[Bristol-Birds] O'Bryan completes second summer of turtle research

Chris O'Bryan, a student herpetologist at Austin Peay State University in
Clarksville, TN, has completed his second of two summers as an 
undergraduate research assistant, working for a graduate student who 
is researching the Alligator Snapping Turtle.  Chris will be a sophomore
this fall at the APSU Center of Excellence for Field Biology.

At the left, Chris holds one of the giant Alligator
Snapping Turtles which they recently captured
during research along the Ghost River tributary 
of the Wolf River about 30 miles east of Memphis 
near the Mississippi border.  

O'Bryan was active with the Bristol Bird Club
while he was a high school student in Northeast
Tennessee.  He was recently elected 
vice-president of field trips,  for the Warioto Chapter
of the Audubon Society in Clarksville. 


He has spent several years volunteering as a researcher of the 
endangered Bog Turtles in the Southern Appalachians and, in 2006, was 
employed during the summer as a field researcher of the species hired 
by the Knoxville Zoo.

Chris' dreams include eventually working towards a doctorate degree and 
a career in tropical herpetology.

While a high school student, he was awarded a research grant
by East Tennessee State University's Biology Department to study the 
Spiny Soft-shelled Turtle population at Steele Creek Park.

His parents are Laura and Don O'Bryan, formerly of Shady Valley, TN 
and Boone, NC, who now make their home at Piney Flats, TN in Sullivan 
County.

Let's go birding . . . .

Wallace Coffey

JPEG image

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