| Bill Love has
been involved with reptiles in one way or another for his entire life.
As an ecology class project while still in high school in 1973-74, he
initiated a lecture circuit about local snakes to every elementary
school in Martin County, Florida. He later lectured at schools in
southeastern Florida for a living.
In the late 1970s, he spent two years traveling across the United States as a partner in a mobile, educational reptile exhibit called The Living Jungle. Every day he spoke to hundreds of people wandering through the exhibit about the reptiles they displayed and answering their diverse questions. It was a virtual "Roads" Scholarship. During the 1980s, Bill and Kathy kept and bred a huge assortment of herps - heavily snakes. Bill also worked for the largest herp dealer at the time - Herpetofauna, Inc. / Tom Crutchfield. By 1989, Bill formed Glades Herp, Inc. with partner Rob MacInnes. Experience in maintaining the world's herpetofauna came daily for seven years, including their husbandry, import-export, and photography. It was during that time (1993) that REPTILES recruited him to author Herpetological Queries monthly as an advice columnist. Bill also submits freelance articles, cover images and other images in the magazine. Bill started leading eco-tours to Madagascar in 1994 after a couple earlier trips to scout that exotic island nation, and still guides sporadic tours there. His company Blue Chameleon Ventures encompasses tours and his herp photography business yet today. ReptileRally is a great way for herp enthusiasts to tap his brain on a personal level. Bill is a natural-born teacher and enjoys sharing his knowledge and experiences with anyone with an eager ear. |
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Kathy Love has
made her name in the small pool of herpetoculture's pioneering women.
Growing up in Wisconsin, she kept a variety of herps as pets before
running her own Jungle Hut pet shop in the early 1970s.
Frequent visits to the Milwaukee Zoo and the Milwaukee Public Museum
helped mold her interests toward snakes under the guidance of curators
Sherm Ketchum and Max Nickerson.
She escaped to Texas when in her twenties after meeting Joe Laszlo at the San Antonio Zoo. By the late 1970s, Kathy joined into a partnership with Joe's roommate Tom Vermersch and took their Living Jungle mobile herp exhibit around the country showing it inside large shopping malls. Visiting every major zoo along the way was routine. Especially inspirational were the many behind-the-scenes tours to observe cutting edge breeding techniques just as the art of herpetoculture was being explored and refined. All through the 1980s, Kathy kept numerous species with hubby Bill while living in southern Florida. Her primary interest has always been perfecting ways to increase the health and production of her snake colony. Few can boast the hands-on experience she has at pursuing that goal through an assortment of methods and 'tricks' gleaned over the decades. Kathy and Bill started Glades Herpetoculture in 1989 based on their success propagating their snakes. Today she operates CornUtopia, which still specializes in selectively-bred corn snakes, but also works with others such as Amazon tree boas, blood pythons, ball pythons and sulcata tortoises. She keeps her finger on the pulse of herpetocultural progress as an active participant on internet forums and by vending at reptile shows across the U.S. where a wealth of knowledge is accumulated and dispensed daily. |
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