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Diverse Reptiles Thrive in Louisiana

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K. Ouchley

Biologists often just call them herps, an abbreviated version of the term herpetofauna meaning the reptiles and amphibians of a specific region.  The herpetofauna of Louisiana is diverse because of our mild climate that is conducive to the well-being of cold-blooded animals and because of our great variety of habitat types, from upland forests to brackish marshes.

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Kelby was a biologist and manager of National Wildlife Refuges for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 30 years. He has worked with alligators in gulf coast marshes and Canada geese on Hudson Bay tundra. His most recent project was working with his brother Keith of the Louisiana Nature Conservancy on the largest floodplain restoration project in the Mississippi River Basin at the Mollicy Unit of the Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge, reconnecting twenty-five square miles of former floodplain forest back to the Ouachita River.