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On The Amazon River in Peru |
With "The Boys" at the Cabin in Colorado |
Phone: (608)-785-8253 E-Mail: gillis.rick@uwlax.edu Office Hours
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On The Amazon River in Peru |
With "The Boys" at the Cabin in Colorado |
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"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream." ~ Mark Twain |
Introduction:
I am a broadly trained zoologist with an interest in the ecology of whole organisms, particularly amphibians and reptiles. A good deal of my time is also committed to the continuing development and maintenance of the Animal Biology and Human Anatomy & Physiology Laboratory web sites as well as the Department of Biology web site.
If you would like to see some additional photos of me, my wife Gail (who teaches in the Management Department of the College of Business Administration here at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse) and our American Eskimo dogs, click Here.
Over the past 15 years I have the opportunity to lead a number of Amazon River tours for a Florida-based tour company called Explorations Inc. In addition to offering both jungle safaris and river boat tours to the Peruvian Amazon, the company also organizes trips to the Cuzco and the Sacred Valley of the Incas, including spectacular Machu Picchu, as well as Costa Rica and some of the most important Mayan sites in Mexico and Central America.
For more information about these trips, contact Charlie Strader at: info@explorationsinc.com or phone toll free from the USA, Canada and Puerto Rico: (800)-446-9660.
To see some of the photos I have taken while conducting Amazon Tours, click on My Amazon Photo Album.
To see some of my favorite travel photos from other places, click on My Travel Photo Album.
Education:
Ph.D. Zoology - Colorado State University, 1975
M.S. Zoology - Colorado State University, 1968
B.A. Spanish - University of Pennsylvania, 1965
Courses Presently Taught:
Bio 103 - Introductory Biology (Section 001 ~ Fall 2007)
Web Sites:
Zoo Lab - A Resource for Animal Biology
A & P Lab - A Resource for the Human Anatomy & Physiology Laboratory
American Institute of Biological Sciences
Ecological Society of America
Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles
Herpetologist's League
Southwestern Association of Naturalists
Northern Association of Physiological Ecologists
Hobbies and Personal Interests:
Flying: Private Pilot with Single Engine, Land, Seaplane, Glider and Instrument Ratings
SCUBA Diving - SSI Advanced Open Water Diver
Amateur Radio - General Class Operator's License (NØYCM)
Travel and Photography
Hiking and Backpacking
Research Interests:
My research interests in the past have centered broadly on such problems as the evolution and use of temperature regulation in cold-blooded organisms, amphibian water economy and the role of color and pattern in predator avoidance. I am also interested in population ecology and the evolution of life history patterns, particularly of reptiles. More recently, I have become interested in several populations of terrestrial slugs that appear to be living in some local, spring-fed streams. Although my principal target organisms have been amphibians and reptiles, I have also worked with grasshoppers and bats.
Haro, R. J., R. Gillis and S.T. Cooper. 2004. First report of a terrestrial slug (Arion fasciatus) living
in an aquatic habitat. Malacologia 45:451-452.
Howe, G. E., R. Gillis and R. C. Mowbray. 1998. Effect of chemical synergy and larval stage on the
toxicity of atrazine and alachlor to amphibian larvae. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
17:519-525.
Gillis, R. 1979. Adaptive differences in the water economies of two species of leopard frogs from
eastern Colorado. Journal of Herpetology 13:445-450.
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Copyright © 2008, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin. If you have any questions about or additions to this page, please contact: gillis.rick@uwlax.edu
