Page 28 - Laker Connection Spring 2013

faculty profile
DR. JOSHUA PARKER
FROM HERPETOPHOBIA TO HERPETOLOGY
Once having a paralyzing fear of snakes (also known as herpetopho- bia), Dr. Joshua Parker, assistant professor of biology at Clayton State, currently has 60 snakes, many of them boas and pythons from all over the world.
How did this transformation take place? Parker describes the period after high school as a time in his life where he conquered his fears.
“I went through a period of trying to get over my irrational fears and phobias,” he says. “First, it was bungee jumping, sky diving and cliff jumping to get over my fear of heights. Then, it was spending a lot of time swimming in the open ocean to get over my fear of sharks. I’m still not completely over that, since I have not encountered many sharks. Then, it was get- ting over snakes, followed by getting over the para- lyzing fear of public speaking in grad school, which turned into another part of my career as a teacher.”
Even before his high school transformation, Parker’s biggest passion in life was animals; espe- cially reptiles and amphibians.
“I was working in a pet store and decided to buy a baby python to tackle that fear,” Parker ex- plains. “It took a while at first, but I slowly got com- fortable holding it. However, any time it would strike at prey or if I startled it, it would scare the crap out of me. That was until the final step, of course. After a couple bites I was completely over it, and it became a lifelong obsession.
“My master’s thesis was based on my research of an endangered amphibian, but while I was working on that, I went out to help another graduate student from a different school collect rattlesnakes. I imme- diately fell in love with them, and knew I wanted to do my Ph.D. studying them.”
Now, Parker says, he is “obsessed” with all snakes, but especially rattlesnakes and their ven- omous kin.
“You can say they have been my muse in life ever since, personally and professionally,” he says.
In addition to teaching the first herpetology class at Clayton State, Parker’s professional career in- cludes a $200,000 grant from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department received in 2009 and 2011 to study the genetics and to develop predictive models for the Midget Faded Rat-
tlesnake, the same
species he studied
during his Ph.D.
“The product of that work was a high resolution under- standing of their pop- ulation in Wyoming that also identified current and potential threats to the popula-
tion that will help managers make conservation deci- sions,” Parker explains. “The computer models we developed predict the presence of population with 85 percent accuracy.
He has since received an $80,000 grant for 2012 and 2013 from the Colorado Bureau of Land Management to extend those predictive models into the Colorado range of the same species of rattlesnake to help them with their conservation and management decisions.
Parker is also collaborating with a friend at the University of Northern Colorado to study the popu- lation differences in venom composition.
“Although the research has kept me out west, I can’t wait to get started with research in Georgia. With my teaching load, the only time I have for re- search is in the summer, otherwise I would have begun concurrent research in Georgia by now,” he ex- plains.
__ Ciji Fox
I went through a period of trying to get over my irrational fears and phobias... After a couple bites I was completely over [my fear of snakes] and it became a lifelong obsession.
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THE LAKER CONNECTION