Peter Baumann

Neaves didn't know—and a literature search suggested no one else did either. So the Baumanns grabbed their gear and headed to New Mexico to collect study subjects. “On our first trip, we discovered that rattlesnakes can live in the same holes as lizards,” says Baumann, now an HHMI early career scientist. “So it's not advisable to stick your hand in to pull them out.” Instead, one person uses a noose on the end of a fly rod to hold the creature while someone else slips it into a bag—a method fashioned by Neaves, who joined in the fun.

Back at the lab, the Baumanns set up a breeding facility under Diana's guidance. What started out as a few lizards in plastic kiddie pools has grown into a department that houses 20 species of fish, amphibians, reptiles, and marine invertebrates. And though keeping reptiles can be a challenge—the animals have pretty specific needs when it comes to nutrition and to temperature, humidity, and lighting—Baumann says that all the lizards they captured in New Mexico survived. Now Diana, as managing director of the reptiles and aquatics facility, shares their accumulated wisdom whenever they hire a new lab tech. “Just try to find someone with experience maintaining a colony of whiptail lizards,” Peter Baumann laughs.

At home, the Baumanns favor Saharan spiny tailed lizards, which they pamper with salad greens and a handful of seeds every morning. And they enjoy photographing rattlesnakes when they visit friends in West Texas each year. On those trips, though, they leave their lassos behind, says Baumann. “We don't take any more animals home with us.”

Photo: Don Ipock

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