This week’s #FindThatLizard challenge is live! If you’re signed up to my newsletter it went straight to your inbox. If not don’t worry you can find it on my website EarynMcGee.com!
“With anything in life, if you want to succeed you have to be consistent.”
We caught up with Herpetologist and Science Communicator, @afro_herper , Dr. Earyn McGee. Head to the link in our bio to read the full conversation. 💙
📷 @dirtbagdarling
#findthatlizard #daydreamer #herpetologist
Do you know what a herpetologist does? We sat down with the best, Dr. Earyn McGee (aka @afro_herper ) to discuss her work as a herpetologist, which lizards gave us Ozempic, and which nature presenter is the GOAT. Check it out on the PBS Docs YouTube channel. Link in bio 🦎
#herplife #herpetologist #pbs #lizards
Don’t worry, I am always asking the hard hitting questions 🫣 check out our new episode of PBS Film Club on @pbsds PBS Docs YouTube channel now!
#tmnt🐢 #turtle #conservation #reptile #herpetologia
Who’s the greatest nature presenter of all time? 🌿🎥 Sir David Attenborough? Steve Irwin? Jane Goodall? (…Joe Exotic? 👀)
@PBS Film Club co-hosts @itslucky__ and @marissapina sat down with herpetologist Dr. Earyn McGee (@afro_herper ) to talk about the legacy of David Attenborough, how nature television changed the way we see our planet, and why conservation media has historically lacked diversity.
Who shaped your love of nature? Drop your take in the comments!
Watch the newest film club episode and "The Nature Show That Changed TV Forever" now on the PBS Documentaries channel!
What's your favorite nature program?
In honor of Attenborough's 100th birthday, we debated who the greatest nature hosts are (swipe to see the line up) alongside @afro_herper , who helped us discuss something about these nature programs we never realized, maybe you can figure it out just by looking at the board 👀
#nature #attenborough
Happy Mother’s Day from me and the lizards to you! Over here we celebrate all moms, the ones who chose motherhood and the ones who didn’t.
Photo 1: Most lizard species do not offer their young any parental care. For example, the striped plateau lizard I’m holding digs a hole, lays her eggs, buries them, and then goes about her life.
Photo 2: The Yarrow’s spiny lizard doesn’t lay eggs but instead the eggs develop and hatch inside her and she gives live birth. After giving birth mother and young go their separate ways.
Photo 3: The New Mexico whiptail lizard loves herself so much that she clones herself. This all-female species of lizard is known as a lesbian/gay icon because individuals still engage in acts of copulation to stimulate egg production. Photo by Bloopityboop wiki commons via inat
Photo 4: Unlike the first 3, the 5-lined skink is known for defending her eggs against small predators, returning displaced eggs to the nest, removing rotting eggs, and even sharing brooding responsibilities with other females. Photo by Thegreenj - Wiki Commons
Photo 5: Finally the lizard mom we all wish we had is the prehensile-tailed skink. Females of this species only have one offspring at a time and will fiercely defend it until it leaves the nest at about 6 months old.
#FindThatLizard #lizard #mothersday❤️ #mom #baby
Can you #FindThatLizard and help save one of Michigan’s rarest ecosystems? 👀🦎🌾
Tonight’s challenge species is the western whiptail lizard (📸 Amanda Goad). And while you won’t find western whiptails in Michigan, #FindThatLizard has never been just about one species or one place. It’s about using our curiosity for reptiles to tell bigger stories about the habitats wildlife depend on and why protecting those places matters.
Earlier this year, Antonio (@Swdetroitjesus ) invited me out to see Sibley Prairie just outside Detroit. What I found was incredible: the largest remaining lakeplain prairie in Michigan. A 440-acre mosaic of prairie, wetlands, and woodland, still buzzing with life, frogs calling, garter snakes moving through the grasses, macroinvertebrates hiding in vernal pools, and endangered pollinators depending on this habitat to survive.
But Sibley Prairie is at a crossroads.
Whether it’s a whiptail in the Southwest, a garter snake in Michigan, or the tiny creatures living in a seasonal wetland… wildlife can’t survive without wild places.
🦎 I hope you #FoundThatLizard western whiptail?
