How to Approach Snakes: Tony Phelps and the Art of Patient Herping

Nature Talk
1

This thread has a few different purposes:

  1. To give @ksenosnake some more herping tips (about how to approach snakes)
  2. To introduce the “birdwatching” style of herping, which is not much used or discussed
  3. To link to an obituary of a famous herper — Tony Phelps — who died in 2021

When I said “low and slow,” I probably should have explained. The person who is the best example of this approach is Tony Phelps. Tony was a well-known herper who used what you might call a “birdwatching” style of herping. Instead of chasing snakes, he would sit quietly in one spot for 14 hours a day, observing and recording behaviour, much like an avian technician or a field primatologist.

For example, this paper says, “From mid October 2004 the DieMond refuge was observed from dawn until dusk for twelve consecutive days.” Most people don’t have the patience to watch a snake burrow for 14 hours a day, but Tony did, and his patience led to observations on Cape Cobras that were new to science.

Tony passed away in 2021. His obituary notes that he was involved in the founding of the International Herpetological Society (IHS) in 1969. I attended some IHS meetings about 20 years ago, and I met a few of the people who are mentioned in the obituary.

The obituary mentions that some stories about Tony couldn’t be published. Anyone familiar with herpers and zookeepers can probably imagine why . . . they tend to be a colourful crowd!

Rest in peace, Tony. Hopefully someone continues your legacy of patient fieldwork in snake research!

2

Hello. Thank you for creating this thread for me. Are you saying that you need to sit in the place where snakes usually lie and wait for 2-3 hours? I haven’t tried this method yet, and I’ll try it next time. So after a while the snakes will get used to me and will crawl next to me?
I also didn’t understand what you meant by that:

Why didn’t they publish those stories?

3

Herping usually is 50% rock flipping for me…

The other 50% is 5 hrs of waiting in the sun… :laughing:

I’m really curious if there’s any other effective way of herping, I’ll be :eyes: this thread

4

On the shore of this lake, I saw snakes only in the grass. There aren’t any big rocks there for snakes to hide under. So apparently for me herping will consist entirely of waiting. Although later I will probably look not only for water snakes, but also for ordinary snakes in other places.