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* JOE COLLINS PRESENTATION ! *

**Please note that this is a special date, and this meeting will REPLACE the normal June, 2006 meeting.**

Mark your calendars to see one of North America?s premier Herpetologists, Joseph T. Collins ! Joe is the author of numerous books and scientific papers, including the ?Bible? of North American Herpetology, The Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America. Joe is also the founder of the Center for North American Herpetology, cnah an organization promoting the preservation and conservation of North American Amphibians, Crocodilians, Reptiles, and Turtles through education and information.

BRING HIS BOOKS TO AUTOGRAPH! Here are a few of the books that Mr. Collins has authored:

Meet the Speaker:

Joseph T. Collins has written more books about Kansas wildlife than any other person in the history of the state. In addition to over 230 articles on reptiles, turtles, amphibians, and fishes throughout North America, he has written twenty-three books, including:

Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America Third Edition (with Roger Conant) The three editions of this guide were the greatest-selling books on amphibians, turtles, reptiles, and crocodilians ever written

Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America Third Edition Expanded (with Roger Conant) For the first time, this expanded edition includes color photography, featuring the exquisite images of Suzanne L. Collins

Peterson First Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians (with Roger Conant and Robert C. Stebbins) An abbreviated version of the field guide written for younger herpetologists

Amphibians and Reptiles in Kansas Third Edition (with photographs by Suzanne L. Collins) The standard reference on these animals in Kansas since the first edition in 1974

Fishes in Kansas Second Edition (with Frank B. Cross) The standard reference on these creatures in Kansas since the first edition in 1975

Reptiles and Amphibians of Cheyenne Bottoms (with Suzanne L. Collins) The first all-color vertebrate field guide about the Bottoms

Natural Kansas The only book ever devoted to the complete natural heritage of the Sunflower State

Kansas Wildlife A compendium of color portraits of Kansas animals with Collins? descriptive captions, and photographs by Suzanne L. Collins, Bob Gress, and Gerald J. Wiens

Kansas Wetlands: A Wildlife Treasury (with Suzanne L. Collins and Bob Gress) A second compendium of color portraits of Kansas animals with descriptive captions, featuring photographs by Suzanne L. Collins, Bob Gress, and other Kansans

An Illustrated Guide to Endangered or Threatened Species in Kansas (with Suzanne L. Collins, Jerry Horak, Dan Mulhern, William H. Busby, Craig C. Freeman, and Gary Wallace) A guide to all officially listed sensitive wildlife in Kansas with color portraits of each

A Guide to Great Snakes of Kansas Second Edition (featuring the color photography of Suzanne L. Collins) A public service booklet published by Western Resources for the people of Kansas

A Key to Amphibians and Reptiles of the Continental United States and Canada (with Robert Powell and Errol D. Hooper, Jr.) The modern comprehensive manual for identifying all of the amphibians, turtles, reptiles, and crocodilians of North America

Joe Collins is also the editor of Mammals in Kansas and Birds in Kansas (two volumes). These three books, along with Amphibians and Reptiles in Kansas and Fishes in Kansas, are a complete set of vertebrate field guides for Kansas, the first time such a set has been available at the same time in the history of the state.

Collins is co-editor of two research volumes by McGraw-Hill entitled Snakes: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Snakes: Ecology and Behavior, and also co-edited two symposium volumes, Reproductive Biology and Diseases of Captive Reptiles and Captive Management and Conservation of Amphibians and Reptiles, both published by the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles.

In 1978, Collins served as president of the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (which he co-founded in 1967), the leading international professional society in that field, as president of the Kansas Association of Biology Teachers (1980-1981), as president of the Kansas Herpetological Society (1983). He was chosen the University of Kansas Employee of the Year (1979), was honored as the Kansas Wildlife Federation's Conservationist of the Year in 1986, was the 1989 recipient of the Kansas Herpetological Society's Bronze Salamander Award for distinguished service, was designated (1996) an honorary life member of the Texas Herpetological Society, was invested and proclaimed by Governor Bill Graves as The Wildlife Author Laureate of Kansas in April 1996, and was honored with the Kansas Wildlife Federation Presidential Award for distinguished service during 1997. He was a distinguished delegate to the First World Congress of Herpetology at Canterbury, England, in 1989, and was made a Distinguished Life Member of the Kansas Herpetological Society in 1998.

Joseph T. Collins is Adjunct Herpetologist for the Kansas Biological Survey, Herpetologist Emeritus for the Natural History Museum at The University of Kansas, Adjunct Curator of Herpetology for the Sternberg Museum of Natural History at Fort Hays State University, and Director of The Center for North American Herpetology (a non-profit 501c3 foundation).

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