Aiming to take care of animals donated to science teacher Ian Burley’s classroom, the Herpetology Club meets every day during Red Zone.
According to Herpetology Club advisor Ian Burley, the club’s purpose is to teach others about how to care for different animals.
“Students can practice and grow in their ability to care for animals, lizards and amphibians. They can interact with them and use what they learn about the animals in an educational setting,” Burley said.
According to Burley, the Herpetology Club was started to manage all of the animals that people were donating to his classroom.
“I began to see a need for help managing lizards and amphibians, and also a safe place for people to donate their animals. It was almost like a little side job to keep all these animals. So I thought a club would be a great student opportunity,” Burley said.
According to club president Leah Monastra, going to the meetings every morning is a great way to start her day.
“The animals, they all have very distinct personalities and they’re just so much fun to be with a lot of them,” Monastra said. “Many people have special personal connections with the animals; I think that’s something special about the club.”
According to Monastra, the club partners with the SAVE Club to help get donations of equipment and supplies.
“The club is very focused on trying to create a cycle of income, but also trying to help as many animals as possible. Sometimes we team up with the SAVE Club to help sell some pretty successful stuff,” Monastra said.
Apart from caring for the animals, the club also helps find loving and caring homes for the reptiles and amphibians.
According to club treasurer Alex Espinship, the club also tries to get animals into good and loving homes and recently successfully helped the club’s hamster Cheerio get adopted.
This year, the Herpetology Club raised baby axolotls.
According to senior Emily Lampee, she enjoys helping raise them because she sees them grow.
“It’s a cool experience because you get to see them grow and see their personalities develop and it’s a great experience to get to be there for that,” Lampe said.
Senior Wyatt Davenport enjoys coming every morning to feed and take care of the axolotls. He feels that getting the chance to see the animals grow is truly unique
“There’s a lot of character development that you can see within the axolotls and growth in general, seeing one that was small when we first started and now it has grown two times its size,” Davenport said.