The Calusa Herpetological Society                                               Of Southwest Florida

Bill & Kathy Love

Bill's move to paradise (to Florida from New Jersey) in 1971 was instrumental in focusing his lifelong fascination with reptiles into a career.  His early experiences were heavily oriented towards field exploration, collecting, and husbandry of living specimens in his new home state. In 1977, he joined a traveling educational exhibit of herps (“The Living Jungle”), created by his wife Kathy and Tom Vermersch, as a 3rd partner.  This move allowed his explorations to continue nationwide, while also allowing visits to numerous private breeders and in-depth exposure to herpetocultural progress in the zoo world at that pivotal time in herpetoculture. 

Kathy's initial forays into herping occurred in southeastern Wisconsin outside Milwaukee where she first kept garter snakes caught in a wooded lot near her home.  She was a frequent visitor to the herp sections of the Milwaukee Zoo and the Milwaukee Public Museum where well-known herpetologists Max Nickerson and Bob Henderson were important early mentors.  She later ran a part-time pet shop called Jungle Hut in Waukesha.  She developed her mobile Living Jungle in San Antonio, Texas in the late 1970s, a long way from her home turf in an effort to 'get out of the cold'. 

Later, after a couple years touring the entire U.S., Bill & Kathy adopted the name Glades Herpetoculture to represent their growing snake propagation business that had arisen at their new home near LaBelle, Florida in the mid 1980s.  Commercial success eventually led to expanding its scope into a full-line herp dealership (Glades Herp, Inc.) when Bill joined forces with Rob MacInnes in 1989 as 50/50 partners.

As opportunities to travel became more frequent, Bill honed his camera skills and took pen in hand to share the enjoyment of his experiences with the public.  Positive feedback resulted in a further evolution of such efforts as he branched off to start Blue Chameleon Ventures in 1996.  He now continues at these cherished pursuits while actively developing the related endeavor of leading ecotours to his herpetologically intensive “home away from home”, the magical mini-continent of Madagascar. 

Kathy has completely taken over the colubrid farming aspect of the business and adopted the name CornUtopia - to highlight her specialty, the corn snakes - to help avoid confusion between the two entities of their livelihoods.  Their most ambitious work together to date has been publication of The Corn Snake Manual in 2000, the most current guide to keeping and breeding that species.

Bill & Kathy's most visible herpetological involvement is at expos and in nature photography (their images have graced the covers and interiors of REPTILES, VIVARIUM, REPTILE & AMPHIBIAN MAGAZINE, REPTILIA (German, Spanish, & English editions), REPTILIAN, HERPETOLOGICAL REVIEW, TERRARIO, and innumerable other books, periodicals, and calendars over the past couple decades.  Bill’s freelance articles appear frequently in herp specialty publications.  He’s been the Herpetological Queries columnist for REPTILES since its inception, and his Bits & Pieces photo quiz also challenges readers there monthly.  He has also lectured to herp societies and at symposia extensively across the U.S., and also abroad occasionally.

They are both veteran supporters of the International Herpetological Symposium, the American Federation of Herpetoculturists, the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, the World Congress of Herpetology, the League of Florida Herpetological Societies, the National Reptile Breeders’ Expo, and now, the Calusa Herpetological Society.