Robert c stebbins biography of william
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Reptiles and Amphibians of the San Francisco Bay Region. And in political circles, Stebbins was known for being a passionate, persistent advocate for establishing ecological reserves in desert lands to ward off damage done by off-road vehicles. Part of their honeymoon was spent camping in the Owens Valley of southeastern California.
In 1945 Stebbins was hired an assistant professor of zoology at the University of California, Berkeley, and became the first curator of herpetology at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, where he would remain throughout his career.
At left, two of the paintings he did for his popular "Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians."
Robert Stebbins was beloved by students, but he spent much of his time alone. His collected field notes, comprising over 35 bound volumes, are archived in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.
Stebbins' book A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians, first published in 1966 and revised in 1985 and 2003, has widely been considered "the bible of the field" for American herpetologists.
New York: McGraw-Hill Press.
Robert Stebbins was quoted in a 2006 journal published by the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists as saying his wife shared his love of nature and was a strong supporter of his work, tolerating years of "frogs, toads and salamanders in the refrigerator, and tortoises on the sun deck and in the living room."
Robert Cyril Stebbins was born March 31, 1915, in Chico, Calif., near a small ranch and orchard that his family worked.
But the “elegantly worked out” study, as Dawkins described it in his 2004 book “The Ancestor’s Tale,” showed that the salamanders had common ancestors but then developed different traits because of being separated for a long period by a geographical barrier.
Dr. His well-regarded books, lectures and artwork made him a superstar among those who studied reptiles and amphibians, from world-famous scientists to weekend naturalists who hiked with his nature guides in hand.
Stebbins’ books were published as part of the Peterson Field Guides series. Van Nuys, CA: Valley Vista Press.
Sierra Club, National Press. Stebbins faced opposition from ORV riders and their lobbyists: American Motorcyclist magazine called him a "staunch abolitionist in the war against motorized vehicles in the desert." Stebbins' efforts eventually helped secure the passing of the California Desert Protection Act of 1994 which established the Mojave National Preserve and elevated Joshua Tree and Death Valley from national monuments to more protected national parks.
He made appearances on the TV series Science in Action, traveled to Asia to promote science education, and chaired a U.C. elementary school science project which recommended that science be taught to children as early as six.
"Before that book, if people went out to look for snakes, it was so they could gather them up to sell to pet shops or just show off to their buddies," said Sam Sweet, professor of evolutionary biology at UC Santa Barbara.
The first of these to appear was Amphibians of Western North America (1951, University of California Press), covering the U.S. and Canada roughly west of the 102nd meridian. He was survived by his wife and three children. Connecting With Nature: A Naturalist's Perspective. He took their cloacal temperatures, marked them with dye, and then dosed them with radioactive iodine, which enabled him to locate the elusive reptiles later with a Geiger counter." In 1966, Stebbins produced what became his best-known book, A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians (Peterson Field Guides), which Peterson called "a classic...
Finding the salamanders in Berkeley much different than the ones he was used to seeing in the mountains of Southern California, he embarked upon a research program examining color differences throughout California.