of the Year” for 2004.
Another measure of his success has been the tremendous amount of funding it has attracted. He has received almost three dozen grants from academic institutions, the National Park Service, and private foundations. Recently he received a prestigious five-year National Science Foundation CAREER grant of $613,000 to study the effects of urbanization on amphibian and reptile populations.
Dorcas insists on the importance of communicating his academic research to the general public. “Scientists have a responsibility to communicate what they do to the public,” he said, “because a lot of tax dollars support scientists. Also, if we want the results of our research to affect pubic policy, the most important thing we can do is educate people about it.”
Student herpetology researchers (l-r) Yuri Kornilev '05 and Bill Johnson '05 examine a recently captured box turtle.
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In his work habits he is part desk jockey and part little kid. He conducts field studies that involve treks through the woods turning over rocks to see what’s on the under side. He has floated downstream and wrestled brown water snakes that plopped into the water on top of him. He once recaptured an escaped pet ten-foot Burmese python, and he has logged many close encounters with venomous Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnakes in order to implant data logging and tracking devices under their skin. One of his studies resulted in capture of the largest snapping turtle ever in North Carolina, a fifty-three pound whopper! His studies of cottonmouths and rattlesnakes have been highlighted on various television programs, including episodes of National Geographic’s “Reptile Wild.”
But his new snake books reflect countless hours of office work, correspondence, data collection, and analysis. At almost 500 pages long, North American Water Snakes is the first comprehensive study of its kind. The accounts of each individual species includes a detailed map of its range, and narrative descriptions of its behavior, diet, physiology, life history, ecology, and conservation. Color photos of each species accompany the text.
To generate the most up-to-date information, Dorcas and Gibbons, his co-author, sought records from all major museums and natural heritage programs in each relevant state. For the watersnakes book, that task encompassed every contiguous state in the country. Some of their sources, like the Smithsonian Museum, sent them several thousand records.
In addition to the data on species range, they compiled all known studies about each species. Dorcas said, “To be comprehensive about a single species of watersnake, we might have 500-600 references, and with fourteen species to consider, just managing the bibliographic information was a huge task. Keeping track of all that is a formidable task I don’t want to take up again any time soon.”
One of the largest tasks was confirming errors in the records. If a species was reported being seen far outside of its acknowledged range, the authors had to investigate those cases to confirm or debunk them.
Since it is aimed at a general audience, A Guide to the Snakes of North Carolina was a less time consuming task. Published this summer as a private partnership between Dorcas and about twenty sponsoring organizations, this forty-page booklet lists one species per page, with color photos, size chart, and range maps providing a quick way to identify each species. A long paragraph of text for each snake describes behavior, diet, and response when encountered. A “Snake FAQ” at the back of the book addresses common misconceptions, such as “Do snakes travel in pairs or groups?”
The goal of the book, according to Dorcas, is for people to “gain a greater appreciation of snakes as fascinating animals and important parts of our natural world.”
Dorcas hopes his books and studies will lead elected officials, government regulators, and private developers to do a better job of conserving and minimizing the effects of their projects on animal populations. ”I can provide people with information and informed opinion about the impact of human interaction with the environment,” he said.
And though dwindling populations of the animals he studies aren’t cause for too much optimism, Dorcas insists that the efforts of conservators like himself do have a positive effect. “Often it turns out that people are simply unaware of the effects of their work, and, when you educate them, they’re more than willing to take a look at more ecologically friendly alternatives,” he said.
Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,600 students. Since its establishment in 1837, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently ranked in the top ten liberal arts colleges in the country by U.S. News and World Report magazine. Davidson is engaged in “Let Learning Be Cherished,” a $250 million campaign in support of student financial assistance, academic resources, and community life.
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