CWU Professor One of Few Biologists Studying Night Snakes

  • May 29, 2014
Aerial shot of Ellensburg campus

While some people shy away from snakes, reptiles and spiders, Robert Weaver makes a point of seeking them out.

His interest in snakes and reptiles started when he was 5 years old and living outside of Kennewick.

“Walking home one day from school with a bunch of kids, we found a dead gopher snake,” Weaver said. “I picked it up, it was dead, I didn’t care. I showed it to my mom and she was really scared so I knew I found something really cool.”

It was an interest that would carry through to adulthood.

Weaver, a biology lecturer at Central Washington University, is a herpetologist focusing on a species called night snakes that can be found from British Columbia to Mexico. He is one of two people in the world studying the snakes.

Read the rest of the story in the Daily Record.

Story by Margo Massey

PHOTO: Robert Weaver holds a desert night snake in his office at CWU. (Brian Myrick / Daily Record)

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