Joined: Jul 7, 2019 Last Active: Oct 6, 2024
My name is Jack Thompson, and my passion lies with nature. I’ve been a naturalist at heart since before I could walk. As early as I can remember I was in ponds and swamps, catching snakes, turtles, and whatever I could find. Reptiles have always been the prime interest of mine, with chelonians at the center of that. I’m currently a college student pursuing wildlife ecology. So far I’ve traveled the world in search of chelonians and pursuing all opportunities I can to get involved in conservation efforts.
Currently I’m part of several groups/projects:
-Member and Volunteer at the turtle conservancy, recently helped out with their major efforts in central Florida.
-Member of the Santa Fe turtle project, studying the turtles of the Santa Fe/Suwannee River Drainage
-Working with the North American Freshwater Turtle Research Group (NAFTRG) in various Florida and Texas spring runs
-Volunteering for my local society for the Delaware inland bays, monitoring Northern Diamondback Terrapins
-Working with my local nature centers and businesses through my own business, where I use my animals as educational ambassadors for their species
-Working on a records-based project with Michael Skibsted to determine the localities of truly enormous Yellowfoot tortoises
-Documenting Chelonian diversity during my travels, along with any other notable organisms
For most of my free time, I’m dedicated to one of the above, typically out in nature snorkeling for turtles or hiking through nature in general. Whenever that can’t be done, I continue to build my knowledge through any and all works of Herpetological literature I can find.