Dr. Robert C.

Stebbins
A Compilation of Memories [Professor Robert C.] Stebbins was the preeminent scholar studying amphibians and reptiles in North America, and was active professionally until his last year of life. From his first amphibian book in 1951 to his last book on Amphibians and Reptiles of California (2012, Univ. California Press) he was a productive and influential force. He was also a superb artist, both of scientific illustrations and of portraits and landscapes. Throughout his career Bob Stebbins was a strong force in conservation biology and was very influential in the establishment of parks and reserves, particularly in the Mojave Desert. He was an educator who contributed importantly to elementary and middle school science instruction, stressing involvement, and was an effective and influential university professor. It was his strong belief that the principal problem facing humans on this planet was over-population and all that flows from it. Above all, Bob Stebbins was a wonderful human being, a true naturalist, and a compassionate and involved citizen.
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We celebrate the life of a very special friend and colleague. Dr. David B. Wake Professor Emeritus and Emeritus Director Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (1971 - 1997) I first met Bob Stebbins when I interviewed for a position at the MVZ and Zoology Department in the spring of 1967 he took me to one of the lab sections of the natural history of vertebrates course, the famous course that Joseph Grinnell began in the 1910s and that has had such a profound influence on so many generations of Berkeley undergraduates, including those of today. The class exercise that afternoon was a functional demonstration of cryptic coloration students were paired as predators trying to maximize the number of prey they could find in a fixed time-period the prey were colored toothpicks scattered on the floor among cut-up pieces of colored paper. Each quickly learned a search image, how easy it was to find the odd-colored toothpick, how difficult it was to find any of those whose color matched parts of the background, and how important it was to be first in seeing a dwindling resource in short, an easily demonstrable, visual lesson of a fundamentally important natural phenomenon, imprinted onto the brains of young scholars in such a way as to never be forgotten. How simple, yet how elegant. I knew about Bob Stebbins, the scholar and artist, long before I came to Berkeley for that interview, as one of my

Dr. Robert C. Stebbins

A Compilation of Memories mentors in graduate school was Charles H. (Chuck) Lowe, the psychological and emotional polar opposite of Bob, yet a life long friend from their own graduate school days at UCLA. As fortune would have it, I came to the MVZ in early 1969, my wife and I rented the house next door to the Stebbinss, where I helped Bob dig a trench in the rain that winter to replace his sewer line, and was fortunate enough to co-teach the natural history course with him and Ned Johnson in the years before Bob retired in 1978. He was a remarkable scholar and teacher, but an even more remarkable human being engaging students with a passion, concerned as much for their own future as he was for the future of the natural world, and truly making a difference to everyone around him. The rest of us can only hope that we might leave behind even a small part of his wonderful legacy when it is our turn. Dr. James L. Patton Professor Emeritus and Emeritus Director Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (1997 2000) I first met Robert Stebbins when I was eleven years old. I was in the same 6th grade elementary school class as his son John. We both joined Boy Scout Troop 99 and Dr. Stebbins was one of the adults who took us on weekend camping trips. On these trips he took us on nature hikes and taught us how to noose lizards and find tree frogs at night by listening to their calls. When we were in the 7th grade, Dr. Stebbins and his friend Starker Leopold, a UC Berkeley professor in the
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School of Forestry and Conservation, took several of us on a spring break trip to the Mojave Desert and Anza Borrego State Park. This trip was my introduction to the study of natural history with an emphasis on amphibians and reptiles. I still have a near perfect memory of this trip 60 years later. The excitement of poking a small chuckwalla lizard out of a crack as Dr. Stebbins lifted up the rock, noosing a baby rattlesnake and walking up to Dr. Stebbins with the snake on the end of my noose and Dr. Stebbins saying Now Teddy, you shouldnt be catching rattlesnakes! Climbing with Dr. Stebbins up a canyon in the desert and looking under cap rocks for granite night lizards but instead finding a pair of leaf-toed geckos as he exclaimed Get those, Teddy, dont let them get away. I slapped my hands on the geckos and they both dropped their tails, but never the less I caught them. These were the first of the species that Dr. Stebbins had ever seen and they are now part of the MVZ collection. Through high school and college Dr. Stebbins guided me into my career as a herpetologist. I am honored to have been in his last cohort of Ph.D. students and I chose to honor him by naming a new species of California legless lizard after him this year. By the time I was in the 10th grade I had graduated in his mind from Teddy to just plain Ted, but I never called him Bob; he was always Dr. Stebbins. Dr. Theodore Papenfuss Researcher, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

Dr. Robert C. Stebbins

A Compilation of Memories When the MVZ moved into its new space in the renovated Life Sciences Building, Robert Stebbins and I found ourselves assigned to halves of the same office at the southeast corner of the MVZ. This space at the end of the hall suited him: it was quiet and private, out of the mainstream of MVZ daily business. I remembered how in the old MVZ the door of his office had usually been shut. I was in the office several days a week but he this was in 1995, a couple of decades after his retirement - came in less often. He would come in several days in a row if he was working on something like the revision of his field guide. This work kept him making phone calls, acting on correspondence and arranging for the electronic conversion of handwritten text and hand-drawn illustrations. At home he would be tracking down and painting the specimens needed for the revision, telling me that his hand still seemed to be steady enough to do this fine work. He seemed to have decided the computer world was too difficult to take the time to learn himself, so he relied on others to deal with it for him. Even email at that time was not so user friendly and standardized as it is today, so mostly he stuck to the communicative methods he knew. I realized that this eventually contributed to a certain isolation, because much information was being exchanged and other people forgot that the non-user wasnt seeing it. It was much harder to keep in the loop. But this isolation also allowed less interruption and more time to focus and
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think about his work. At times I wonder how much time email saves us because of the much greater volume in the Inbox; perhaps he was resisting this overall speed-up of modern life. In the office he would sometimes talk about the problems on his mind, having to do with publication of manuscripts to current political news or ecological conditions at the global scale. He was determined to keep his field guides maps where they were placed, at the end of the book. He believed this allowed the user to more easily find other species in the area of interest. He had thought a lot about the human affect on nature, and he and I could rant away for minutes on end. His conclusion was always that human population size was out of balance with the natural systems it depends on. No matter how discouraging the situation, he had a drive to express his concerns to the biggest audience, which resulted in his last book. He believed that education was still the answer and that teaching young people to care about nature was crucial. To be with him in the field was to be irresistibly drawn to the amazing and beautiful creatures he found snakes, lizards, frogs. Coming across a ring-necked snake in the Berkeley Hills, he showed how it would curl into a defensive coil when it felt threatened. Many hundreds of students must have had that experience of delight with him, in which he conveyed awe and a deep respect for the wild critter in addition to scientific knowledge of its behavior and habitat.

