Reptile Invasions: Your Backyard and Beyond

Join us to hear Natalie Claunch talk about the invasive reptiles that have invaded our neighborhoods in Southwest Florida, especially Collier County, and the likely impact to our native wildlife. Invasive reptiles to include, Curly-tailed lizards, Red-headed Agama, Cuban knight anoles and more.

Natalie Claunch is a current Ph.D. candidate in Interdisciplinary Ecology at the University of Florida, advised by Dr. Christina Romagosa. Her dissertation is investigating stress and immune responses of non-native reptiles at different time scales to better understand the physiological changes that occur during invasion. She earned her M.S. in Biology at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo working on stress ecology of the Pacific Rattlesnakes, and earned her B.S. in Zoology at North Carolina State University. Natalie is passionate about herpetology and co-teaches an annual summer field workshop in Arizona and New Mexico through the American Museum of Natural History. She is pursuing a career in research that bridges her interests in herpetology, herpetoculture, conservation, ecology, and physiology.

What can we do to control the population trends and what are our management options.

Please join us for this interesting talk.