For me, it all started when I was a kid growing up in southern Ontario (a beautiful province in Canada).
One day, my dad caught a huge garter snake and put it in an empty gallon (4-litre) jug of vinegar. We carefully placed a Kleenex on top, held with a rubber band, so that the snake could breathe. But while I was gone for just a few minutes, the snake poked through the Kleenex and escaped!
This excitement sparked a lifelong passion for reptiles. I’ve since attended the International Herpetological Symposium, a meeting of the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, and even the World Congress of Herpetology!
It’s amazing how one childhood moment can ignite a love for wildlife that lasts a lifetime.
What unforgettable childhood moment made you a wildlife lover?
The first one that comes to mind was walking through the woods with my father and he stopped and pointed to a spot near his foot. It took a while to pick it out, but there was an American Woodcock all but invisible in the leaf litter.
@awarg — Mine also involved a garter snake, probably same species as yours, in western New York State. It was a newborn we found under a stone along a creek in the northern Appalachians. My parents were not 100% sure it wasn’t venomous and I was too young to fully convince them it wasn’t, but we brought it home anyway. It was my pet for probably 6 yrs or so. Really turned me on to herps which became a lifelong interest. More than 50 yrs ago.
First memory of recognizing and pointing out the call of the mourning dove. Rainy spring day when I was three.
Same age I was taught how to water the garden by the neighbor.
I think it’s inborn.
Jim Corbett and my Maternal Uncle
Our family has always been very large, still is. I had four maternal uncles, four aunts, other uncles/aunts (very close may be related a bit distantly), so many brothers and sisters of almost same age group. In our school life we all got one month winter vacation after annual exams every year. Our mother’s, our aunt’s, other uncle’s only destination then was my eldest uncle’s (who was a mining engineer as well as a renowned Sportsman) house along with all their…
So we 15-20 brothers and sisters used to play and play all day long during those precious one month.
In the evenings, uncle, after returning back from the mines, would sit with us all and tell stories of Jim Corbett. When we were very young we lived in a village so I didn’t even know Jim Corbett’s name. There was no question of reading his books because I didn’t know English at all (still don’t).
Those Corbett’s stories of the Leopard of Rudraprayag, Tigers of Kumaon - we used to get very much excited. I used to tell my uncle, “Mama (maternal uncle)! I’m going to be a hunter when I grow up.” My uncle used to say that you should read Mr. Corbett’s all the writings first and then decide what you want to be.
I slowly read all his (and also others) writings one by one taking a long time and ultimately could became a bit of a hunter-
but with my eye lenses and camera lenses only.
Not everyone can be Jim Corbett or Dr. Salim Ali. What else can be done by an Ordinary Person?
Hearing and getting close to geese in my childhood sparked my interest in waterfowl and waterbirds (which expanded to all birds eventually).
A massive flock of gulls surrounding me on the beach one time in New Jersey.
Hearing the katydids and crickets outside my home every summer/fall. The katydids (Pterophylla camellifolia) particularly interested me because their sound was so different from the crickets, and from the “cicadas” which my mother originally lumped them in with when I asked what was making the sound. Also, the chorus of jumping bush crickets (Hapithus saltator) was very comforting to me as a child.
Around the time when I was seriously getting into singing insects (crickets, katydids, cicadas, etc.), a tiny brown cricket called a Say’s trig (Anaxipha exigua) somehow found its way into my home and sang quite a lot. A few years later I got a Carolina ground cricket (Eunemobius carolinus) in my garage.
For me it was going to an uncle’s vacation home in the countryside of the Dominican Republic, my home country. There was a butterfly garden which was a tiny little grove if trees and plants that you could step into that was full of butterflies, they were everywhere. From that moment on I decided one day in would have my own butterfly garden.
Also going hiking with my dad during family vacations. My mom and sister were the girly shopping type of ladies who did not like being out in nature, I was the total opposite and found that hiking upstream through a river was as exciting as a vacation could be.
