Tens of Thousands of "Pickled" Snakes and Amphibians Acquired by Univ of Michigan

Remarkable cause for celebration at UM. (Is "remarkable" the right word?)
I once observed a western university storage room reported by the biology chair as containing >10,000 bullsnakes from a single state. I was disgusted and dismayed at such - especially given the general opposition to captive breeding and general keeping of herptiles. I am not opposed to the general principle of such specimen collections within limits - but the numbers of preserved animals is staggering. Sadly, it remains an academic badge of success to proclaim the number of dead specimens one has in the "collection".

Readers here should consider the number of euthanized reptiles and amphibians contained in all the universities, museums, zoos and other facilities.

"The (UM) museum this fall acquired tens of thousands of reptile and amphibian specimens from Oregon State University, many of which are snakes."
“I’m fairly confident we’ll have the largest snake collection in the world,” he said."
"Schneider has yet to complete the painstaking process of cataloging the new material, but estimates it contains around 30,000 snakes. He said that would give Michigan a total of between 65,000 to 70,000 of the slithering vertebrates, surpassing collections at the Smithsonian in Washington, the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the University of Kansas."
"A number of the newly acquired jars contain both snakes and litters of their newborns"
"Schneider said he and his colleagues have noticed renewed excitement in team members who staff the university’s 153,375-square-foot (14,249-square-meter) Research Museums Center, where the specimens are housed."
“Since these specimens arrived, people are very, very, very enthusiastic and supportive”

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/...nake-104214946

Often times most preserved collections are made up of road killed specimens. I agree killing hundreds of live specimens in the name of science is wrong. Thousands of herptiles are slaughtered on the roads and highways of this country every year. Yet no one (virtually) installs bridges and tunnels for wildlife. It is a joke. Then they ban us from collecting from the road. Another joke. There are many other bad jokes that can be told about regulators, academics, conservationists, politicians and society that show their ignorance, stupidity, apathy, selfishness and hypocrisy.

These "represent the lifetime work of" Dr Houck (PhD in 1977, so 46 years worth of collecting), and Dr Arnold (1972; 51 years worth) -- so, 97 years of collecting. That's about 300 snakes per person-year, almost one a day.

Looking only at Dr Houck's publications, they're almost all about pheromones of plethodontid salamanders. Valuable info, I'm sure, but I wonder if pushing for more directly conservation-focused research might be a better use of resources.

John, always appreciate your take and analysis on these postings !
Mike, agree with your assessments. Many jokes in all this - little logic to be sure.

Not to quibble too much .... perhaps re-calculate the "specimens per day".

Lynne Houck, PhD: indicates on LinkedIn she has been at OSU for 26 years 5 months. https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynne-houck-5a6a1651/

Stevan Arnold, PhD: Wiki indicates he went to OSU in 1997 - likely also "active" 26 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevan_J._Arnold

It is highly unlikely they carried their "collections" from one university to another during their careers. So the collections here - donated to UM - would be solely attributed to time at OSU. It is unlikely they added many specimens to the collection in their latter years and emeritus years. It might be logical to consider active pursuit of collections would be in the 20-23 year range (but this only a reasonable guess).

Note that Houck and Arnold are spouses. Thus the dates of active work at OSU would coincide.

You're right, I just looked up their PhD dates to "calculate" (real rough estimate on specimens per day, too).

I did not know that those collections were more tied to their institution than 'personal collection' implies to a non-scientist (and overall possessive guy) like me. Thanks for pointing that out.