Greece came and went this year faster than it ever has before. I think it had to do with the fact that it was the third of my field expeditions this spring. Maybe it had something to do with the only three days at home between returning from the Bahamas and leaving for Athens. Much … More Back from Greece!
There’s lots going on here in the field. We’ve just wrapped up collecting on Eleuthera and Long Island. I’m back on New Providence swapping out crew. Rob left after Eleuthera. He swapped spots with Geoff. We just lost Jon – a champion lizard catcher on Eleuthera and Long. Raphaël is still here and we’re being … More A quick picture update from the Bahamas
As I said in the previous Redonda post, I’m headed to the island in search of the three endemic species of lizards living there. My goal is to gather as much baseline data as possible on the natural history of these lizards so we can come back in a year, or in 10 years and … More Working on Redonda
I’ve just finished my first postdoc appointment! Let me qualify that a bit: I’m “finished” in that I’ve been paid all I’m getting paid for that project. Unfortunately, I’ve only completed about half of the work I’m hoping to do for the team, so I’ve really got a long ways to go yet. Way back in June I started working on … More Finished my first postdoc!
Yesterday’s post was a bit of teaser for the setup of the high-speed video. Now let’s see a couple of examples! (For full effect, I’d recommend playing this on full volume in the background. Rest assured, once we have a highlight reel of lizard runs we’ll definitely be creating a montage of our own) There’s all … More And some high-speed videos
I’ve posted in the past about the lizard sprint speed studies I’ve tried over the years on erhardii. Each of those experiments have come with the caveat that without a high-speed camera (shooting around 500 frames per second and costing the down-payment for a house) we can’t detect more subtle differences between lizard populations. Well, this year … More High-speed Sprint Speed
Well, the Thanksgiving holidays got the better of me and I didn’t get the next post up as quickly as I was hoping. However, now that cold weather has really settled in in New England, another few photos from warmer climes are a welcome distraction. As I introduced last post, I just spent a week … More So what were we up to in the Bahamas?
A few posts ago I talked about the tough time I was having taking a picture of the undersides of these little lizards. Well, I have a new solution that seems to be working great! Credit goes to Dr. Herrel in Paris. My printer has a built in flat-bed scanner. Lizard, scanner – put the two together, … More Scanning lizards
This year I’ve been lucky enough to bring three Yale undergraduates along with me to Greece. They’ve been here for almost a week and are settling in admirably! They’re going to be a huge part of this summer, and a major ingredient for its success, so I want to give them a full introduction. You’ll … More Introducing the team!
There are lots of ways to catch a lizard. The low-tech solution of course is the old ‘lift a rock and smash your hand down on anything that moves’ method. I tend to prefer more delicate techniques though, particularly in deference to the vipers that also make their homes under these rocks. So if it’s … More Fishing for lizards
Colin Donihue 