Dr. Robert C. Stebbins

A Compilation of Memories Robert Stebbins passion and commitment were the hallmarks of his character, and the natural world benefited by having such a determined spokesman. He knew the worlds environmental problems were worsening over his lifetime, but he didnt let despair take a paralyzing hold on him. He looked pretty discouraged at times but came back with more effort. He will always be for me an incomparable example of a human being sustaining a lifelong passion for the well-being of the creatures of the earth, and for a tireless exertion for their benefit. Karen Klitz Former MVZ Archivist and Illustrator [Dr. Stebbins] was a kind and gentle person, and extremely influential during his lifetime. I think that there are very few people who have produced so many good things with their talents and energies like he did. His field guides will remain the standard of quality for the entire genre. And for many decades into the future his last revision of the Peterson guide will be THE book that western US naturalist kids and adults will refer to when trying to identify or learn more about a frog, lizard, or snake (or a salamanders, of course!) His conservation activities are not so visible to the public, as they don't have his name on them. But, the high environmental awareness of the Bay Area population has an important origin in the stands that he took on habitat preservation on the UC campus and in the surrounding
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region, and his Bay Area field guide. I hope that he realized all of this and accepted his ending with the contentment of a life well-lived. I have now added him to my, ever-lengthening, list of people who I specifically remember, by name and memory, every day when I go out for my exercise and look out over the beautiful lake where I live - and help to remind myself of the great luck that I have had in knowing so many outstanding people and seeing and living in so many great places. I won't have his contentment at a life well lived when my time comes, but at least I will be able to appreciate how good my own life has been, because of people like RCSHis successes seemed to have been accomplished without the envy, jealousy (and hate) Dr. Richard D. Sage Former Berkeley Undergraduate and MVZ Staff Bob Stebbins study of the Ensatina salamanders inspired a generation of students at Berkeley and elsewhere, myself included. His Field Guides with his matchless illustrations and thorough text, opened our amphibian and reptile faunas to a burgeoning population of professional and amateur naturalists. Dr. Richard Zweifel First Stebbins Ph.D. Student

Dr. Robert C. Stebbins

A Compilation of Memories Dr. Stebbins was probably one of the most important persons in my life. He was very critical of my work and in a most constructive manner. He was very understanding when I had difficulties and was like a father to me. I greatly enjoyed our field trips together and working with him on Ensatina. He will be badly missed. Dr. Chuck Brown Former Stebbins Ph.D. Student Dr. Stebbins had such an important influence on my life, even though I switched over to public health. I have used what he taught me since I left the MVZ many times over. These past months, I had thought quite a bit about him since I bought a copy of his recent book about Connecting with Nature. It is such a perfect reflection of his life and work! I am sad that I didn't have a chance to visit him in person and let him know how much I appreciated all he had given me. Dr. Kristine Tollestrup Former Stebbins Ph.D. Student Director of Public Health, University of New Mexico I had so many positive and wonderful experiences with Dr. Stebbins, who I still can't think of as Bob, even though he repeatedly asked me to call him Bob. Dr. Kristen Berry Former Stebbins Ph.D. Student U.S. Geological Survey
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[Dr. Stebbins] was a pillar of the MVZ for so many decades[he had a] kindness and interest in encouraging young minds. He had a profound impact on my life as I was corresponding with Dr Stebbins when a gangling teenager living in Marin Co., Calif. on the other side the S.F. Bay. I took a bus over and visited once. Not too many professors would bother listening or helping a herp freak boys. Others were Ted Papenfuss and David Morafka. Also, I corresponded with him through my undergrad years, and visited the MVZ a couple of times. Once, when we were MSc students at Sacramento State Univ., John Brode caught an odd Slender salamander in Tehachapi Mtns and I thought it deseved a look by RCS, so we took it to him. His eyes lite up and said: Gentlemen, I think you have a new species here. Later described as Batrachoseps stebbinsi. (If I recall correctly, Ted had captured one earlier and it was in the collection. Right?). Then, I convinced him to be my major professor. Besides his academic success, Stebbins fostered much interest in conservation and environmental issues through many undergrad and grad students. Almost typical of him, he seemed to prefer they be out on the front lines and take the credit. His advice and council was a guiding light. Dr. R. Bruce Bury Former Stebbins Ph.D. Student Emeritus Scientist, U.S. Geological Survey

Dr. Robert C. Stebbins

A Compilation of Memories I was very sad to hear that Robert Stebbins passed away. As you Probably know he was my favourite [sic] professor when I was an undergraduate at Berkeley and I worked for him in the herp collections at MVZ when I was there. We talked a lot about natural history and formal science and he has a very big influence on me. So Im very sorry to hear this Dr. John A. Endler Former Stebbins Undergraduate Deakin University, Australia "To an undergraduate that had used Dr. Stebbins field guide through childhood, he was everything I had expected him to be in person: enthusiastic, talkative, attentive to details, an excellent teacher, patient and always willing to entertain my questions. I assisted him in two of his books for 4 years and not only learned about his passion for all organisms and the environment, but his interest in all global issues. I consider myself a better-rounded individual because of his influence. One of my fondest memories of Dr. Stebbins was being at his house in Walnut Creek discussing the nasal cavity of desert lizards while he made me a cheese sandwich and a banana, I told him that he was a testament that you can succeed in academics and continue eating like a graduate student. He always carried a smile and lived surrounded by his passion his entire life (of which years-wise, he spent in retirement longer than he did as a faculty)." Dr. Raul E. Diaz, Jr. Former Stebbins Undergraduate
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Assistant Professor, La Sierra University Dr. Stebbins was my childhood idle [sic]. I grew up in Phoenix, chasing snakes and lizards in the deserts around Phoenix and elsewhere in Arizona. My first field guide was the Petersons series, A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians 1st edition by R. C. Stebbins (Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston 1966). I went around trying to identify and observe as many species as I could, checking them off with the letter A next to their accounts indicating that I observed them in the wild in Arizona. In 1985, while I was still in High School, I traveled to Palm Springs, CA for a herpetological symposium and book signing, where Dr. Stebbins was releasing the 2nd edition of his Field Guide. At the time, I spent all my savings getting there and could not actually afford to buy the 85 version, but I stood in a long line with many folks, much older than me, all holding their newly printed copies to be signed. When I reached the front of the line, Dr. Stebbins took my 66 version in hand and, with a faded picture of the Ensatina salamander on the cover, pages worn down at the edges, a large smile appeared across his face. He said, This book looks like its been around? Excitedly I said, Yes sir, all over Arizona and now parts of southern California! Years later, I transferred from Santa Monica College (SMC) to UC Berkeley (UCB) to complete my bachelors degree in Biology. I was eager to meet Dr. Stebbins again. My biology professor at SMC wrote a letter to help me get work-study at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ), but also told me that Dr. Stebbins retired a long time ago

Dr. Robert C. Stebbins

A Compilation of Memories and there were now other herpetologists at the MVZ. That summer when I visited the MVZ, the other herpetologists were at meetings in Canada. While I was filling out a job application for the MVZ, Dr. Stebbins walked in and I reintroduced myself and asked if he could hire me. He asked me how are you with kids? And with maps? He was working on a garden-mapping project with local grade schools, trying to get young kids interested in nature and ecology. He hired me that fall semester and the first project was updating a hand-typed manuscript, with pencil markings that looked to be from several years of editing (the early version of Connecting with Nature: A Naturalists Perspective, Llumina Press, FL, 2009). Over the next few years I worked for Dr. Stebbins on various projects, including the 3rd edition to the Field Guide literally a dream come true for me. I knew this was a privilege for an undergraduate; the advice I received from Dr. Stebbins was not only invaluable as a budding academic scientist, but also towards embracing nature and instilling this behavior in others. I was sad to hear that Dr. Stebbins recently passed away. However, I know that he truly lived a remarkable life and influenced many others to appreciate and preserve our natural world along his way. Dr. Daniel G. Mulcahy, PhD Former Stebbins Undergraduate Smithsonian Institution Steve and I were honored early last summer to have Bob (along with his caregiver) come over to our house to see some of the snakes and amphibians that we had on hand. He identified all of them, of course, and was in cheerful spirits. His wife thought that his visit would last about 5-10 minutes, but he happily stayed for a full hour. It was such a treat, and definitely a pleasure to see his memory totally intact. In fact, Steve brought up the time that Bob got all the lab students (in an early Zo class) to climb up on their chairs. Then he: (a) brought in a rattlesnake and put it on the floor for the students to see how it moved, (b) took away the rattlesnake and brought in a king snake and put it on the floor, and then (c) took away the king snake and brought back the rattlesnake again. Then he asked the students what they had learned, and all of them knew immediately that king snakes could attack/eat rattlesnakes. I don't think current regulations would allow such a demonstration now, but what a powerful learning situation that must have been. Dr. Lynne D. Houck Former Wake Ph.D. Student Oregon State University, Corvallis I have fond memories of chats with [Dr. Stebbins] over the years. He was always very interested in talking with students about what they were doing. Dr. Nancy Staub Former Wake Ph.D. Student Professor, Gonzaga University
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Dr. Robert C. Stebbins

