{"id":112978,"date":"2016-05-20T10:17:56","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T14:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=112978"},"modified":"2023-06-27T13:10:12","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T17:10:12","slug":"searching-creepy-crawlies-arizona-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2016\/05\/searching-creepy-crawlies-arizona-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"Searching for Creepy Crawlies in the Arizona Desert"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of UConn students are in Arizona\u2019s Sonora Desert this week, looking for lizards, snakes, scorpions, and Gila monsters. They\u2019re members of the UConn Herpetological Society, and on May 19, they did a day-long takeover of the University\u2019s Instagram account: https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/uconn\/<\/a><\/p>\n

For those who may not follow Instagram, here are their photos and captions:<\/p>\n

\"Us<\/a>
Us with a big cactus<\/div>
Hello, Huskies! We\u2019re Jack Phillips (@uconnherping) and Harley Pastore (@harleypastore), two Ecology & Evolutionary Biology majors. Right now we\u2019re out in the Sonora Desert with the UConn Herpetological Society, looking for lizards, snakes, and every other creepy crawly in Arizona. You can normally catch us doing field work around the Fenton River, working in the lab with Gila monsters, or just going out for a nice hike around Mansfield. Follow us today for an off-campus trip to one of the most amazing places in the country!<\/div><\/div>\"Night<\/a>
Night shot of a rabbit<\/div>
9:30 a.m. ~ Even though we\u2019re here for reptiles, we\u2019re still looking for all kinds of wildlife. Last night we set out a camera trap near our campsite. These cameras have motion sensors and can snap night vision photos for us while we\u2019re asleep. Here\u2019s a desert rabbit hanging out by a stream bed in Margie\u2019s Cove.<\/div><\/div>\"Lizard<\/a>
Lizard in a bush<\/div>
Noon ~ Stopped on the side of the road to check out some lizards skittering around the rocks. This desert iguana was very happy to pose for photos. Finding reptiles and amphibians has its own term \u2013 herping \u2013 which is our equivalent of birding.<\/div><\/div>\"Cactus<\/a>
Cactus flower<\/div>
12:30 p.m. ~ We just arrived at our next campsite in Organ Pipe National Park. The landscape is filled with thousands of cacti, including this lovely Saguaro.<\/div><\/div>\"Lizard<\/a>
Lizard with a black tail<\/div>
2 p.m. ~ Many desert species are super fast, and zebra-tailed lizards are no exception. Here\u2019s one of the few non-blurry pictures we managed to capture!<\/div><\/div>\"Jack<\/a>
Jack with a lizard<\/div>
4:30 p.m. ~ Success! After running (literally) around the park for hours, we finally managed to catch something! Here\u2019s a plateau fence lizard that just wanted to chill.<\/div><\/div>\"Campsite\"<\/a>
Campsite<\/div>
7 p.m. ~ It\u2019s been an awesome day. We found a total of five species of lizards that we\u2019d never seen before. Now it\u2019s time to set up camp in Organ Pipe, with the Mexican border only a few miles in the distance.<\/div><\/div>\"Group<\/a>
Group shot<\/div>
Goodnight UConn! We\u2019re heading back into the wilderness to do some night herping to find some snakes. Thanks for coming with us on our trip! You can keep up with all of our desert adventures by following us @uconnherping<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

The Instagram takeover is part of a summer-long social media campaign \u2013 #MyUConnSummer \u2013 that invites UConn students to be featured on UConn social media:<\/p>\n

UConn students \u2013 What are you doing this summer? We\u2019d love to hear about your travels, summer jobs, internships, and adventures to cross items off your bucket list. Share your photos (or videos) with us for a chance to be featured on UConn social media. Email photos and captions to connect@uconn.edu<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Follow a group of UConn students for a day, looking for lizards, snakes, scorpions, and Gila monsters in the Sonora Desert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":112995,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,2225,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[117],"class_list":["post-112978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas","category-uconn-storrs","category-university-life","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 06:10:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112978"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113000,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112978\/revisions\/113000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/112995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112978"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=112978"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=112978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}