Michigan Herps

Field herping is an activity of heading out in the field to look for herps in their natural environment. Frogs, Toads, Salamanders, Lizards, and Snakes are all found in a wide variety of habitats and field herping will take you to some pretty beautiful and unique areas. Different field herpers enjoy different aspects of field herping. Some enjoy just getting out and finding herps, while others enjoy photographing herps. Some herpers go even farther by recording data such as using a GPS to find the exact location where the herp was found, others take body temperature readings to help better understand how different species thermoregulate. Whatever you choose to do, herping is a great way to spend free time as opposed to sitting on a couch in front of a TV.

Eastern Garter Snake found near Clare, Michigan

Sometimes herping will run you into uncomfortable obstacles. Such as heat, sunburn, mosquitos, deer flies, ticks, chiggers, thorns, and bee nests. But at the end of the day, there's nothing like flipping that Salamander you were looking for or road cruising your target snake species. There's a lot of field herpers out there, and there's plenty of places where you can meet fellow herpers. One great place is Field Herp ForumThis is a website forum that is home to field herpers from every corner of the country who would love to hear about your herping stories and to share their stories as well. It's a place where you can learn from some very knowledgable people. So check it out!

A Few of the FHF (Field Herp Forum) Guys Posing a Yellow-bellied Water Snake for Pictures (Photo by Todd Pierson)