A Compilation of Memories Dr. Stebbbins and I briefly shared working space, and we shared accomodation in the Mojave (Marlow's trailer) and many hours of conversation regarding the Desert plan and off-road vehicles. He was one of the greats and he will be missed on so many levels. Dr. Steve Busack Former Wake Ph.D. Student Emeritus Director of Research and Collections, North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh favorite bird and that we should all lie down on the grass and listen for a while. I remember initially being surprised that a herpetologist would stop looking for herps to listen to a bird, but soon realized why: Dr. Stebbins was a 'complete' naturalist who loved all nature. Dr. Raymond B. Huey Former Berkeley Undergraduate and Wake Post-Doc Professor, University of Washington Dr. Robert Stebbins was a meticulous scientist who also was a great artist whose paintings of lizards, salamanders and snakes made his book "A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians" a work of art as well as a key field guide still very much in use. His teaching at UC Berkeley was also popular with students, including the classes on field biology and herpetology. Dr. Stebbins also became active in efforts to protect rare and endangered species and their habitats. He filmed motorcycle races on the desert in order to get public attention to the damage they were doing, helping eventually to pass the California Desert Protection Act and many other important biological rules and laws. I worked with him and his graduate students to protect the last habitats of the Santa Cruz Long-toed Salamander, and spent many enjoyable hours with him as an undergrad at Berkeley.

In the spring term of 1965, I took Zoology 113 (Natural History of the Vertebrates) from Professors Stebbins, Benson, and Johnson. I was premed at the time and had no real interest in the course, but 113 or the Invertebrate equivalent was required for the major. Little did I realize that 113 would change my life and convert me to biology. Every Saturday morning we had a field trip. Seeing bandtailed pigeons displaying in Strawberry Canyon, or mapping a woodrat nest, was always exciting and eyeopening. Most of us had no idea that so much wildlife was so close, or could be so much fun to watch. On these trips, students were split into small groups, and each group had either a Professor or a TA assigned as leader. One day in late spring, my group was lucky enough to have Dr. Stebbins as our leader, and our goal was to look for herps in Tilden. It was a beautiful sunny morning -- a perfect day for herping. Suddenly Dr. Stebbins told us to stop and listen. In the distance a ruby-crown kinglet (if memory serves) was singing. Dr. Stebbins said that this was his
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Dr. Robert C. Stebbins

A Compilation of Memories We will miss him and his very personal approach to biology and to conservation. Mark J. Palmer Former Berkeley Undergraduate Earth Island Institute In the spring of 1967 I was Professor Stebbins' Teaching Assistant in Herpetology. (Among the members of that class was David Morafka). One day we drove out to Corral Hollow to catch lizards for the lab that was part of the course. On our way back we crossed over the mountains and came into the back side of Oakland. There, near the freeway, was a gigantic new LDS temple. Professor Stebbins took one look at it and said to me: "Ross, I wouldn't give a single baby Batrachoseps for that entire thing." Dr. Ross Kiester Former Berkeley Undergraduate Turtle Conservancy, Chelonian Center I was interested in and collected reptiles and amphibians as a child and teenager, using the Peterson Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians, by Dr. Robert C. Stebbins. This useful guide was illustrated by the author, who was a talented artist as well as an excellent herpetologist. As a result of this field guide, I admired Bob Stebbins, and asked to meet him in his office when I was in my teens. He kindly received me, which was a thrill for me. I grew to know him better when I was a graduate student in zoology at UC Berkeley. He was always cordial and softPage 9

spoken. We stayed in touch after my graduation, discussing our mutual interests of herpetology and conservation. Dr. Stebbins was a dedicated conservationist. I had him over for dinner one night, and we had an interesting discussion into the night. Bob Stebbins was always engaging and interesting, and inspired me as well as many others. I, like many others, will miss him deeply. David Seaborg Former Berkeley Undergraduate Director, World Rainforest Fund Bob was amazing- taking herpetology from him, with Ted as my TA- well, you know what I'm saying, it was the experience of a lifetime for 20 year old Brad. Getting to know him, helping a bit with the new field guide for a couple of species, just being around the guy was so important, and so special. Dr. H. Bradley Shaffer Former Berkeley Undergraduate Director, UCLA La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science My wife and three boys all have fond memories of Bob, and suffice it to say they all grew up hearing about him on an almost daily basis (my wife and I were together as friends when I was visiting him in the early 70s, prior to my years at Cal). I even owe my first job--U of Maine--in part to my undergrad experience in Vert Nat Hist: as the chair of the search cmt was a Cal grad, and seeing I'd taken the

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A Compilation of Memories class (107), and would teach it in a similar fashion, sold everyone else on my suitability for the opening! I don't think I ever bored you with stories about what a big influence he was on me as kid growing up in the Bay Area, but I know I mentioned it to Marvalee [Wake] my first fall semester when she took me into her lab and treated me so kindly (1977). In any event, only last week I was going through all my old letters to/from Bob, preparing for an interview I have with an editor about exactly that subject...his influence on me (he's getting lots of coverage down here for his work on connecting kids to nature; this interview is for an Audubon Society pub, etc.). Over the yrs I met many that had been greatly encouraged by him as youngsters, just like me, and became herpetologists, in part, as a result (Pianka was one, for example; grew up in N Cal, etc., etc.; we talked a lot about it when I was at UT in the mid 80s). Here at ASU we are finally getting the entire vertebrate collection upgraded, updated, and moved into a new bldg. off campus, and I will be moving my collections of various materials there as the herpetological curator-besides the wet specimens, the fieldnotes section is the largest, and I like to think he'd be proud of that... Dr. Brian K. Sullivan Former Berkeley Undergraduate Professor, Arizona State University Like Bruce [Bury], I met Bob Stebbins when I was in high school and we stayed in touch until he moved to Oregon. The first book I purchased with my own money was Amphibians of Western North America. Bob was a remarkable role model, and he had a significant impact on me as a person and as a professional biologist. His contributions have been huge and I doubt he had any idea how many people he inspired to be biologist, or even be more knowledgeable about the biological world. He was a great man. Dr. Gary Fellers Former Berkeley Undergraduate U.S. Geological Survey My condolences on the loss of your colleague, Bob Stebbins. It felt like he would always be there, and I will miss having him call to ask about changes to status of NV herps. I'm not sure if all will appreciate how large is the loss because they are so used to him always being there, and I mourn both the loss of a very enjoyable friend Dr. C. Richard Tracy University of Nevada, Reno I first met Bob and was with him for more than a month during the 1964 UC expedition to the Galapagos. What a great guy! Soemwhere [sic] and I've often looked in vain for it -I have a photograph of Bob holding a marine iguana upside down by the tail and wielding an immense rectal thermometer to take the critters temperature! (He could be a very funnyman, and a great jokester too)

