How did The Phoenix Herpetological Society become what it is today?
Two people, Daniel Marchand and Debbie Gibson, were living in the north Scottsdale area and helping their neighbors by removing unwanted reptiles from backyards and businesses. Dan had lived in this area for most of his life and had become quite knowledgeable with native reptiles. The most popular species of reptile removed was the Western Diamondback rattlesnake. These snakes are misunderstood and the most feared creature here in Arizona. Russ Johnson had been running snake calls for another organization and is a big time snake hobbyist. His favorite snake is the python and he keeps a beautiful collection of these species. When Russ starts to talk about these guys he lights up and you better have a lot of time on your hands, because you can’t get Russ to stop! Daniel met Russ at a reptile meeting one evening along with some other reptile hobbyists and the conversation started about the number of animals being killed and displaced to lack of education, and the steady increase of constr
