Bob Reed--Projects

Bob Reed 's Projects

In collaboration with Whit, Tony Mills, and others, I'm heading up the production of two reports on export of native U.S. snakes and turtles in the pet trade for the USFWS. While captive breeding has reduced the take of some native species from the wild, other species are still being captured in moderate to high numbers. Unfortunately, knowledge of the sustainability of this practice is poor. We hope to gather data on the numbers and composition of species leaving the country, determine the proportion of these animals that are captive-bred, and use life history analyses to determine whether current trade is ecologically sustainable in the long term.

I have received funding from USFWS for a risk assessment of large-bodied boas and pythons as potential invasive species in U.S. ecosystems. These large snakes are imported and bred in large numbers for the pet trade, and individuals are often released into the wild when body sizes exceed their owners' expectations. I will examine the life history, ecology, and climatic tolerances of a dozen species to determine the risk of feral population establishment, and formulate management recommendations based on my results.

I'll soon be starting lab work on growth rates and metabolism of spotted pythons (Antaresia maculosa). My goal is to evaluate whether food intake early in life determines growth rates later in ontogeny, as has been observed in free-ranging water pythons (Liasis fuscus) in northern Australia. I hope to examine whether determinism in growth rates is due to differential metabolic rates, and whether these rates are irreversibly "set" early in ontogeny.
In collaboration with the rest of Whit's lab, I hope to catch an awful lot of snakes here at SREL, and then figure out what to do with them. All major scientific advances come from serendipity, so I'll let the organisms tell me what's interesting.

I maintain an interest in macroecology and its applicability to herpetology. Maybe I'll be able to work in some research on this topic, but don't count on it.