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Dr. Robert C. Stebbins

A Compilation of Memories I remember writing too about his hilarious but fullhearted support of UC Santa Cruz students who were, if I recall, successfully saving the habitat of the Santa Cruz Long-Toed Salamander David Perlman San Francisco Chronicle Science Editor Some of my earliest memories are of thumbing through Stebbins's SF Bay field guide to reptiles and amphibians. We had a copy of this little brown book kicking around the house and seeing & being amazed by Stebbins's pictures of these creatures may have predated my seeing & catching them for myself. which I started doing when I was 6 or 7. I am convinced that the artwork made the difference. The realness of the facial expressions and poses was startling and compelling -- as if it were these pictures that were the blueprint for the real thing. Equally arresting was an illustration of two kids my age, wearing headlamps, staring down a frog. And a sketch of a field journal -- it's all there. A prescription for a life noosing lizards and flipping over rocks (which any Stebbins acolyte knew to put properly back in its place). I was lucky enough to spend my entire childhood and youth in Los Gatos, hometown to another famous herpetologist, John Van Denburgh -- though I didn't learn about that guy until I was in college. The reptile and amphibian fauna in the surrounding hills was diverse and intimately addressed in the Bay Area guide. To me, nature and Stebbins's interpretation of it were inseparable, a harmonious whole, as if neither could exist without the other. His place at the top of my personal
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pantheon of heroes remains unchallenged. He had a depth that provided increasing pleasure when I reached college age. The prose he used in his field notes -- see the Amphibians of Western NA for good examples -- was as good as any produced by any writer, ever. Thanks to MVZ for having the good taste to harbor such a beautiful soul, and thank you RCS for the service you rendered to nature and to us all. Michael Frederick Westphal Ecologist, Bureau of Land Management My deepest condolences for the passing away of Bob Stebbins. A great scientist and human being. Dr. Eviatar Nevo Professor, University of Hifa, Israel Bob was someone I have always thought the world of. His career was an amazing one and is obviously something to be celebrated. My most sincere condolences to the Berkeley community and to his family. Dr. Dant Fenolio San Antonio Zoo I just want you to know that I'm very sorry about [learning of Dr. Stebbins passing], he was such a great scholar and a person. I had the opportunity to meet him on a couple of my visits to MVZ. Dr. Oscar Flores-Villela University Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City

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A Compilation of Memories

The following is reprinted with permission from the American Society of Ichthyology and Herpetology. !

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Copeia, 2006(3), pp. 563572

ROBERT CYRIL STEBBINS

DANIEL G. MULCAHY
AND

MEREDITH J. MAHONEY
in a converted almond-shelling shed. When Bob was seven years old, the family moved to the San Francisco Bay area, although they continued to visit the ranch until Bob was around eight. In the Bay Area, Cyril Stebbins made educational films focusing on agriculture and social values for the Wyeth Corporation in San Francisco and worked in agriculture as an instructor at UC Berkeley with the geneticist and plant breeder Ernest B. Babcock, who developed the Babcock Peach. Cyril Stebbins was strongly interested in agriculture and wrote a book entitled The Principles of Agriculture for the School and Home Garden (1913). He also ran and organized a community garden project on the UC Berkeley campus where the local children grew fruits and vegetables to consume and sell for profit. This developed into a local community, participated in by the children, which had its own bank, mayor, and police. During World War I, Cyril was in the U.S. Garden Army, and he was in charge of establishing garden communities in schools in three western states. The battle cry throughout the U.S. at the time was food will win the war, and the Garden Armys stationery was topped with rake and hoe. Bobs parents were a strong positive influence on him; his career, focusing on biology and education, mirrors that of his father. His father was a biologist, an agriculturalist, and an evolutionist who also went to church. His mother was more religious, a fundamentalist Christian, and Bob attended church with his parents from an early age. The combination of these influences led to Bobs interest in biology and the natural world, as well as concern for the well-being of humanity and the need for control of human population growth to prevent serious damage to the natural environment. Bobs early experiences in biology include learning the parts of the flower from his father at around age five. His father also taught him how to identify birds, and one of his earliest treasured memories is seeing a Red-Shafted Flicker on the ranch in Chico. Bob once climbed a tree to get close to a sleeping Great Horned Owl and was reprimanded with

ROBERT C. STEBBINS is a Professor Emeritus of Zoology and Curator Emeritus of Herpetology in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ) at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also an artist, a musician, a husband; a father, a teacher, and a whole lot more. Perhaps he is best known among herpetologists for his influential Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians in the Peterson Field Guide series (Stebbins, 1966, 1985, 2003), with intricate details on natural history and the beauty of his hand-painted illustrations. There is, however, a lot more to Robert Stebbins, whose close friends and colleagues call him Bob, than many seem to know. Bob Stebbins was raised on a farm, grew up during The Great Depression, and received his college education during World War II. He studied biogeography before it was understood that the continents move, and he studied speciation during the time of the Evolutionary Synthesis. He established the herpetology program at the MVZ and retired at the dawn of the molecular era, before the computer technological revolution. For many decades he has struggled with unifying the ideals of evolutionary biology and religious beliefs, especially when concerned with the problem of overpopulation. In particular, he views education as essential in re-establishing the human connection with the natural world for our own physical sustainment Robert Cyril Stebbins (Fig. 1) was born 31 March 1915 in Chico, Butte County, California. His parents were Cyril A. and Louise B. Stebbins, and Bob was the oldest of seven children. Cyril Stebbins worked in farming and agriculture and was Supervisor of Agricultural Nature Study and Director of Rural School Extension at the Chico State Normal School for Teachers. The Stebbins family lived on a 15-acre ranch outside of Chico where they had small-scale prune and almond orchards, a horse, and a few sheep. When Bob was about five years old, the family moved to a second ranch, about 20 acres in size and closer to town. Here the main crops were almonds, peaches, and watermelons, and the family lived
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R.

