Dr. Jeffrey Mohr is an Associate Professor of Biology and the head of the environmental studies program at Southern Wesleyan University. This is his second year teaching at the University. His specialties include: Herpetology, Zoology, Ecology, Wildlife Behavior, and Animal Behavior. He has been working with reptiles and amphibians for nearly twenty years.<\/em><\/p>\n ME: Where are you from?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: Oh man, that\u2019s a hard question. So, I grew up in Wisconsin. So, near Milwaukee, Wisconsin is where I grew up. [I] lived there for about nine and a half- ten years. Then my dad got a job in Florida. So we picked up and moved down to Tampa Bay, Florida. This was when I was about ten years old, and then I lived in Tampa Bay from ten to eighteen, and then went to college up here in Greenville, South Carolina. And so I went to college in Greenville, South Carolina and did a master\u2019s degree in Oklahoma, and moved back here to Carolina to do my doctorate. And so I\u2019ve kinda been here since 2004, except when I lived in Georgia from 2010-2016.<\/p>\n ME: What were your interests in your early years?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: I loved animals. That\u2019s always been a passion. The outdoors and the critters that run around the outdoors have always been a passion. [I] caught turtles as a little kid. Frogs and toads, caterpillars, and we always brought them home and kept them in little aquariums and cages.<\/p>\n ME: Do you have a memory that sparked your interests?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: I don\u2019t. It was just a part of life. When I grew up in Wisconsin that was part of life. We went to my grandparent\u2019s house. They lived on a river. We\u2019d go catch crawfish in the river. Go fishing. At my house, we lived on a lake, we caught turtles. Part of my childhood was catching animals and playing with them. So I don\u2019t have a memory that flipped it over; it was just that was what we did.<\/p>\n When I started talking to other people as we got older, it was not everybody\u2019s background. I was like \u201cYou didn\u2019t catch toads as a kid?\u201d \u201cNo.\u201d \u201cWhat! Everybody catches toads.\u201d I guess it was probably my father who sparked that [interest], because from an early age he\u2019d show us things outside and we\u2019d do stuff outside.<\/p>\n ME: Do you have a special area of interest within the field of biology?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: Yeah! It\u2019s animals for sure. Mostly those underrepresented animals. My biggest passion is reptiles and amphibians. So, I\u2019m really a reptile guy. An amphibian guy. And I would say that snakes are my focal animal.\u00a0Both my thesis for my master’s and my dissertation for my PhD. were focused on snakes.<\/p>\n ME: So what distinguished snakes from other animals for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n ME<\/strong>: For me? Most people are really afraid of them, and I\u2019m not afraid of them. And so, it\u2019s one of the few animals out there that people will just kill. You never hear of people like \u201cOh look at that squirrel running along. Let me run it over with the car.\u201d Or, \u201cLook at that deer over there. Let me go kick it.” But you see a snake, and people will say \u201cI saw a snake crossing the road, so I ran it over.\u201d Or, \u201cI saw a snake in my garden, so I chopped its head off.\u201d I felt they were the underdogs. And so, the other side of it is that I like to educate people about them. So I wanted to educate people about what snakes are.<\/p>\n The other real reason is that I can catch them. I love a fox, and I love a hawk, but I can\u2019t catch that. But a snake I can run up and catch. So I like sharks and fish and other things, but you just can\u2019t catch them just as easily as walking up to a frog, or a toad, or a lizard, or a snake. So it was an animal I can have in my hands and look at.<\/p>\n ME: What method did you use to catch the snakes?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: So as a little kid I would catch them with my hands, but it was all the nonvenomous snakes. All the garter snakes, and the black snakes, and racers, and water snakes are common and nonvenomous. As I got older and began to learn more, I\u2019d find things like the copperhead and the rattlesnake, and those are a lot more dangerous, so I use snake tongs to handle those. But in my younger, foolish years I\u2019ve been able to catch those with my bare hands too. So, I won\u2019t do that anymore, but when I was younger I would.<\/p>\n ME: Have you ever been bitten by a snake?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: I\u2019ve been bitten by hundreds of nonvenomous snakes. I have never been bitten by a venomous snake. It\u2019s just a nonvenomous snake never bothers me. I\u2019m less careful because I want to catch the snake and don\u2019t want it to get away.<\/p>\n A venomous snake, I\u2019ve got to be careful. I\u2019ve lost many of them because I\u2019m careful. Because I have to get tongs; I have to get the proper tools. And then I go catch it, and sometimes they slither away. Whereby a nonvenomous snake, sometimes they could bite me, but it\u2019s not a lethal bite. So, as soon as I see it I catch it.<\/p>\n ME: So did you have the tongs around your house, or?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: Yeah, I had one in my car. Yeah in most of college and grad school I had tongs in my car. I still do. That way, any time I see a snake, or I go hiking, I carry it with me. So if I see them, I can grab them.<\/p>\n ME: What do you do with the snakes once you find them?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: For my research I’d catch the snakes, bring them back to the lab, and I\u2019d actually surgically implant a radio transmitter in them. And so, once we\u2019d put the radio transmitter in and sewed them back up, we could follow the snake anywhere in the environment. So that was both my master\u2019s and my dissertation work.