Burmese pythons are difficult to manage partly because they are so difficult to detect. A snake can be present, nearby, and still effectively invisible.
No reliable estimate exists for the number of Burmese pythons in Florida, largely because the snakes are cryptic, unevenly distributed, and extremely difficult to detect.
Sometimes the best bait for a turtle may be another turtle.That is not a management recommendation. It is a warning.Anyone who has trapped turtles for research has probably seen this. A turtle enters a trap, and soon other turtles are … Read More
Crab traps do not kill terrapins at random. In 2007, John Willson, Whit Gibbons, and I used 21 years of mark–recapture data from Kiawah Island to examine why a diamondback terrapin population was declining. The answer was visible not only … Read More
In 1983, J. Whitfield “Whit” Gibbons began a long-term mark-recapture study of terrapins living in the tidal creeks around Kiawah Island.The project is still going.Kristen Cecala and Cris Hagen, who now lead the work, recently captured a female terrapin at … Read More
Proofreading can correct surface errors, but it cannot repair weak reasoning, poor organization, or unsupported conclusions. This article explains the differences among proofreading, copyediting, substantive editing, and scientific editing—and how researchers can determine what their manuscript actually needs before submission.