2006 by the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists

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Fig. 1. Bob Stebbins at age 38, on the set of the San Francisco Bay Area television show Science in Action, 1953. Photo courtesy of Bob Stebbins.

a swat on the rear by his father for not watching over his younger sister. Bobs mother, Louise, also encouraged his interest in the natural world. His first memory of a herpetological interaction was when he caught a Western Pond Turtle on a family trip to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada when he was four or five years old. He still recalls the feel of its shell and claws. The turtle was lost somehow, but Bobs mother went to the stream and caught him another one. Bob attributes his artistic abilities to his mothers side of the family. Louise painted pictures of fairy tales for Bob and his brother Hubert. Her beautiful paintings surely set the stage for his own interest in art. Two other Stebbins children also grew up with artistic skills. In addition to painting, Bob also enjoys playing the violin, which he took up at age 12. Cyril Stebbins loved music and wanted his children to have musical abilities. Each child was assigned an instrumentflute, viola, piano, and clarinetand everyone played in the family orchestra. Bob later played the violin in the North Hollywood High School orchestra. Bob discovered that he

had artistic talents when he was around 16 years old. The Santa Monica Mountains had very few houses when he was growing up there, and wildlife was often the subject of his drawings. He also drew India-ink cartoons on the sweatshirts of fellow high school students for 25 cents each. He did not have any formal art training until 1941, when it was more for the purpose of fine-tuning his skills. Especially notable were 12 years of figure and portrait painting under the internationally known Peter Blos of Berkeley, California. Many Blos paintings are found on the UC Berkeley Campus and a particularly stunning one of the nurse Alta Bates is on display in the hospital that bears her name. However, Bobs art has focused mainly on natural landscapes and wildlife. He has participated in many art shows and for many years sold paintings at Contemporary Arts Gallery in Berkeley, California (no longer in existence), and illustrated greeting cards produced by his sons company, Wildlife Impressions, in Eugene, Oregon. Thus, painting and art have been very important to Bob throughout his career. When he first

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES arrived at UC Berkeley, he was in the midst of illustrating the figures for his book Amphibians of Western North America (Stebbins, 1951) and went to see Alden H. Miller, the director of the MVZ, about his painting. Bob was worried that the time involved in painting and drawing, even for scientific purposes, would slow his research progress as compared with colleagues who didnt draw. For example, a drawing of a toad could take eight hours that perhaps would be more profitably spent keeping up with the scientific literature. Much to his relief, Millers response was, Draw! Bob says that without this support, he might not have written and illustrated the field guides. Looking back, he feels that the time spent on paintings and drawings did not impact his professional advancement at all. He continues painting today (age 91), and he notes that his hand still remains steady and allows the accurate detail he puts into his work. He can still highlight each scale as he did for the Gila Monster painted for the third edition of his Petersons Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians (Stebbins, 2003). That painting took about 40 hours to complete. Bob finds the library research a more daunting task. When he first began working on the field guides it was not too difficult to keep up on the appropriate literature. He maintained filing cabinets with a folder for each species covered in the field guide, with all the relevant geographic distribution and natural history information published to date. When preparing the third edition of the Field Guide, given the large volume of recent publications in the field, he worried about missing important references. The Stebbins family moved to Pomona, California when Bob was nine and to Sherman Oaks, overlooking the San Fernando Valley, when he was about eleven. After graduating from North Hollywood High School in 1933, he enrolled in the University of California, at Los Angeles (UCLA), in Civil Engineering. Looking back now, Bob laughs at how inappropriate this course of study was given his youth spent outdoors and his strong interests in animals and the natural world. He admits pressure from his friends led to this first career choice. After nearly flunking out and developing health problems, perhaps partly associated with unhappiness at the academic program he was following, he left college for a year and a half. When he returned to UCLA, he was determined to major in Biology and eventually graduated in 1940 with highest honors in Zoology. Biology was clearly a better fit than Civil Engineering. Bob had a strong interest in teaching and obtained credentials at the junior college level in 1942 and elementary and high

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school levels in 1943. He was hedging his bets so that he would have a range of possibilities for future employment. In addition to the biology major, he minored in public speaking. This was another choice based on his goal of a career in education. He recognized that he had difficulty speaking in front of people and the solution was to work on improving himself in that area. Although Bob was destined to teach at some level, he was encouraged to continue his education and pursue a Ph.D. by professor Raymond B. Cowles, whom he assisted and helped prepare mounted bird specimens for class use. So he entered the Ph.D. program, initially working with Loye H. Miller at UCLA, but later with Cowles as his major advisor. Miller was an ornithologist and paleontologist and had done well-known work on the fossil birds of the La Brea tar pits. He was also the father of Alden H. Miller, an ornithologist and the second director of the MVZ at UC Berkeley. Bobs initial focus on ornithology was derived from his early experiences with his father who was a skilled ornithologist with publications in the field. Bob and his father Cyril published several books on birds, including the birds of Lassen and Yosemite National Parks (Stebbins and Stebbins, 1941, 1942, 1974). Bob originally planned to study Roadrunners for his dissertation. At the time, he was living in the Santa Monica Mountains and was able to imitate many birds of the area, including the Roadrunner. He could use calls to attract Roadrunners to within close range by hiding near clearings in the brush. He thought this would allow him to spray-mark the birds with paint or dye and study individual behavior. Fully set on beginning his research career in ornithology, Bob went on a field trip to the desert with Cowles, whose research interest was in herpetology. Cowles, along with Charles M. Bogert, his student at the time, was studying body temperature of desert snakes and lizards. The animals were kept in outdoor cages set up in the dunes in the vicinity of what was then the small desert town of Palm Springs. Bobs experiences on this trip influenced him so much that it caused him to switch his studies from ornithology to herpetology, with the full approval of Miller. He did continue to publish on birds (Stebbins, 1957a) and work with Miller (Stebbins and Miller, 1947). Bob admits that his switch was partly because of his desire to find a career path with many opportunities for research. He saw ornithology as a relatively crowded field, while herpetology was very open, with much to do and not as many researchers. However, the main reason he chose to pursue research in herpetology was pure excitement about the subject. Bob

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COPEIA, 2006, NO. 3 decided not to enter. Being cooped-up in a very small space underwater did not appeal to this man who loved the outdoors. Toward the end of the war, he nearly accepted an Army Commission as a parasitologist to work in Southeast Asia, but two factors intervened. At this point he was older than most enlisted men with a wife and two children, and he had been offered a job as Assistant Curator in Herpetology at the MVZ. That title is misleading, as he was the first official curator of herpetology, but like other university academic positions, assistant was a beginning rank. Thus, Bob Stebbins became the first herpetology curator at the MVZ, beginning in 1945. Although amphibians and reptiles were collected on museum field expeditions, the main research emphasis of the curators to that point was birds and mammals. A few generalized vertebrate naturalists, such as Tracy I. Storer and Jean M. Linsdale, had contributed to the budding herpetology collection, but at that time it was managed by Alden Miller, an ornithologist and successor to Joseph Grinnell as the museums director (Rodr guez-Robles et al., 2003). Other candidates considered for the curator position were Henry S. Fitch and Thomas L. Rodgers. Fitch did his graduate work under Joseph Grinnell, the first director of the MVZ. Rodgers was a graduate student working under Alden Miller and was Acting Curator of Herpetology at the time (Rodr guez-Robles et al., 2003). Bob was hired for the position; he is still not sure why he was selected, but says hes definitely happy with the outcome. As the curator of herpetology at the MVZ, Bob continued the Grinnell-Miller style of natural history and note taking in the herpetology program, standardized the preservation methods of the amphibian and reptile specimens for the collection, and established a curriculum, course handbooks, and teaching collection for the herpetology and vertebrate natural history courses in the Department of Zoology (now Integrative Biology) at UC Berkeley. Stebbins curated the herpetology collection at the MVZ for over two decades until David B. Wake was hired in 1969. Stebbins and Wake curated the herpetology collection together until 1978, when Bob passed his duties over to Harry W. Greene. For a more complete history of the herpetology program at the MVZ, see Rodr guez-Robles et al. (2003). During his tenure as curator in herpetology at the MVZ, Stebbins contributed substantially to the academic community. He published on geographic distributions (Stebbins and Reynolds, 1947; Stebbins, 1948b, 1955), and his studies ranged from locomotion (Stebbins, 1947) and

