Photo of the Month Archives - Page 3 of 10

1 minute read

Photo of the Month

Common Snapping Turtle

ByTracy Karplus
February 20, 2024

Common snapping turtles are often overlooked or underappreciated as a species and perhaps even suffer a bit of a bad rap due to their defensiveness and strong bite when on land. However, underwater, they become almost puppy-like with their curiosity, often approaching very closely.

2 minute read

Photo of the Month

Australian Thorny Devil

ByTracy Karplus
February 6, 2024

Australian thorny devils are very tolerant of high outback temperatures and they are capable of basking in the sun during the hottest parts of the day.

1 minute read

Photo of the Month

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

ByTracy Karplus
December 15, 2023

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox). Due to its prolific nature, it is often overlooked. However, it is as common and widespread as it is because it is the perfect and most adaptable generalist species.

1 minute read

Photo of the Month

What’s inside a tadpole?

ByTracy Karplus
November 17, 2023

Tadpoles are often some of the first wildlife that people encounter and remember; wriggling around in ponds and puddles, they evoke feelings of simpler days and times for people across walks of life and around the world. But when you really get to know tadpoles, you realize there is a lot more to them than simple little algae scrapers…

1 minute read

Photo of the Month

Magdalena River Turtle

ByTracy Karplus
October 13, 2023

The Magdalena River Turtle (Podocnemis lewyana) is a Colombian endemic classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

Pictured here alongside two crayfish burrow chimneys is a large, gravid Kirtland's Snake (Clonophis kirtlandii) discovered at a previously unknown site within the Grand Prairie Division of Illinois.

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Photo of the Month

Kirtland’s Snake

ByTracy Karplus
September 13, 2023

Kirtland’s Snakes are perhaps most well-known for their microhabitat associations with burrowing crayfishes, where they traverse the aquatic-fossorial and predator-prey boundary in the dark, flooded underground labyrinths excavated by their crayfish hosts.

1 minute read

Photo of the Month

Timber Rattlesnake

ByTracy Karplus
August 14, 2023

Timber rattlesnakes are a species of conservation concern throughout much of their distribution. The reasons for this range from habitat loss to direct persecution.

1 minute read

Photo of the Month

Carolina Pygmy Rattlesnakes

ByTracy Karplus
July 18, 2023

Pygmy Rattlesnakes range throughout the southeastern United States, occupying densely vegetated areas within flatwoods, sandhills, and wetland ecotones. -Samantha Dillon