Owen Bachhuber has been fascinated by reptiles since he was a kid. It all began at his sixth birthday party as he held turtles, snakes, and lizards from The Reptile Experience operated by Mike Burpee. Mike is a kindred spirit - his love for reptiles also began in childhood. In the midst of “the throes of a mid-life crisis,” Mike left behind his career in real estate to create The Reptile Experience, providing interactive experiences with reptiles to the community - like Owen’s sixth birthday party.
“I thought - wow, I can do that,” Owen said.
Owen joined the Minnesota Herpetological Society in fourth grade (and went on to serve as the organization’s president in 2022). By seventh grade he had his first pet snake. He volunteered at the Minnesota Zoo and the Como Zoo throughout middle school and high school. He even started an educational business using his own pet reptiles (like a smaller scale version of The Reptile Experience).
In 2018, Owen started his first year at University of Minnesota where he majored in Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology as an Honors student. His passion for reptiles didn’t stop once he started college. During his first summer break he interned at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium and became a teaching assistant for zoology labs in fall 2019.
While completing a summer internship with the Turtle and Mussel Conservation in the summer of 2020, Owen listened to a podcast featuring Dr. Emily Taylor that ended up inspiring his research for his Honors thesis, Impacts of Educational Messaging on Audience Attitudes Towards Rattlesnakes.
“How people think about snakes is so important,” he said. “It affects their conservation.”
He conducted a survey with visitors of Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium before and after they walked through the Desert Dome. Then he conducted the same survey with UMN zoology students, this time before and after they learned about rattlesnake social complexity through a hands-on lecture. The latter reported higher rates of positive feelings towards snakes after the educational session.
Owen is now a student at California State Polytechnic Institute and is advised by Dr. Taylor (the same researcher who inspired his thesis) where he studies the social behavior of snakes with the innovative Project RattleCam.
RattleCam placed cameras at Prairie Rattlesnake rookeries that were timed to take photos every five minutes. These photos were made available to the public and volunteers would look through the images to report information about the snakes. The results were used to study their social behavior, the way they obtain water in the region, and to help identify local predators.
“Time lapse camera technology is allowing us to learn about secretive animals living in remote areas,” said Dr. Taylor about the project. “We are so excited to peek into the lives of mother and baby rattlesnakes with community scientists!”
In addition to the photos, there was a companion YouTube series created featuring videos of the snakes.
“We’re able to see things we’ve never seen before,” Owen said.
Being able to show the public the way rattlesnakes behave can help humanize them, which in turn can inspire people to protect snakes’ habitats and communities. The research team is now working on bringing what they’ve learned into classrooms to teach the next generation about the lives of snakes.
“Snakes are very social,” Owen said. “They take care of their babies, they follow each other around, they have friends, they have babysitters.”
Owen will continue to pursue his passion for reptiles wherever the path leads him. Whether that’s a PhD program or going back to working in a zoo, he’s excited to share his excitement about reptiles with the larger community.
“I feel like I’ve gotten to live the dream throughout my life,” he said. “What really gets me energized is connecting people with animals. As long as I’m doing that, I’m happy.”