Chicago Herpetological Society

05/28/2026

Following our monthly meeting and dinner, a couple of us were chatting in the parking lot greeted by a red fox.

Seems fitting following our speaker John Cebula's topic on Citizen Science and the impact of wildlife observations and establishing documented baselines of nature.

Plus it was just cool to see and hear the foxes up close!

04/28/2026

Join us tomorrow night at the Chicago H**petological Society meeting, where we will be discussing best practices for reptile rescues!

03/26/2026

Big shout out to Crosstown Exotics team Colin and Mike for a great in-person meeting experience.

11/25/2025

We have a special treat in store for CHS Members!

December 6th at 1pm we have a members only event (sorry limited to 40 attendees) at the famous Fossil Lab!

The Fossil Lab in Washington Park - 5437 S Wabash Avenue

Street parking is available. RSVP to: rcrowley@chicagoh**p.org

The 6,000 square foot facility features fossil preparation space, multipurpose areas for community programs, and tons of specimens collected from Sereno’s worldwide expeditions.

Additional details are here:

https://paulsereno.uchicago.edu/fossil_lab/

What not a member or need to renew? Check out this link:

http://chicagoh**p.org/membership

The Fossil Lab in Washington Park - 5437 S Wabash Avenue We will be having open houses in the fall on the second Thursday of the month from 3:30 - 5 pm. Upcoming dates: October 9th and November 13th Open houses will be paused over the winter and resume in early spring 2026.

09/24/2025

Hey folks, regrettably we have to cancel our next in-person meeting, September 24th. See you all next month!!!!

We feel bad about the last minute cancellation and want everyone to get their "h**p" fix, so please check out the Exotic Pet Industry Conference ... EPIC.live this Saturday!

EPIC is a free virtual reptile conference featuring some of the industry's most influential presenters. Their sessions focus on topics such as business, keeping, breeding, marketing, and more. Our audience includes exotic pet enthusiasts, breeders, content creators, and industry professionals. The g...

05/21/2025

The Milwaukee Public Museum is hosting a virtual lecture on h**p conservation in Wisconsin tomorrow evening (it is also in person for locals) if anyone is interested!

https://www.kingsnake.com/blog/archives/6518-Science-on-Tap-Conservation-Of-WI-H**ps.html

**ps

02/07/2025

On behalf of the requester:

Hello, My name is Javier delBarco-Trillo and I’m an Assistant Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at Illinois State University (ISU). My research group is going to start a research project in Spring 2025 on the effects of urbanization on house mice (a non-native pest) to understand how the urban life affects both animals and humans. To do this, we need to set up live traps in and around buildings in urbanized areas in Chicago and in farms outside of Chicago. We will transport trapped mice to ISU, where they will be housed and eventually culled using ethical and humane approaches. We are now looking for volunteers allowing us to set up clean traps in their private properties. We are interested in setting traps in any type of building, including houses, apartment buildings, and businesses. We also need to trap mice in farms, for example in barns. We are especially interested if you know that mice are present in your area or building. If you want to volunteer, we will come and set up one or a few traps at a time that works for you. Typically, we would set up traps towards the end of the day and check them early in the morning. But we will work with volunteers to make sure that the trapping does not impact with their normal activities. Trapping can take place anytime between May and October 2025. I am very happy to answer any questions and to hear from volunteers wanting to be involved in our project. Please send all messages directly to my institutional email: [email protected].

Send a message to learn more

12/09/2024

CHS Holiday event at the Notebaert Nature Museum on his Sunday 12/15 1pm.

Stop by and talk about our scaly friends, enjoy some snacks and non-alcoholic beverages.

10/02/2024

Well the African battle tanks aka sulcata tortoises got brought indoors for the season. under 40F tonight and a run of cool days makes it an easy call.

I got a bit more innovative with the use of a stair dolly, ratchet straps and padding. My back was not stressed. Of course i forgot to weigh them but will do that this weekend. Impact them the chore of spreading two big bales of aspen shavings.

09/19/2024

Thanks to everyone who joined us at our first general meeting at the Elgin Math and Science Academy.

This has been in process for months and we finally pulled it off with Myke Clarkson giving us an incredible presentation. It was also notable that we had a diverse h**p presence including tegu, monitor, uromastyx and a batch of baby colubrids.

And we were honored by a young h**per who was donating money generated from his lemonade stand in pursuit of badging to support his love for h**ps.

Next meeting is October 30th and we look forward to seeing you there!