Biography
I was born in San Francisco, CA in December of 1955. I think I
developed an interest in snakes as a teenager of 14 years upon my first
visit to the Herpetarium (no longer in existence) in the Sunset
district of San Francisco. Back then, the owner was a person named Wade
Ferrel. I bought my first adult Eastern Indigo from him as a young boy
for the relatively high price of $100. Well, after feeding the animal
for a year, I found it too expensive to feed it live mice (not knowing
they would eat road kill or frozen chicken necks, or almost anything
you can get for free!). So I went back to Wade and I humbly asked him
if he would buy the Indigo back from me. He asked me how much money I
wanted. I firmly stated that I wanted my $100. back. Wade handed
me $100., and I handed him the Indigo. Wade then handed my Indigo to a
gentleman who had been standing silently beside me the entire time. The
gentleman then handed Wade $200. I asked Wade what had just happened.
Wade told me that during the year I had owned my Indigo, they had been
designated as threatened by the federal government, causing the price
to rise. What a lesson for a 15 year old.
So I attended U.C. Berkeley from 1974 to 1985. Naturally, I studied the
evolutionary biology of Amphibians and Reptiles the whole time. I
published my undergraduate thesis in American Naturalist in 1980. It
discussed the biogeography of Baja California reptiles.
I entered graduate school in the U.C. Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate
Zoology (MVZ). I became the first Ph.D. student of the now world famous
Harry W. Greene. I studied the structure, feeding ecology, and general
organization of Neotropical snake faunas. I was guided during this
period by six special and brilliant scientists. Not in order of
importance, they are Dr. David B. Wake, then director of MVZ, Dr. Harry
W. Greene, my major professor, Dr.Theodore J. Papenfuss who continues
his research today at MVZ, Dr. Donald O. Straney, possibly the only
genius I have ever known, Dr. John E. Cadle, and Dr. Samuel S. Sweet. I
am deeply indebted to these six individuals.
Following all these years of Academia, I developed an interest in
captive breeding. I have been trying to learn how to breed snakes all
this time. I am not very good, but I keep trying.
As I breed snakes full time, this is really not my hobby anymore.
For the last 5 years, my hobbies have been going back to school to
learn Japanese, and travelling in Japan.
