On education and herpetoculture. (long post)

I just enrolled in my courses for next semester. I've been having a few mixed thoughts as I sit here devising my plans and my life for the next two years.

Last week I brought to school a preserved baby tarantula someone had mailed to me in hopes of being able to determine the cause of death. More specifically, the person wanted to know what the little critters crawling over the carcass were. I decided to show my parasitology teacher to see if they were possibly a parasitic mite. She referred me to the resident arachnid expert at the university.

I was a little skeptical when upon seeing the tarantula, he exclaimed, "Ah! This must be one of those Asian tree spiders." I responded cautiously, "No, that's actually an <i>Avicularia</i>." (They're New World tarantulas, hailing from South America.) The blue color, juvenile striping on the abdomen--how could anyone miss such telltale signs of a popular pet tarantula? But my skepticism was gone in a flash as I watched him expertly open the container and transfer the small spider onto a petri dish for examination, not so much as wincing when the pungent smell of alcohol enveloped the room. He was adept at using the microscope and the tiny dissecting tools, obviously having repeated this process many times before.

Then he said, "I've never had any luck keeping <i>Avicularia</i>." He went on to tell me stories about how all of his had died. One time he even took care of his friend's <i>Avicularia</i>. It didn't die while in his care but it died two weeks after it was returned to the owner. He proceeded to offer me tips on keeping <i>Avicularia</i>, adding that I might have more luck next time.

I corrected him by saying that it wasn't my tarantula. But I refrained from mentioning that I keep a dozen <i>Avicularia</i> (four species total) and haven't had any difficulties raising them from babies to adults. I've had some harrowing experiences that occur in <i>Avicularia</i> such as leg injuries and tangled webs, but for the most part, I haven't had trouble with husbandry. I don't even consider myself a tarantula person.

This type of scenario makes me think of what it's like to take advice from veterinarians. Why does it make any sense at all to heed advice from someone who has no personal experience with raising the particular species of animal that I'm asking help for? Vets know about animal anatomy and medications, but does vet school even review the best tricks for husbandry? When you consider the multitude of caresheets one has to read to get a good sense of the ideas and opinions that are out there, why listen to a vet who is drawing her advice from essentially one caresheet from the book she keeps in the back of her office?

When it comes to the exotic pet hobby, there seems to be a huge dichotomy between the educated folks and the people with actual daily hands-on experience. The educated folks, vet techs, zoo keepers, and maybe some pet store employees somehow seem to think they're the top authorities on the subject because they've got hands-on experience with a good variety of species. And yet their exposure to the animals they keep is very short-term. Do they really know what their animals like to do when the lights are out? Do they know just how long some animals will go without feeding? They can probably tell you how to properly measure water to substrate for incubation medium, but can they tell you what it should <i>feel</i> like in between your fingers? Do they know what kind of alternative supplies you can find for just about every product sold in a pet store?

On the opposite end of the spectrum, how many animal breeders know how to use a high power microscope? Do they know how to preserve specimens, how to conduct research experiments, write their observations for peer review which will forever be preserved in the annals of academia? Have they been on field expeditions to the rainforest and experienced the cultural attitude of the natives towards the animals, what language and folk lore is used to describe those animals? Have they seen firsthand what kind of food markets some of those animals are sold in?

I'm pondering this as the question of what to pursue in my graduate career lingers in the back of my mind. The roach expert at the university stopped returning my e-mails when it was discovered that I own more species of roaches than she does. (My collection has tripled since then.) The arachnid specialist I visited doesn't seem to compare to <a href="http://www.botarby8s.com/">Botar</a>, who owns thousands of tarantulas and scorpions and lives ten minutes down the street from me. And my vet, who has been so awesome and loving to my animals for years, lost my faith with her "There's nothing I can do for your snake" response to my Kenyan sand boa, who is still alive and well months later, thanks to the advice of <a href="http://www.alexhuereptiles.com">Alex Hue</a>.

My thought is that there need to be more educated folks in the hobby. What a powerful combination it would be to yield a diploma, the lab and field experience it entails, and to have the full experience of raising animals <i>in a personal collection</i>. I would know about the chemical processes, immunal responses, and theoretical explanations for evolved behavior and diets, and I would be able to apply that to my insight about animal husbandry rather than merely taking someone else's book-learned tips that stems for generations of regurgitated advice. If I were to complete a Ph.D., I would become a real authority on the subject, being able to draw from the resources of educational institutions while having my own personal experience from breeding a humble collection of animals.

My goals in graduate school are uncertain. I simply have the urge to aim for a Ph.D. for the sake of what I could contribute to both academia and the hobby. It feels like something I have to do, and it seems like something I would really enjoy. How do I explain that to someone who thinks I should know by now what I want to do for a living? How do I explain that to myself when I try to justify the years of fun I'll be kissing good-bye?

I'm hoping the answer will become more clear as I get more involved with my biology courses. I'm actually finishing up a degree in Chinese literature first. :P