Joe Collins This is Me

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1. 1. Counting Snakes To Diagnose Health - Gulf County Florida news story from StarFL.com, The Star

   www.starfl.com/article.cfm?ID= - [Cached]

   Published on: 2/19/2004   Last Visited: 2/20/2004

   Joe Collins, who turned a love of snakes into a national reputation for his expertise in herpetology, the study of reptiles, holds a ribbon snake found under some old aluminum siding on Little St. George Island.
   ...
   For Joe Collins and his posse, however, they might as well have found Blackbeard's gold there in the woods of Little St. George Island.
   
   They yelled into walkie-talkies, shouted for all those to come near, even, in one case, squealed with the kind of delight unheard outside a Britney Spears' concert.
   
   For as incredible as it sounds, Collins, an adjunct professor at Fort Hays State University in Kansas, author of some three dozen books on reptiles and considered one of the world's experts in reptiles, and his merry band of followers were actually looking for snakes.
   
   And lizards or frogs or any other of their cold-blooded brethren.
   ...
   "We are counting what's there, where we find them, when we find them and what they are doing," said Collins, whose white and orange beard and tiny gray ponytail represents the image of a favored college professor.
   ...
   "You have to make hard choices about all the places you own and the places you are spending tax dollars on," Collins noted. "One of those factors is diversity.
   
   "Diversity could be important for telling us about the health of the nation or the world."
   
   Collins noted that those slimy slithery creatures that make so many shriek in the night could hold the keys to unlocking a great medical mystery or provide insight into fighting diseases.
   ...
   "You don't want to lose any of that, just in case," Collins noted.
   ...
   They have done so for five years and along the way have been joined by a troupe of herpetology mavens: Collins' brother Jerry, a couple of graduate students from the University of Texas, former students of Collins' from the University of Kansas and Kansas State and graduate students from Fort Hays State.
   ...
   "It's a chance to work on his project, get some experience with different environments and it's a whole lot better place to be in the winter," said Curtis Schmidt of the Sternberg Museum of Natural History at Fort Hays State, who was making his fourth trip with Collins.
   ...
   To Collins, it is, at least in significant part, a question of energizing young minds.
   
   "I try to keep their minds focused on the prospect of discovery," Collins said. "Discovery is what it's all about."
   
   For those in his entourage, it is a chance to discover alongside one of the elites in his field.
   
   "He's the master," said Mike Rochford, a senior majoring in biology at Kansas State University making his second trip south with Collins.
   ...
   Joe is simply keeping a family tradition alive in a way.
   ...
   As for Joe, a project intended to survey a national refuge has provided opportunity to explore other valuable and pristine lands.
   
   He has, for example, been thoroughly impressed with Ogles' work at the St. Joe Buffer Preserve.