conducted his Masters and Ph.D. dissertation research on fringe-toed lizards (Uma) under the supervision of Cowles. For his Masters degree, completed in 1942, he studied adaptations of nasal passages in Uma (Stebbins, 1943a), and for his Ph.D., finished in 1943, he worked on other aspects of Uma ecology associated with dune habitats, such as vision, the parietal eye, hearing, and locomotion (Stebbins, 1944a). Bob considers Cowles to be an important influence and model for his own research. Cowles, known as the Doc by his students, was a biologist and a naturalist with broad interests; he particularly disliked being called merely a snake-catcher. He was strongly concerned with the problem of over-population and human-mediated damage to the environment, and Bob attributes his own interest in these issues largely to Cowles early influence. Bob and the Doc remained close friends until Cowles death in 1975. Stebbins wrote the forward to a book by Cowles, where Bob expressed some of their shared concerns about the future of the natural world, the human population, and our ability to sustain ourselves. The book, Desert Journal, is a collection of short stories based on Cowles experience in deserts around the world (Cowles and Bakker, 1977). The book was published posthumously and was completed by Elna S. Bakkar, with illustrations by Gerhard Bakkar and technical assistance by Bob Stebbins. While in graduate school, Bob also attended the Yosemite Field School of Natural History in 1940, and served as a Ranger-naturalist at Lassen Volcanic National Park in the summers of 1941 and 1942. The Ranger-naturalist position involved working closely with the public, giving lectures, and organizing campfire activities, which included leading groups in song. While working in the Lassen Volcanic National Park area, he also conducted some classic studies on the home range and territorial behavior of the lizard, the Mountain Swift, Sceloporus graciosus (Stebbins, 1944b, 1948a; Stebbins and Robinson, 1946). Bob was not enlisted in the military during World War II, although many of his friends were. Instead, UCLA obtained a waiver for him to teach navy medical corpsmen preventative parasitology and to translate German tapes concerning parasites of medical importance in the southeast Asian war theatre. Bob almost entered the U.S. Navy submarine service where his skills as an illustrator were sought for technical drawing. He thought that he would be performing his duties, including teaching through drawings, while on dry land. When he learned he would have to go down in the submarines he

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES regulatory-processes (Stebbins, 1948c, 1960a, 1970; Stebbins and Lowenstein, 1969), to natural history (Stebbins, 1943b, 1954a), reproductive biology (Stebbins, 1949a, b), and systematics (Stebbins, 1949c; Stebbins and Lowe, 1949, 1951) of salamanders. He described two species that occur in western North America: the Jemez Mountain salamander, Plethodon neomexicanus (Stebbins and Riemer, 1950) and the Panamint Alligator lizard, Elgaria panamintina (Stebbins, 1958a). He also described two salamander subspecies, Ensatina eschscholtzii xanthoptica (Stebbins, 1949c) and Rhyacotriton olympicus variegatus (Stebbins and Lowe, 1951), which was subsequently elevated to species status (Good and Wake, 1992). Two salamanders have been named in his honor: the Tehachapi Slender salamander (Batrachoseps stebbinsi; Brame and Murray, 1968) and the Sonoran Tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum stebbinsi; Lowe, 1954). Bob and his wife, Anna-rose (Posie), have three children: Robert John, Melinda Louise, and Mary Anna-rose. Bob and Anna-rose met in Sherman Oaks, California, through their church activities. They were married on the eighth of June, 1941, and as it turned out, they have been essentially the only person for each other over their entire lives. Their relationship is founded on many shared interests, particularly with respect to nature, and he describes her as a wonderful mother and wife. She has supported his research over the years, in no small part by tolerating frogs, toads, and salamanders in the refrigerator, and tortoises on the sundeck and in the living room. When Bob was studying the courtship of Ensatina eschscholtzii (Stebbins, 1949a), he kept a pair of salamanders in a tank in their bedroom. He used only a red light so the animals would not be disturbed and he covered the tank with diapers (they had a young child at the time). Keeping watch through a narrow slot until odd hours of the night, he removed the diapers one at a time until he had just enough illumination to observe the salamanders. When the animals reached the climax of the courtship dance, the male stroking the female with his tail while she picks up the spermatophore, Bob excitedly awoke Posie so she could see. She looked briefly, said hmm, and went back to sleep. Posie has said, and he fully agrees, that their lives have always been filled with love. Robert John their oldest child, is a businessman in Eugene, Oregon. Melinda is a high school teacher in Adelaide, in southern Australia, and Mary, the youngest, is an elementary school teacher in Vernon, British Columbia. All of their children love the outdoors and the natural world.

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Bob Stebbins joined ASIH around the time he started at his position at Berkeley. Although he let his membership lapse because the MVZ subscribes to many herpetological journals, he continues to read Copeia, as well as other herpetological journals, to keep up to date in the field. Copeia was an important outlet for many of his classic publications, such as courtship behavior in Ensatina (Stebbins, 1949a) and locomotion in Hydromantes (Stebbins, 1947), each with original artwork drawn by Bob, and his pinealectomy study of Sceloporus occidentalis (Stebbins, 1960a). Bob served as Herpetology Editor for Copeia from 19561959 (Berra, 1984), with the initial encouragement of Fred Cagle (who served as Managing Editor 19561958). However, Bob didnt care for the society work because it kept him from his paintings; his wife still remembers his complaints to that effect. The first society meeting Bob attended was in Gainesville, Florida, in 1954. This was one of his first airplane flights, and he was quite nervous so he asked a doctor to give him a sedative. The pill was so effective that he slept in his hotel room through a good portion of the meeting. Bob feels that his two most important research investigations were the ring-species complex of Ensatina eschscholtzii and his studies of the reptilian parietal eye (pineal gland). He was the first to document the ring-like geographic distribution around the Central Valley of California of different color-patterns, each treated as a subspecies within E. eschscholtzii (Stebbins, 1949c). He demonstrated sympatry (Stebbins, 1957b) and hybridization (Brown and Stebbins, 1965) in the two extreme forms of the Rassenkreis. It was his work that revealed a break, now known to many as Bobs Gap, in the distribution between large and small-blotched forms in the Transverse Range of southern California. He thinks that he lucked out by finding an animal that does everything you could think of in an evolutionary sense. Indeed, the Ensatina complex continues to provide a natural system to study evolutionary processes (Moritz et al., 1992; Jackman and Wake, 1994; Wake, 1997; Highton, 1998; Wake and Schneider, 1998) and has literally become a text-book example of speciation in evolutionary biology (Futuyma, 1997; Ridley, 2004). When Bob worked on function of the parietal eye he asked his friend and colleague, UC Berkeley developmental biologist Richard M. Eakin, to join him on the project. His graduate advisor Raymond Cowles was the first to point out this interesting structure on Uma, and Bob did some experiments involving the parietal eye for part of his dissertation (Stebbins, 1944a). Some

