November General Meeting: “The Auffenbergi Project: Preserving the Peacock Monitor”
November 1, 2024 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
1991 Upper Buford Cir, St Paul, MN 55108, USA
Conserving the Vibrant Legacy and IntriguingBehaviors of Varanus auffenbergi
Endemic to one island in the Lesser SundaIslands of the South Pacific, the Peacock Monitor was once imported as BlueSpotted Timor Monitors. Common on importer and wholesaler lists, theywere passed over by most keepers. Described as their own species byRobert Sprackland in 1999 and named after herpetologist Walter Auffenberg, thiscolorful monitor became listed as Endangered only 20 years later(2019). In 2014, Ryan began working with Peacock Monitors and in 2017 heard there wasgoing to be a population survey on Roti Island on Varanus auffenbergi. Knowing they may no longer come into captivity, Ryan and Erica worked over thenext 7 years to collect the largest known collection of Varanus Auffenbergi inone place anywhere in the world. Come discover how a small colorfulmonitor created a passion that built an assurance colony for the species.
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February ’17 Speaker: Cris Hagen from the Turtle Survival Alliance
January 30, 2017 by Chris Rueber • Uncategorized •
In 2010 Cris Hagen became the first Director of Animal Management for the Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) and is responsible for the strategic development and management oversight of captive turtle assurance colonies throughout the U.S.A. to support the conservation mission of the TSA. He is based at the TSA’s Turtle Survival Center (TSC), which opened in 2013 near Charleston, South Carolina, where he manages a collection of over 700 individual chelonians, representing 32 endangered and critically endangered species. Cris has an extensive background in herpetology spanning more than 30 years and includes a mixture of herpetoculture, animal collections management, biological sciences, taxonomy, field and lab research, teaching and environmental education. Cris was employed from 2002-2013 as a genetics and herpetology research technician at the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. Since early childhood, he has been a dedicated student of natural history and evolution with a primary focus of chelonian and crocodilian conservation biology and captive management. His work and personal devotions have taken him to more than 25 countries around the world to study natural history, with focused interest in the Malay Archipelago.