Monthly Meetings

General Meeting at St. Mark’s Presbyterian, Knox Room and via Zoom.  Doors open at 6:00 pm” Nocturnal Creatures in the Garden” with Courtney Christie.  

Our speaker, Courtney Christie, is a reptile and invertebrate enthusiast both in her personal
time and profession. She is a zookeeper in the Herpetology, Ichthyology and Invertebrate Zoology
department (HIIZ) at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum where she’s worked for the past eight
years, and where she’s gained a bulk of her knowledge about reptiles and invertebrates. She is also
an avid hiker, aspiring naturalist and an artist, all of which have been greatly inspired by her love
for the Sonoran Desert. Through both her job and her art, she is passionate about representing
lesser-known critters that are generally misunderstood or unknown altogether. She’s had the
opportunity to work with a wide variety of Sonoran-Desert fauna ranging from rattlesnakes and
gila monsters, to horned lizards, turtles, various amphibians, and too many invertebrates to
name. Courtney went to the University of Arizona where she majored in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
which led to her getting an internship and then her current job at the Desert Museum. Through
conservation trips, mentors, educational programs, and personal outings like hikes, blacklights,
and herping expeditions, she has gained a deep appreciation for all the strange and fascinating
wildlife that calls our desert home.

In this talk Courtney will discuss strange critters that might call your garden home, or enjoy passing
through—especially at night—including reptiles, amphibians, and various invertebrates. She will
discuss the who, what, where, why, and when, with an emphasis on behavior.