Whether it’s a whiptail in the Southwest, a garter snake in Michigan, or the tiny creatures living in a seasonal wetland… wildlife can’t survive without wild places.
Because whether it’s a whiptail in the Southwest, a garter snake in Michigan, or the tiny creatures living in a seasonal wetland… wildlife can’t survive without wild places.
@ian.outside@savesibleyprairieco@mivernalpools@Blacktothelandcoalition
#FindThatLizard #SaveSibleyPrairie #SibleyPrairie #MichiganWildlife #Conservation #Herpetology #WildlifeBiology #ProtectWildPlaces #BlackInNature #OutdoorEducation #STEMEducation #PrairieConservation #ReptilesOfInstagram #Wetlands #Biodiversity #Detroit #WomenInSTEM #EnvironmentalJustice
Outdoor reporter @ian.outside spent a spring day with @blacktothelandcoalition@savesibleyprairieco and @mivernalpools at Sibley Prairie Nature Preserve, the largest in tact Lake Plain Prairie ecosystem in the world.
Sibley Prairie’s 440 acres is currently at risk of being sold for development, @savesibleyprairieco & @Blacktothelandcoalition are urgently working to raise $6,000,000 by the end of 2026 to purchase the land for conservation and prevent a sale that would make Lake Plain Prairie ecosystems all but extinct.
To learn more about the “Save Sibley Prairie” effort and how the work of @mivernalpools lends itself to the mission go to PlanetDetroit.org
UPDATE: this event is now at capacity, thanks to everyone who signed up! Stay tuned for more events along the River.
Come hang out with us and learn how to identify lizards along the trails at DeForest Park with lizard ecologist Dr. Earyn McGee (@afro_herper )! We’ll then sculpt what you find out of clay and Dr. McGee will even fire your piece in her kiln.
The hike is about a mile on flat, accessible trails. Clay supplies provided.
This event is great for all ages and totally free!
Registration link in bio.
#lariver #folar #urbannature #losangeles #losangelesevents
Where are you going to #FindThatLizard if the trump administration continues to destroy our wilderness and urban green spaces?
On this Earth Day, I dare you to dream. I dare you to believe. I dare you to act!
The trump administration has dreamed of ways it can steal from the American people. They’ve believed they could get away with it, and since he’s taken office, they’ve been acting on it.
I ask you, why not us?
Why can’t we dream of a society that innovates with nature, believes that we have the power to make those dreams come true, and then takes the actions to make it so?
Collectively, we have power!
According to the Texas Tribune, “ After strong opposition, the Trump administration apparently changed its plans: a map on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website no longer indicates that a border wall will be constructed in the Big Bend region from the state park to the Amistad National Recreation Area in Del Rio, as of April 2.”
All is not lost, and we can be just as ferocious as they are.
We need our diverse ecosystems (all the plants and animals) to have an Earth that continues to support life as we know it.
This Earth Day, dare to imagine a world where we win. Our planet already has everything we need to thrive. I promise you we got this.
Here are some ways you can help:
1. Visit your local green spaces, be they urban, national parks, or national forests.
2. Support local grassroots organizations trying to preserve public lands with your dollars or volunteer time.
3. Uplift Black and Indigenous voices in the outdoors.
4. Express your support for public lands when requests for public comment open. Do it right when you see the post about it, so you don’t forget.
5. Call your representatives. If you know what they look like, tell them in person.
6. Vote! The trump administration wouldn’t bother trying to make voting harder if your vote doesn’t matter. Even if you still think it doesn’t matter, vote out of spite cause they don’t want you to be able to.
7. Vote in every election, especially local ones.
#lizard #wildlife #publiclands #vote #EarthDay
Can you #FindThatLizard?
Tonight you're looking for a western fence lizard, Sceloporus occidentalis.
I saw this individual while I was visiting the California Botanic Garden in Claremont. It is one of the most beautiful gardens I've ever visited, and it was teeming with lizards.
All the plants in the garden are native to some part of California, so it made sense I'd see so many lizards.
Visiting botanic gardens like the California Botanic Garden is a great way to explore native plants for your own garden, so you can create lizard friendly habitat in your yard.
If you have or could have a native garden, what plants would you choose?
Let me know in the comments if you #FoundThatLizard!
