summer amphibian job -in Texas panhandle

Hi all,
Just a quick note here. We are looking for a field technician this summer, doing amphibian surveys. This will work well for college students or those needing field work experience. Mostly it is data collection and counting but it will also involve killing some specimens. Housing is provided but it is a bunk type set up-not gender separated.
here are all the details....


TITLE: Playa Wetland Field Technician
DESCRIPTION: Tech position for conducting amphibian surveys in playa wetlands
NUMBER OF POSITIONS: 1
WORK LOCATION: Texas panhandle
PAY RATE: $1280/month
DURATION: May-August (specific dates will be worked out)
HOUSING: shared trailer provided at Buffalo Lake NWR, Umbarger, TX

This position requires an energetic individual who is interested in wetland biology, amphibian diversity, and is not opposed to working long hours. Field work may at times be rigorous, often including hiking in hot/strenuous conditions with survey equipment. Therefore, adaptability and tolerance of adverse field conditions is a requirement for applicants.

Duties will include: assisting with conducting both day and night amphibian surveys (prior knowledge of species is not required) by running visual transects as well as call surveys at night, taking soil core samples, measuring water loss rates, vegetation surveys (knowledge of wetland plants is not required, but useful), and assisting with maintenance of amphibians at the field station.

If interested please send resume by April 20, 2009 to:
April Bagwill, april.bagwill@okstate.edu
Oklahoma State University, Dept. of Zoology, 430 Life Sciences West,
Stillwater, OK 74074

Hi Paris, I am interested in this summer amphibian job. Is there anything else I need to send to April Bagwill besides my resume?

I salute anyone who takes up this position. You are a braver individual than I! Why? They have a special kind of mosquito on the Llano Estacado...

I wonder how they compare to those Boreal forest mosquitoes.

As I recall you need a Phalanx Close In Weapon System to deal with those mosquitoes, but I wish luck to anyone going for this position. It sounds like an excellent opportunity to get some field experience.

Socrates said:

Hi Paris, I am interested in this summer amphibian job. Is there anything else I need to send to April Bagwill besides my resume?

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nope-that should be it.


mosquitoes are incredible! they swam the car when you drive up -I have a personal vendetta against them. we have 'SWAT' parties after we slip into the car with our 'pretty princess' wands (aka fly swatters). I find obscene pleasure in leaving as many bloody multi-legged streaks as possible on the light gray ceiling of the truck.

The mosquitoes there are unlike most I've encountered elsewhere - they are active in full sunlight and they are very aggressive. They tend to travel in packs too, miles away from water.

Sounds like Canada. We used to have contests over who could bring back to the office the most bodies before the end of the day.

Kaysie said:

Sounds like Canada. We used to have contests over who could bring back to the office the most bodies before the end of the day.

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Texan mosquitoes are the size of small birds.

John said:

Texan mosquitoes are the size of small birds.

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"...with big, nasty, pointy teeth!"

John said:

Texan mosquitoes are the size of small birds.

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Evidently youve never been to Alaska. I saw sworms about as big as school busses, they get as big as a state apparently, where I worked and on the way to the arctic ocean. Good times.

I'm with you on this one. Boreal/tundra mosquitoes are more voracious than anything I've ever seen.

Kaysie said:

I'm with you on this one. Boreal/tundra mosquitoes are more voracious than anything I've ever seen.

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I tell you those Llano Estacado mosquitoes are a breed apart. I've been plenty of places in the world and bitten by plenty of mosquito species, and my time in Lubbock this past October was a living hell (it was a few weeks after heavy rains). I've never seen cohorts of huge black mosquitoes flying around actively biting through clothes in full Texas sunlight before.

We doused clothing in permethrin, and we took to wearing Carhartt's all day long in the middle of summer because the mosquitoes had a harder time biting through them. It didn't deter them completely, but it helped. And if you went without Carhartt's because it was 90F, and went with just the bug nets, they'd land on the place where the bug net was touching your skin, and bite through that. Jeans didn't even slow them down. I swear they drank DEET for breakfast. I think it actually attracted MORE mosquitoes. And blackflies.

At one point, I'd gone down to the swimming hole in my car to get a picture. I had to take the picture through the window because the mosquitoes were swarming into the car so bad.

Oh come on, you guys are making all that stuff up about the mosquitoes.

If only you knew, Princess of Otters. If only you knew.

I don't mean to discourage anyone from any field work. Every job has its downsides. Wetland biology's downside happens to be biting insects. Grassland biology? Glaring sun. Amphibian biology? Turned ankles on all those rocks.

Insects don't bother me, entomology is actually a little hobby of mine. Plus, I live in Northern Illinois, there is marshes everywhere and lots of mosquitoes! Thanks for the heads up though.:happy:

I remember once having to run back to the car in the everglades because the mosquitos were swarming myself and a friend as we were trying to ID a dead snake on the side of the road (in the middle of the day). They were not very big but their bites hurt. I hate mosquitos, at least they are tolerable in VA.
Chip

Socrates said:

Insects don't bother me, entomology is actually a little hobby of mine. Plus, I live in Northern Illinois, there is marshes everywhere and lots of mosquitoes! Thanks for the heads up though.:happy:

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Ah but there are different species of mosquito my friend...

Ok good point lol. Well then, if i do somehow miraculously get this internship then I'll be sure to shower in DEET and bring with a massive flyswatter. Well, like they always say, everything is always bigger in Texas - including the mosquitos it seems.