I am a zoologist and conservationist based out of California who is currently a biology master's student at California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo (https://perl.calpoly.edu/max-roberts). For my master's, I am working in Dr. Emily Taylor's Physiological Ecology of Reptiles Laboratory (PERL) on Project RattleCam (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC535H_ogEQbBwfXNDMr4Wtw), where I am studying Prairie Rattlesnake thermoregulatory behaviors at den sites and the use of live-streaming wildlife cameras focused on snakes as educational tools in schools. I received my B.S. in Zoology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in the spring of 2022. Reptiles, amphibians, and birds are my main taxonomic interests, but I also try to learn about local botany and work with mammals whenever I get the chance. I am interested in several research fields as they relate to wildlife conservation, including community ecology, spatial ecology, ethology, biogeography, and population biology. In addition to my work with PERL, I occasionally assist the Southwestern Herpetologist Society with field surveys and write articles for its newsletter.

Previous Positions:

• Colorado IMBCR field technician for the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies (https://www.birdconservancy.org/)
• Intern for the Crocodile Research Coalition (https://crocodileresearchcoalition.org/)
• Wildlife Technician for Modoc National Forest
• Volunteer for the Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (https://www.ccber.ucsb.edu/)
• Snowy Plover Docent and Reserve Intern at Coal Oil Point Reserve (https://copr.nrs.ucsb.edu/)
• Field technician for the Briggs Lab at UCSB (https://labs.eemb.ucsb.edu/briggs/cherie/)
• General Volunteer for the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association
• Student Keeper at the Los Angeles Zoo.

My Personal Website (All about me!)
https://livingtothemax12.wixsite.com/maxroberts

My Flickr (Nature Photography):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/195836457@N02/

Favorite kinds of nature watching:

• Flipping cover objects to look for reptiles and amphibians (You never know what you are going to find. Just make sure to put back everything the way you found it!)
• Encountering a wild rattlesnake
• Birding migrant traps during migration (especially in the California deserts during Spring)
• Hiking desert habitats in search of lizards
• Watching/photographing birds at local hotspots
• Seeing any carnivorous mammal in the wild
• Creek walking
• Hawk watching on grassland or desert roads
• Road cruising for snakes and amphibians
• Hiking in the rainforest (day or night)
• Taking a jungle cruise
• Whale watching
• Owling

Some of my favorite animal encounters (of all time!):

• Finding my first wild mountain kingsnake (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/108489961)
• Finding a site record California kingsnake in the Santa Monica Mountains (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/154830848)
• Watching a teenage moose prance around in the water right in front of me in Colorado (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/172232866)
• Seeing my first nocturnally active arboreal salamanders (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/145930937)
• Finding an adult green ratsnake in the Chiricahua Mountains of Southeast Arizona (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/182118940)
• Seeing a wild mountain lion (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/172867852 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/184063057)
• Watching a pine marten hunt in the Rocky Mountains (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/171489850)
• Having a Northern Goshawk fly right past me in the Warner Mountains of California (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/130659556)
• Finding a summer aestivation site for slender salamanders (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/190605047)
• Seeing my first Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/182011723)
• Seeing my first Eastern collared lizard (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/162190570)
• Seeing my first Short-eared Owl (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/102578392)
• Watching the Soras, rails and Wilson's snipes foraging at the edge of the reeds in Modoc County, CA (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/136386497)

Primary Taxa Interests:

• All reptiles (especially snakes and birds)
• Amphibians (especially salamanders)
• Carnivorous mammals (mostly mustelids, but also felids and canines)
• Scorpions
• Tarantulas
• Dragonflies and Damselflies

Favorite Ecoregions

• The Sonoran Desert
• The Madrean Archipelago (Sky Islands)
• Cismontane (Coastal) Southern California
• The Chihuahuan Desert
• Peninsular Florida
• The Southern Great Plains
• The Sierra Nevada
• The Rocky Mountains

Mention me (@tothemax) if you would like my input on an observation or need a response from me. If you don't do this and/or do not make a comment separate from an identification, I will likely not see that you are trying to get my attention.

I also use Herpmapper (https://www.herpmapper.org) and NAHERP (http://www.naherp.com/), so some of my reptile and amphibian observations are duplicated on those databases. I use Ebird to occasionally record full bird walks that I go on, so some of the observations I post on INaturalist may correspond to a bird walk that I recorded on Ebird. I tend to use INaturalist when I am not counting every bird I see or hear (https://ebird.org/home).

Please let me know if you have any questions about my observations or have suggestions for future observations.

Grupos de especies (taxa) favoritos

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