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COPEIA, 2006, NO. 3 books, complete with hand-drawn illustrations. The vertebrate natural history course was another of his primary teaching responsibilities, for which he also wrote and illustrated portions of the laboratory handbooks. Both of these courses are still taught today and have been built upon the original curricula. Bob was responsible for coordinating the natural history course for many years as well as building the teaching collection, which gives students hands-on experience with specimens (Rodr guez-Robles et al., 2003). He acted as a major or co-graduate advisor for 29 students, served on many graduate-student committees, and supported undergraduate involvement (see Adler et al., 1989 and Rodr guezRobles et al., 2003 for complete lists). Bob has traveled to many parts of the world to study amphibians and reptiles and to conduct surveys of biology teaching in secondary schools abroad. He traveled to Colombia (Fig. 2), South America, in 1950 to study amphibians (Stebbins and Hendrickson, 1959) and South Africa in 195758, 1962, and 1972. In South Africa (1957 58), he studied changes in the pineal foramina with the shift toward warm-bloodedness in mammal-like reptile fossils. The work was con-

of the parietal eye experiments Stebbins and Eakin conducted on Sceloporus might be hard to get approved today. They involved cutting a small flap of skin on the top of the head to expose the tiny third eye and exerting a small amount of pressure on the head. The silvery membrane lining the parietal eye would evert, popping out the organ, but remained undamaged, protecting the cranial cavity. Bob notes that these operations were easy to perform in the field under a dissecting microscope, and the impact on the lizards was negligible; they would sometimes feed immediately afterwards. The results were that the surgically modified lizards became active much earlier in the day, spent more time in the sun, and remained active much later than sham operated control lizards (Stebbins and Eakin, 1958; Eakin and Stebbins, 1959). Demonstration of the role that the parietal eye plays in the daily activity cycle of lizards was a breakthrough at a time when the phrase circadian rhythm was not a common part of the scientific lexicon. A later study by Bob and his friend and colleague Dr. Nathan W. Cohen (Stebbins and Cohen, 1973) demonstrated an influence on the reproductive cycle of lizards. Bob received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship and other NSF funding (from 19561970) to work on the parietal eye and pineal gland in reptiles (e.g., Stebbins, 1958b, 1960a; Stebbins and Wilhoft, 1966). Bob Stebbins places his role as teacher among his greatest contributions to science. As a professor at UC Berkeley in the early 1960s, he was a member of the University of California Elementary School Science Committee, focused on improving science in elementary schools using experimental approaches. He was involved in a test of this approach using animal coloration exercises in elementary schools in the East Bay (Stebbins et al., 1966). The resulting book was later used as a textbook in elementary schools in southern Australia. Bob recalls a time when he spoke to his daughter Marys fifth grade class and how mortified she was at the prospect. When she heard he was to speak she said Daddy, did you get the teachers permission? Bob has made two educational films (Stebbins, 1962, 1967), one of which won a Bronze Award at the International Film and T.V. Festival in New York and an Outstanding Merit Award at the Chicago International Film Festival Incorporated. Bob coauthored general zoology textbooks (Storer et al., 1972, 1979) and taught courses in biology, zoology, herpetology, parasitology, embryology, and conservation throughout his career. At UC Berkeley, he was the first faculty member to teach herpetology and wrote the laboratory hand-

Fig. 2. Bob Stebbins in Colombia, South America, with a Boa constrictor in 1950. Photo courtesy of Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, UC Berkeley.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ducted at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, but was never published. The findings, extensively illustrated, are in the authors file at MVZ. In south and southeast Asia, in 1963, he participated in a cross-cultural exchange program dedicated to improve teaching in secondary schools for the National Academy of Sciences. Stebbins was a member of the University of California Scientific Expedition to the Gala pagos Islands in 1964, where he studied characteristics of Lava lizards (Tropidurus), including the parietal eye and aspects of their ecology (Stebbins and Wilhoft, 1966; Stebbins et al., 1967). For some 30 years he went to Australia annually with Anna-rose to visit their daughter Melinda and her family. While in Australia, he conducted some of the first-ever radiotelemetric studies with reptiles (Stebbins and Barwick, 1968). Bob has around 100 scientific publications, including films, books, book reviews, natural history notes, and teaching guides, that are substantial contributions to the academic community. He has around 75 peer-reviewed, scientific publications in such journals as: Science, Evolution, Ecology, Physiological Ecology, American Midland Naturalist, and Systematic Zoology. The University of California Publications in Zoology and Copeia have also been important outlets for his work. He has written numerous natural history books and field guides, many focusing on amphibians and reptiles (Stebbins, 1951, 1954b, 1960b, 1972), including the recent Natural History of Amphibians (Stebbins and Cohen, 1995). Most influential is undoubtedly his Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians (Stebbins, 2003). This book, now in its third edition as part of the Peterson Field Guide Series (Stebbins, 1966, 1985), was preceded by Amphibians of Western North America (1951), still a valuable reference on amphibian natural history, and Amphibians and Reptiles of Western North America (1954b). His books are complete with detailed information regarding distribution and natural history, as well as artistic illustrations, diagrams, and drawings, making older editions collectors items among herpetologists. Although our knowledge of species distributions change, and time must be allowed before new taxonomies are accepted, the Stebbins Field Guide is more than just a course reference to the herpetology student, a starting point for student research ideas, or a guide for the naturalist. This book is actually targeted towards the amateur naturalist and layperson. Bobs inspiring enthusiasm for amphibians and reptiles continues to elicit a similar enthusiasm in many past, and, undoubtedly, future generations.

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Stebbins became Professor Emeritus of Zoology and Curator Emeritus of Herpetology at the MVZ in 1978 when Harry W. Greene was hired. On his retirement, Bob received the Berkeley Citation, the highest honor given by UC Berkeley to faculty, in recognition of his achievements and influence with respect to teaching, research, and scientific illustration (Rodr guez-Robles et al., 2003). Some of Bobs other awards include a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1949 and NSF Senior Postdoctoral Fellowships from 19581959. He is a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences. Bobs field notes and specimen catalogs have been bound and are housed in the GrinnellMiller Library in the MVZ at UC Berkeley. However, Bobs most recent notes are still unbound as he continues to collect specimens, record natural history observations, and paint (Fig. 3). Current plans of the MVZ are to make all field notes and journal accounts available from the museums website, and Dr. Stebbins are among the first being processed. The specimens he collected, including vouchers for the field guide paintings, have been catalogued in the herpetology collection, and several of his landscapes and other artwork, including a painting of a Roadrunner feeding its offspring entitled Too Soon Off the Nest, are displayed on the walls of the MVZ. Bob has remained active following his official retirement, focusing on his Peterson Field Guide (two revisions since; Stebbins, 1985, 2003) and on conservation and education. Theodore J. Papenfuss, his last Ph.D. student, encouraged him to include Baja California in the 1985 edition of the Field Guide, a task he says he wouldnt have taken on otherwise. Ted assisted him in distributional information and collected specimens for the new paintings. Bob has been active in seeking protection for the southern California Deserts (Stebbins and Cohen, 1976; Stebbins et al., 1977) and received the University of Californias Environmental Spirit Award in 1995. Stebbins has greatly shaped and continues to influence the herpetology research program at UC Berkeley; he is not only discussed in a brief summary of the history of herpetology at the MVZ, the publication was dedicated to him (Rodr guez-Robles, et al., 2003). He has prepared, with the help of East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) staff, guidelines for biological survey studies for the EBMUD (Guidelines I and II, Jan. 1996, published by the District) and with his former student Samuel M. McGinnis is currently revising his book California Amphibians and Reptiles (Stebbins, 1972). Bob considers one of his most important public service contributions to be his involve-

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Fig. 3. Bob Stebbins at his residence studio in Kensington, Alameda Co., CA, in 2004. Photo taken by Charles Brown.

