A brave soul, Jessica volunteered to spend most of a summer with me to collect Aspidoscelis lizards in remote west Texas and eastern New Mexico. She learned firsthand just how difficult it can be to achieve the seemingly simple goal of catching lizards throughout most of their known range. By the end of it, she became a whiptail lizard whisperer in between convincingly unsettling Sarah Palin impersonations. Much of my dissertation research could not have been possible without her outstanding trust and assistance in the field.
Jessica Majid posing with a Texas horned lizard at Caprock Canyons S.P., TX – Summer 2013