• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

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    Posted 08/15/2025
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    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

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    Addendum: 01/10/2026
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    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Career Choices?

Southwick Herps said:
Well Im sure being an animal care specialist in the army would give you a foot in the door to a good pre-vet program. Then you just apply to get the grant to become a veterinary corps officer and they pay your way through your Doctorate degree in college.
Click to expand...
So the US government IS good for something after all. Thanks Mike, I'll look into it. However I was also looking at sniper school, so we'll see when I go sign up.
 
SteveGeckosEtc said:
Right now I am entirely self employed, half my income comes from reptiles and half from environmental consulting with California tiger salamanders. My interest in reptiles turned into my own "zoo" (Geckos Etc.), and I get out in nature to play with neat animals.
Click to expand...
Steve,
What exactly do you do as a environmental consulting with California tiger salamanders?
Thanks
Xavier
 
Steve ,just so you know I've been finding more and more Tiger Salamanders in my Home town. Valley Springs, CA........ Calaveras County.
 
Xavier,

California tiger salamanders are federally listed as "endangered" in Santa Barbara County (where I did my graduate research) and a "threatened" species throughout the rest of CA. Because of their status, developers are required to have surveys done as part of their permitting process to find out if salamanders are present on their property. I have a permit that allows me to do aquatic sampling of vernal pools (looking for salamander larvae). I can also do drift fence surveys for them as well. A drift fence is a 2-3 foot tall fence, usually made out of silt fence, with buckets buried along the fence. Animals passing through an area hit the fence and walk along it to eventually fall into a bucket. Thankfully, not all the work I do is developer/construction related. Just last week I spent 3 days in San Luis Obispo County working on a contract from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. California tiger salamanders were last documented in San Luis Obispo County in 1939, and we are trying to find them there again. I was dip netting a bunch of ponds to look for salamander larvae. No salamanders this time, just lots of Pacific treefrog larvae. But the habitat certainly looks good!

We just moved north the the Sacramento area, and part of the reason was so that I would be closer to the salamanders. We used to live in Orange County, and the closest salamander population was 200 miles away, so my salamander skills weren't doing me much good!

Matt,

Very cool! A friend of mine found 2 new California tiger salamander breeding ponds in Calaveras County this year.
 
SteveGeckosEtc said:
Xavier,

California tiger salamanders are federally listed as "endangered" in Santa Barbara County (where I did my graduate research) and a "threatened" species throughout the rest of CA. Because of their status, developers are required to have surveys done as part of their permitting process to find out if salamanders are present on their property. I have a permit that allows me to do aquatic sampling of vernal pools (looking for salamander larvae). I can also do drift fence surveys for them as well. A drift fence is a 2-3 foot tall fence, usually made out of silt fence, with buckets buried along the fence. Animals passing through an area hit the fence and walk along it to eventually fall into a bucket. Thankfully, not all the work I do is developer/construction related. Just last week I spent 3 days in San Luis Obispo County working on a contract from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. California tiger salamanders were last documented in San Luis Obispo County in 1939, and we are trying to find them there again. I was dip netting a bunch of ponds to look for salamander larvae. No salamanders this time, just lots of Pacific treefrog larvae. But the habitat certainly looks good!

We just moved north the the Sacramento area, and part of the reason was so that I would be closer to the salamanders. We used to live in Orange County, and the closest salamander population was 200 miles away, so my salamander skills weren't doing me much good!

Matt,

Very cool! A friend of mine found 2 new California tiger salamander breeding ponds in Calaveras County this year.
Click to expand...

Steve,
I knew it would be interesting but had no idea what you did, very cool.
 
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