ment in protection of California deserts. The desert has been his favorite teaching and research area and his most cherished environment, first entered in 1926 when he was eleven years old and much of it was a true wilderness. In the late 1960s, Bob became alarmed by the expanding damage inflicted on the desert by off-road vehicles (ORVs; dirt bikes, all terrain vehicles, dune buggies, etc.). He was joined by geologist Dr. Howard Wilshire and his close friend Dr. Nathan Cohen in a petition to the then newlyelected President Jimmy Carter to issue an executive order to increase control over the rapidly growing ORV menace to the desert. Carter acted quickly, but the order was soon challenged by off-road enthusiasts, and it resulted in a minimal decrease in the continuing damage to the desert environment. The Stebbins, Wilshire, and Cohen team responded by organizing the scientific community to gather information on the growing impactsdestruction of wind-resistant soil protective crusts, spread of weeds, and widespread destruction of native animals and plant life as

well as impairment of benign uses of the desert by home owners, campers, school groups, nature enthusiasts, scientists, picnickers, artists, and sightseers. Bobs major involvement in this problem began in 1973 and lasted until 1980, with many conservation and public interest groups, including the Sierra Club, also joining the cause. Senator Alan Cranston was an important champion both in the field and in Congress. All these efforts resulted in the landmark California Desert Protection Act, narrowly approved by congress in 1994. Regrettably, the battle continues, but some of the positive outcomes were the creation of the East Mojave National Scenic Area and the enlargement and elevation of Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Monuments to National Park status (see Stebbins, 1990; Latting and Rowlands, 1995; Wheat, 1999). Bob Stebbins views his art, music, natural history, science, and his work with children and teaching as interlocking components of his career. Concerned with human population growth and our ability to sustain ourselves as

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES part of the Earths natural ecosystem, he sees a tremendous disconnection between humans and nature and views the solution almost akin to how many people hold religious beliefsthat we must cherish and revere our natural world. He understands the pervasiveness of the situation in which two areas of human concern, ethics and science, appear antagonistic, but feels that they should be viewed as complementary and that we should not separate ourselves from evolution and our reliance on the natural world as an ecosystem. For several decades, Bob has worked on what may be his epic publication. He has recently completed a book manuscript, entitled Connecting with Nature: A Naturalists Perspective, in which he explains the importance of maintaining our connection with nature, and our essential reliance on the natural ecosystems of the world for our own sustainment. LITERATURE CITED
ADLER, K., J. S. APPLEGARTH, AND R. ALTIG. 1989. Contributions to the History of Herpetology. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. BERRA, T. M. 1984. A chronology of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists through 1982. Spec. Publ. No. 2, American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. BRAME, A. H., AND K. F. MURRAY. 1968. Three new slender salamanders (Batrachoseps) with a discussion of relationships and speciation within the genus. Bull. Los Angeles Co. Mus. Nat. Hist. 4:135. BROWN, C. W., AND R. C. STEBBINS. 1965. Evidence of hybridization between the blotched and unblotched subspecies of the salamander Ensatina eschscholtzii. Evolution 18:706707. COWLES, R. B., AND E. S. BAKKER. 1977. Desert Journal: A Naturalist Reflects on Arid California. Univ. of California Press, Berkeley. EAKIN, R. M., AND R. C. STEBBINS. 1959. Parietal eye nerve in the fence lizard. Science 130:15731574. FUTUYMA, D. J. 1997. Evolutionary Biology, 2nd edition. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts. GOOD, D. A., AND D. B. WAKE. 1992. Geographic variation and speciation in the torrent salamanders of the genus Rhyacotriton (Caudata: Rhyacotritonidae). Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool. 126:191. HIGHTON, R. 1998. Is Ensatina eschscholtzii a ringspecies? Herpetologica 54:254278. JACKMAN, T. R., AND D. B. WAKE. 1994. Evolutionary and historical analysis of protein variation in the blotched forms of salamanders of the Ensatina complex (Amphibia: Plethodontidae). Evolution 48:876897. LATTING, J., AND P. ROWLANDS (EDS.). 1995. The California Desert: An Introduction to Natural Resources and Mans Impact. June Latting Books, Riverside, California.

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LOWE, C. H., JR. 1954. A new salamander (genus Ambystoma) from Arizona. Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 67:243246. MORITZ, C., C. J. SCHNEIDER, AND D. B. WAKE. 1992. Evolutionary relationships within the Ensatina eschscholtzii complex confirm the ring species interpretation. Syst. Zool. 41:273291. GUEZ-ROBLES, J. A., D. A. GOOD, AND D. B. WAKE. RODRI 2003. Brief history of herpetology in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, with a list of type specimens of recent amphibians and reptiles. Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool. 131:1199. RIDLEY, M. 2004. Evolution, 3rd edition. Blackwell Publishing, Malden, Massachusetts. STEBBINS, R. C. 1943a. Adaptations in the nasal passages for sand burrowing in the saurian genus Uma. Am. Nat. 77:3852. . 1943b. Diurnal activity of Crotalus cerastes. Copeia 1943:128129. . 1944a. Some aspects of the ecology of the Iguanid genus Uma. Ecol. Monogr. 14:311332. . 1944b. Field notes on a lizard, the mountain swift, with special reference to territorial behavior. Ecology 25:233245. . 1947. Tail and foot action in the locomotion of Hydromantes platycephalus. Copeia 1947:15. . 1948a. Additional observations on home range and longevity in the lizard Sceloporus graciosus. Ibid. 1948:2022. . 1948b. New distributional records for Xantusia vigilis with observations on its habitat. Amer. Midl. Nat. 39:96101. . 1948c. Nasal structure in lizards with reference to olfaction and conditioning of the inspired air. Amer. J. Anat. 83:183221. . 1949a. Courtship of the plethodontid salamander Ensatina eschscholtzii. Copeia 1949:274281. . 1949b. Observations on laying, development, and hatching of the eggs of Batrachoseps wrighti. Ibid. 1949:161168. . 1949c. Speciation in salamanders of the plethodontid genus Ensatina. Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool. 48:377526. . 1951. Amphibians of Western North America. University of California Press, Berkeley. . 1954a. Natural history of the salamanders of the plethodontid genus Ensatina. Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool. 5:47124. . 1954b. Amphibians and Reptiles of Western North America. McGraw-Hill Press, New York. . 1955. Southern occurrence of the Olympic salamander Rhyacotriton olympicus. Herpetologica 11:238239. . 1957a. A further observation on torpidity in the Poor-will. Condor 59:212. . 1957b. Intraspecific sympatry in the lungless salamander Ensatina eschscholtzii. Evolution 11:265270. . 1958a. A new alligator lizard from the Panamint Mountains, Inyo County, California. Amer. Mus. Novit. 1883:127. . 1958b. An experimental study of the third eye of the tuatara. Copeia 1958:183190.

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(DGM) 5305 UNIVERSITY BOULEVARD, DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY, UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY, LOGAN, UTAH 84322; AND (MJM) MUSEUM OF VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY, 3101 VALLEY LIFE SCIENCE BUILDING, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA 94720. PRESENT ADDRESS: (MJM) SECTION OF INTEGRATIVE BIOLOGY C0930, 1 UNIVERSITY STATION, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78712. E-mail: (MJM) mjmahoney@mail.utexas.edu; and (DGM) dmulcahy@biology.usu.edu.