Episodes
Reading the feed…
Reading the feed…
A conversation with Noah Fields of NKF Herping about his recent trips to South Africa and Japan.
Hello everyone! This episode features Kristiina Ovaska, a biologist based on Vancouver Island up in British Columbia. Kristiina came to the Peru on one of our expeditions, and we spent some time hiking in the rainforest in search of frogs, and photographing frogs, and talking about frogs and having a lot of frog fun. In this episode, we cover some of Kristiina’s many projects over the years involving frogs, salamanders, land snails, and fossorial snakes. It took some fancy editing to pull this one together – we recorded this on a rainy day, and our talk was cut short a bit by torrential rains
A back-deck-of-the-tambo interview with Jeffrey Niemeier and Zach Kaminski, recorded in the Peruvian rainforest in February 2026.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the last episode of Season Six! I have several pending episodes recorded in Peru earlier this year, but I felt the need to bump this one up in the queue. Kevin Messenger’s new book on the Venomous Snakes of China was published recently, and it’s an amazing publication. I reached out to Kevin to schedule an interview the same day I received my copy. To find out more about the new book, tours, and much more, visit the Herping China website. You can also follow Kevin on Facebook and Instagram. It was fun to talk with Kevin again and I hope to herp in China sometime.
Hello everyone, it’s great to be back! This episode was recorded in February on our second trip, at the Santa Cruz field station. Nine of our fourteen clients were from Arkansas, and since I couldn’t talk to all nine at once, they appointed some representatives, and I found myself talking with Gabrielle Hargrove, Thomas Belford, and Brad Birchfield. We had an excellent conversation and I do want to give a shout-out to the whole Arkansas crew – Cyndi Porter, Caden Porter, Jeremy Sloan, Brad Birchfield, Reagan Birchfield, Gabby and AJ Hargrove, Thomas Belford and Anthony Belford. So much fun han
Hi everyone! The first show of 2026 turns out to be another edition of Herp Science Sunday! Alex and I had an interesting discussion with Justin Lee, who is currently working on his PhD at the University of Michigan. The bulk of our conversation centered around the genus Oligodon, of which Justin is a subject matter expert. In just a few years, he has authored and co-authored a number of papers on Kukri snakes, describing new species, and producing an updated phylogeny of Oligodon in 2024. It’s an entertaining segment featuring a crazy-cool snake genus, and an up-and-coming young herpetologist
Happy holidays, herpers! Here’s another episode that came out of my attending the West Virginia Herpetological Society’s annual meeting this past September. Will Robertson gave an excellent presentation on the thermal ecology of box turtles, a project he is working on as part of his master’s project. And since we all love box turtles, and wish to better understand their lives and protect their future, I invited Will to come on the show and enlighten us further. Will is also involved in science communication and nature appreciation via his YouTube channel, “Will Robertson’s Wildlife” – be sure
This episode has a few firsts – it’s the first time I’ve done a recording while sitting at my dining room table, and it’s the first time I’ve interviewed someone from my neighborhood. Nathan Kutok lives just a few blocks away, and he’s an up-and-coming herpetologist who is involved in some interesting projects early in his career. This episode focuses on Nathan’s recent trip to Iran, and we talk about his motivations for going, and some of the political aspects of such an adventure. And of course, we talk about some of the interesting herps Nathan encountered as well. As always, I am grateful
I’m so happy to produce another Herp Science Sunday segment with Dr. Alex Krohn! In this episode we talk with Dr. Alexandra Martin, one of the co-authors of a brand new paper, which lays out some astounding data that supports the idea that some anole species are able to breathe underwater, in a novel way. The name of the paper is “High dissolved oxygen extends dive duration and suggests physical gill use in a vertebrate” and was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology in July of 2025. The authors are Alexandra M. Martin, Diane Cordero-De La Cruz, and Lindsey Swierk. Congratulations to
I met Zeev Ginsburg at Snake Road in southern Illinois a few years ago, and it’s been a pleasure getting to know him and spending some time herping together. We’ve had some interesting conversations, and I’ve been wanting to get him on the show for some time, but we put it off for a bit until he was ready to restart his excellent podcast, Wood Fired Herping. Zeev has released his first post-hiatus show and so the time was right to have a chat about his podcast, about herping, and much, much more as the cliché goes. As always, I am grateful to all the show’s patrons who help to keep the show mo
Hi folks! This episode was recorded in the mountains of North Carolina over the Labor Day weekend. I made a long day’s drive over to Josh’s place east of Asheville, ostensibly to look for mole kingsnakes and salamanders, but also just to hang out with Josh Holbrook and Alex Krohn and Jake and Lindsey Scott while doing so. Josh and Jake are having interesting field herping years, and of course a campfire is the perfect venue to find out more about it. POD BLOG! You can find the first of my supplemental blog posts that support podcast episodes at Notes From The Field. Let me know your thoughts!
