Why am I turtle biologist? I receive this question a lot! As a frequent traveler, I meet a lot of people, and I am always quick to strike up conversations. There is nothing I like to talk about more than to talk about turtles. Almost everyone I meet has a positive response when I say I study freshwater turtles and tortoises, but they all ask, “How did you ever find a career that lets you study turtles?”

I believe it started with my father. I vividly remember him pulling our yellow 1970 VW squareback to the side of the road to pick up a box turtle that was in danger of being crushed by an oncoming car. I remember the thrill of darting around the car to quickly grab the turtle! I think all those junior high gym class: “sprint to grab the chalk board eraser” drills may have come into play. When we arrived home, my father helped me build a small pen for the turtle out of some scrap 2 X 4s. I was instantly enthralled by this animal and its behaviors (or lack thereof). I would sit motionless for long stretches waiting for the turtle to peek out of its shell.

Yet the turtle never “warmed” to me, so I decided to let it go in a large wood lot close to where we had found it but far from the road. But I was hooked. I decided to read everything I could about box turtles. Sadly, there was not much information readily available in the early 1980s. However, I did find a copy of the Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of the Eastern United States by Roger Conant. This book became my constant companion and was where I learned that there were many different species of turtles in my native Virginia. By the time I was in high school, I had filled my parent’s basement with a menagerie of turtles from around the world.

After my freshman year in college, I decided to spend the summer in Costa Rica looking for Central American wood turtles, much to the dismay of my then girlfriend. She just could not believe that I would rather spend my summer trumping through rain forests in search of turtles than to spend the summer working at a local amusement park with her. Let’s just say that this was a no-brainer for a diehard turtle geek like me! I knew then and there that turtles were going to be the central focus of my life.

After working hard to finish college, I made it to graduate school by the skin of my teeth (my grades had never been very good as I was much more inclined to spend my time chasing pond turtles than studying for organic chemistry exams). Luckily, I was accepted into a masters program where I was to study the reproductive biology of the yellow-blotched map turtle (many consider this turtle to be the most endangered turtle in the U.S.). From there, I switched gears and headed back to the tropics to begin my doctoral research on the embryonic development of neotropical turtles. After five short years of fieldwork in Latin America and two years of writing, I had my doctorate.

So when people ask, I always say it was a lifetime of adventures, and I hope that the adventures will never end.

Brian Horne is a postdoctoral fellow for the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research.

Read Brian’s previous post, India: Life on the Chambal.

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