hey i bought my OBT from your store, you guys have a great selection and customer service, i enjoyed my trip there.
i was going to try to volunteer at the zoo but the deadline was today.... so no on that.
what have you done in this hobby?
- Thread starter Tindalos
- Start date
i was going to try to volunteer at the zoo but the deadline was today.... so no on that.
There is not one in Utah... yet. I am currently working on creating one, so I will keep you updated, it is a few months in the future however. Also, One of the BEST things I've done for awareness is outreach. I often do shows to schools, scouts, etc. where I take and educated about inverts and snakes and it really helps the long term health of the hobby. Hook em young I say!
that is cool, if you need you help let me know.
and i usually take my spiders to my jrotc program every once in a while
and people enjoy them, they think its cool and i broke a few phobias. so that does make me happy.
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2009
- Messages
- 1,349
I am a biologist, graduated with a BS in ecology and evolution and will be entering a Ph.D program this fall, so I am intimately knowledgable of the ins and outs of the academic research structure.
When doing your undergraduate work, intend to focus on biology or ecology and evolution. Those are the fields most relevant to work in arachnology. If you truly want to have a future as a scientist, begin getting research experience by volunteering and working in labs. I study plant evolution, and my high desirability as a graduate student is due to vast amounts of research experience (good test scores didn't hurt either). By the time you are applying for graduate school programs (in the US, most biologists skip a master's degree, whether deserved or not, master's are often a consolation prize for a failed Ph.D attempt) you want to know exactly what you want to study and with whom. Along with a strong general background in biology, you also want a very good understanding of the particular field you would like to do research in.
Unfortunately, and here's where the hammer drops, there isn't much in the way of studying arachnids. The vast majority of publications in arachnology are nothing more than taxonomy papers. While taxonomists are essential to doing biological work, they are a dying breed and very few successful scientists today focus any significant time on doing taxonomic work. Ecology and evolutionary biologists today are interested in the big How and Why questions, and unfortunately, taxonomy is stuck in merely describing what is, not finding out how and why it is. Are there interesting questions to pursue in the biology of arachnids? Undoubtedly. But given the little knowledge currently available, the difficulty in building study systems based on reclusive invertebrates, their perceived (deserved or not) lack of interactions within the ecosystem, and lack of popularity within the general scientific community make it a very difficult system to make a name for yourself in. To be a successful researcher you need to study questions that not only you find interesting, but what other scientists outside of your specialized field will find applicable and interesting. I study plant evolution, but plants are merely a system to ask questions about patterns and mechanisms behind evolution in general. When I talk to herp, fish, mammal, etc biologists, we can usually find a common ground because we are asking the same types of questions only using different systems and techniques to try to answer them.
Anyways, if you're truly interested in a future in academic research, it's a long and arduous road ahead. 4 years of undergrad, 5-6 years of Ph.D work, 2+ years of Post-Doc, and then (if lucky and incredibly successful) a faculty position at a university for which you are on the tenure clock for the next 2-6 years, and then finally job and financial stability. I can't think of another profession that would give me the same level of satisfaction and fulfillment, but it's definitely difficult, competitive and something that has to be personally rewarding to you.
When doing your undergraduate work, intend to focus on biology or ecology and evolution. Those are the fields most relevant to work in arachnology. If you truly want to have a future as a scientist, begin getting research experience by volunteering and working in labs. I study plant evolution, and my high desirability as a graduate student is due to vast amounts of research experience (good test scores didn't hurt either). By the time you are applying for graduate school programs (in the US, most biologists skip a master's degree, whether deserved or not, master's are often a consolation prize for a failed Ph.D attempt) you want to know exactly what you want to study and with whom. Along with a strong general background in biology, you also want a very good understanding of the particular field you would like to do research in.
Unfortunately, and here's where the hammer drops, there isn't much in the way of studying arachnids. The vast majority of publications in arachnology are nothing more than taxonomy papers. While taxonomists are essential to doing biological work, they are a dying breed and very few successful scientists today focus any significant time on doing taxonomic work. Ecology and evolutionary biologists today are interested in the big How and Why questions, and unfortunately, taxonomy is stuck in merely describing what is, not finding out how and why it is. Are there interesting questions to pursue in the biology of arachnids? Undoubtedly. But given the little knowledge currently available, the difficulty in building study systems based on reclusive invertebrates, their perceived (deserved or not) lack of interactions within the ecosystem, and lack of popularity within the general scientific community make it a very difficult system to make a name for yourself in. To be a successful researcher you need to study questions that not only you find interesting, but what other scientists outside of your specialized field will find applicable and interesting. I study plant evolution, but plants are merely a system to ask questions about patterns and mechanisms behind evolution in general. When I talk to herp, fish, mammal, etc biologists, we can usually find a common ground because we are asking the same types of questions only using different systems and techniques to try to answer them.
Anyways, if you're truly interested in a future in academic research, it's a long and arduous road ahead. 4 years of undergrad, 5-6 years of Ph.D work, 2+ years of Post-Doc, and then (if lucky and incredibly successful) a faculty position at a university for which you are on the tenure clock for the next 2-6 years, and then finally job and financial stability. I can't think of another profession that would give me the same level of satisfaction and fulfillment, but it's definitely difficult, competitive and something that has to be personally rewarding to you.
yup. my dad is a taxonomist (ants
). his entire career is built on that. but... in order to justify his job, he finds himself having to do research and write grants for other things that he's not as interested in doing. if you stick with the task that jayefbe listed (many years of education), you will someday be in a position where you can research and publish papers on arachnids. but you're probably going to have to do research on other things as well.
of course.... a lack of a Ph.D. shouldn't stop you from doing research and publishing. i had one paper published, and another one co-authored before i graduated from high school because i was so into researching. if you want to research..... develop a hypothesis... generate a sound-proof procedure here, run your experiment, and try to get it published.
if nothing else, it will look great on your resume for college. aim high! we have a lot of intelligent people here with a lot of specimens, and there's not a lot of research on Ts. (not enough anyway) we could all be contributing to the published knowledge base of tarantulas way more than we do now.
I am new to the hobby myself. However, being an educator gives me an open forum for dispelling myths and educating younger generations about tarantulas. After I become more knowledgeable myself, I plan to start an outreach program in the district and begin doing classroom presentations with the tarantulas.
Rockstarpets
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2010
- Messages
- 26
Thanks! You may want to try the Living Planet too. I started volunteering there when I was 16 and really enjoyed. They have some inverts too (not many).
I def. will!