Hi folks! This past June I drove out to Pemberton, New Jersey to talk with Robert Zappalorti. Bob is the founder and executive director of Herpetological Associates Inc. Now these days there are a lot of people working in what I call contract biology, but Bob Zappalorti was the first environmental consultants working on behalf of herps and other creatures. He founded Herpetological Associates back in 1977 and since then, his company has done a great deal of work in not just conserving herps, but also increasing our understanding of their natural histories, population dynamics, and ecological n
Hi folks! Thanks for your patience, I’ve been called away so much this spring and summer. I first talked with Jeroen Speybroeck in Episode 27, way back in Season One. Jeroen is all the things, he’s a conservation biologist, author, field herper and life lister, and for that first conversation we talked about his fire salamander research, conservation efforts with Spadefoot Toads, herping in various places around the globe, and we also talked about the very good field guide to the herps of Britain and Europe of which he is a co-author. If you haven’t heard that episode you might want to listen
Another special episode, in support of Snake Week, July 13th thru the 19th . This episode features a panel discussion with Bryan Hughes of Rattlesnake Solutions, Cale Morris from the Phoenix Herpetological Sanctuary, and Rachel Pikstein from Pikstein Lab and one of the coordinators of Snake Week. The four of us have an interesting panel discussion about human and snake interactions. You can’t have a discussion of this sort without dipping into education and outreach efforts, so those threads are woven into the mix as well. A couple of earlier episodes related to our discussion come to mind – I
This is a special episode, in support of Snake Week, which is next week, July 13th thru the 19th . It’s also special because it’s the return of Rachel Pikstein! Remember the tegu episode? Rachel and I go over the basics for Snake Week, which is shaping up to be a terrific event, and we also talk about some of the projects she’s working on. If you listened to Episode 88, you know that Rachel is a high energy ball of fire, so get something to drink, and fasten your seatbelts! I want to give a shout-out to the show’s newest patron, Kathy Woody from out California way! Thank you so much for suppor
This episode was recorded back in April, at a campground somewhere in Louisiana, on the tail-end of a week-long herping trip with a bunch of friends. Various automotive mishaps while herping had come up several times during the trip, and I thought that might be a good just-for-fun topic to pursue before we all went our separate ways. Many thanks to my friends with their goofy fake names for providing a nice cross-section of things that can happen behind the wheel, or to the wheels…. As always, I am grateful to all the show’s patrons who help to keep the show moving forward. And if you’re out t
I don’t get to talk with everyone that comes on our Peru expeditions, but in February I did spend an hour talking with three of Chicago Land’s finest herpers – Matt and Alan Ignoffo, and Joe Cavataio. We talk about their experiences during their first Peruvian adventure of course, and we cover more interesting adventures and interests of these three naturalists (including Tully Monsters!). As per usual, this was recorded on the back deck of my tambo in the Peruvian rainforest near Iquitos. As always, I am grateful to all the show’s patrons who help to keep the show moving forward. And if you’r
Hi everyone! Episode 112 (and the last episode of Season Five) returns us to the back deck of my tambo in the Peruvian rainforest, where I had a nice chat with Sylvere Corre, wildlife guide extraordinaire. Sylvere travels the world all year, leading people to discover all kinds of animals, including herps and birds and mammals, and some really spectacular critters. Sylvere clearly has a passion for what he does and I really enjoyed getting to know him during our time in Peru. Sylvere guides for Yuhina, “created for naturalists by naturalists”. Be sure to check them out! They have more than a f
