This Western Diamondback's, Crotalus atrox, last meal was a Texas horned lizard, Phrynosoma cornutum
If you’re a herper that wants to make an everlasting contribution to science. What better way than by providing information that end users such as yourself or researchers can turn into valuable scientific data. Collecting either tissues or whole vouchers from DORs isn’t typically what the vast majority of herpers do. But we should! In doing so we are supplying immeasurable amounts of information that can be used for current research on snakes and amphibians, but also for a hundred years in the future! Through the use of vouchers, (preserved specimens curated in a collection), we can learn many things about species’ such as their anatomy and physiology, their diets, morphological variation and so much more.

Loving herps means doing all we can to aid in our understanding of their natural histories, their conservation, and population trends. With the advent of apps such as iNaturalist and HerpMapper (and others), we’re capable of recording digital (sounds, video, images) of sightings of live animals more than ever. This in turn illustrates that the range for many species or their numbers are much more expansive than previously thought. If you’re interested in citizen science start collecting DORs and submitting your digital vouchers.
But after you do, what’s next? In most cases you can call a local university and ask if they have a vertebrate collection. Once you find a museum, explain what you do and what you collect, in most cases curators will help you get vouchers to them. Some may even provide basic essentials, such as notebooks for data pertaining to the vouchers you’re providing. If a museum is not in your area, most will facilitate shipping to them. For tissue samples most curators would happily provide tubes.

So the next time you find a dead snake, a skull, snake skeleton etc. pick it up! The way I see it, we’re already out there, rather than letting those DORs become dry jerky on the road let’s make an everlasting impact and start publishing your findings so we all may learn!