Documentary: Exploring Central Mexico's Highlands - In search of Abronia (circa 2009)

Описание: This video was shot in 2009, onsite in Mexico. I collaborated with my good friends Roberto and Rafa who are both biologists and especially dedicated to the study of reptiles (herpetologists). Our goal at this time was to document Abronia species in their native habitat, and explore these sites to gather data about how they live, so we could do a better job of keeping and breeding them in captivity. We were also embarking on a crusade to educate as many local villagers as we could in those locations, about the importance of their cloud forest ecosystems, and especially the lizards themselves. In most instances the animals are killed onsite because they are thought to be dangerous. Both Roberto and Rafa to this day, continue to evangelize in those parts of the World to protect the forests and the animals with the local people of Mexico's highlands.

I spent several thousand dollars producing this documentary, and used to sell copies of it in DVD format with the hope that we'd break even eventually on our efforts. But we never came close. I felt it was past time to get this information out to the rest of the herpetologic community, to help educate anyone out there who might find themselves keeping these animals, so that they would be more successful in their efforts. I have always felt it was important to establish 'captive assurance colonies' of these lizards, outside of their native habitat, so that the species were well represented and diverse in their genetics, for many years to come, because there is considerable pressure on the large old oak tree forests where they come from, in certain ranges.

 My brother in law, Peter Adams, had a degree in film production and knew how to operate all the camera equipment, so he became my accomplice in this adventure, and did all of the editing as well as video capture in Mexico. Some of it is in normal video format and some was HD, which was just coming out and getting popular in 2009. I'm pretty self conscious just by nature so it took me some adjusting to get used to being on camera - and I'm honestly not there yet, but this aspect of education, and conservation research continues to be a big passion in my life, even though it has been somewhat put on hold now that we have 3 kids!