Hello everyone! Episode 111 is all about the Indigos, and a few other adjacent critters. Back in 2024 I met up in southern Georgia with Ben Stegenga of the Orianne Society, where we spent two days in the field doing surveys for Eastern Indigo snakes. Ben was assisted by three field techs, Tyler, Keira, and Jesus, and my buddies Matt, Pat, and John put their field experience to work. This show is much like the Massasauga episode I did last year, where I’m recording the ongoing survey and an interview at the same time, which is much more challenging than a studio interview as you might expect. A
Hello everyone! Episode 110 features another edition of Herp Science Sunday with Dr. Alex Krohn. Alex and I had a crazy cool conversation with Dr. Evan Grant, of the Northeastern Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative at the USGS Eastern Ecological Research Center, Dr. Grant is a co-author on a paper regarding range-wide salamander densities, focusing on the Redback Salamander (Plethodon cinereus), and he guides us through some mind-blowing discoveries about these mostly invisible creatures of the woodland realm. The paper we discussed in the episode is titled “Range-wide salamander dens
Hello everyone! Episode 109 is a wide-ranging two-hour conversation with PhD student Tasman Ezra. We cover fossil turtles, anole radiation, his band Half Inch Hero, Taz’s Honduras herp conservation project, and much, much more. I met Taz in southeast Missouri last October, and within minutes I knew I wanted to get him in front of a microphone to talk about what’s he is up to, which as it turns out, is a LOT. I have some related links below for you all to check out: First up is HonduHerp – The Guardians of Honduran Herpetofauna. Taz and his associates are working hard to establish preserves and
Hello everyone! Episode 108 comes from South Africa, recorded in two parts, starting on New Year’s Eve.. The episode starts over in the western edge of South Africa’s Free State, in what’s called the Great Karoo. It was incredibly hot and dry; one day we had a noon temperature of 107 degrees Fahrenheit. We worked the area pretty hard and did better than I expected, before moving about six hours east to the other side of the Free State where it was much cooler, wetter, and higher. And we recorded a follow-up segment there to recap our experience as whole. SMP Patrons! I want to thank Gerry Salm
Hello everyone and welcome to the show! Mike Pingleton here, and I am your host for these proceedings. And here we go with Episode One Hundred and Seven, and our guest for this episode is Dr. Skylar Hopkins, Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Ecology at North Carolina State University. Some sad news to talk about first. This show is dedicated to the memory of Hans Breuer, who passed away just a few weeks ago. You may remember my conversation with Hans for Episode 91, last December just a year ago. Hans and I traded quips and wordplay and herping stuff for close to twenty years, a
Hello everyone and welcome to Episode One Hundred and Six! And I hope you all remain safe and healthy out there It’s Thanksgiving weekend and I want to take a moment to thank all of you out there listening to the show. I appreciate you. And thanks to all of the folks who have come on the show to talk with me, when the natural tendency for most of us is to run from anyone pointing a microphone at your face 🙂 And as always, I am grateful to all the show’s patrons who help to keep the show moving forward. And if you’re out there listening and you would like to kick in a few bucks, it’s easy to d
Hello everyone and welcome to Episode One Hundred and Five! And I hope you all remain safe and healthy out there. SMP Patrons! I want to thank Rich Takmajian for his contribution to the So Much Pingle podcast, via Patreon. Much appreciated, Rich, thank you so much. And as always, I am grateful to all the show’s patrons who help to keep the show moving forward. And if you’re out there listening and you would like to kick in a few bucks, it’s easy to do, you simply go to the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can support the show for as little as three bucks a month – less than a fancy cup of coff