<\/p>\n ME: At what point did you begin to learn about different kinds of snakes?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: I don\u2019t know. Probably thirteen, fourteen I started to catch more and started to really want to learn about them. I think I was fifteen or sixteen when I got to buy a boa constrictor, and then I started learning more about boa constrictors and some of the pet store snakes you\u2019d see and those kind of things.<\/p>\n ME: So, what research and projects have you conducted in this area?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: Well, like I said, I did my doctoral dissertation on rattlesnakes here in the Upstate of South Carolina. I did my master\u2019s thesis on rattlesnakes in Oklahoma. I\u2019ve helped out with dozens of other projects working with snakes. And my first publication ever was an amphibian publication on frogs. So, I\u2019ve been working with reptiles and amphibians for almost twenty years now.<\/p>\n ME: So what was the publication about, specifically, with the frogs?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: With the frogs, I was an undergraduate and I set up with my advisers automatic recording systems that would turn on and start recording, and we put them out in an environment where frogs were, so when frogs were calling we could listen to what frogs were calling at what times of night, [and] what times of day. So we had this automated recording system that would go on for, I think it was a minute. It did a minute like every half hour so we could get the calls. And we did this at two different wetlands, and then we could compare the wetland [and] what frogs were there, because going out sometimes you can\u2019t see them. Like looking for frogs, you may not see them, they\u2019re hiding. If you have a recording system you can start hearing them because they call at night. And so that way I didn\u2019t have to be out there at three in the morning. I could just have my system out there.<\/p>\n ME: As you began to study the snakes and the frogs did you find that people know more about them than you think they do or less?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: Less. They know far less than what I think they should. It surprises me actually, how incorrect people are with how they think about frogs, and toads, and snakes, and reptiles in general.<\/p>\n ME: What do you think causes people to just hit the snakes when they see them? Is there anything\u2026?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: You have some people referring back to Genesis where, you know, the snake is cursed and some people say it goes back to that. I think it really goes back to if you don\u2019t understand something, you fear it. People fear what they don\u2019t understand and what\u2019s strange. People fear new foods. If you put a new food in front of somebody, and if they haven\u2019t ever seen it, they\u2019re like \u201cI\u2019m not going to eat that. It\u2019s weird. We don\u2019t eat that kind of stuff here.\u201d And I think snakes are one of those [things] that nobody understands. And people have dogs, people love cats, there\u2019s people that have birds, and I think that one of the issues especially with snakes is that snakes can kill you. There are venomous snakes that can kill you. People have fear of bears, though a lot of people have never seen one. But people are like, \u201cI\u2019m afraid of a bear.\u201d But have you ever seen one? \u201cWell, in zoos.\u201d But you\u2019ve never seen one in the wild? \u201cNo.\u201d But you\u2019re afraid of it. \u201cYeah.\u201d<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s that built in it\u2019s a big giant animal, so I\u2019m afraid of it. And I think with snakes it\u2019s an animal I don\u2019t understand and it\u2019s different than an animal I do understand.<\/p>\n ME: And do you think the stereotype precedes the snake?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: Oh yeah. I think so. And I think it\u2019s very learned. When I do educational shows with snakes and I go to kindergarten and first grade, three quarters of the class will run up and touch the snake. Kids love to see it. But almost always, the teachers are fearful. As I get up in age group, start getting to middle school, more and more of the kids are now fearful. By the time I get to the high school most of the kids are fearful. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s because any of them have been bitten by snakes. I think it\u2019s because people in their life: their friends, their family, their parents, their grandparents, have told them stay away. So I think as a little kid you\u2019re naive. I mean we talk about this with all kinds [of things]. I mean little kids don\u2019t see differences in skin color, in male or female. I mean little kids just see those kind of things. And so they see an animal, they see an adult like me holding it, and they say \u201cOh, it must be OK to hold. So they go up there to touch it. But then someone in their family as they get older says snakes are bad, and then they get this idea: snakes are bad.<\/p>\n ME: So do you ever face any opposition from presenting these animals in classes?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: Not usually. Most of the teachers want me there. They want me to educate their students. But, you\u2019ll hear people especially if I do public things like boy scouts, [or] do things out in the public where people are like \u201cNo, get that snake away from me.\u201d Those kind of things. Or, I\u2019ll have people argue with me why it was right for them to kill this snake in their yard or it was OK to kill this snake on a nature trail.<\/p>\n When I try to talk to them, I\u2019m like \u201cYou should have not killed that snake. The only thing that snake can hurt is a fish. It eats fish. So, if you\u2019re a fish, I could see why you\u2019re afraid. But it\u2019s not going to hurt you. You\u2019re a human. It\u2019s a fish eating water snake.\u201d But, you know, I\u2019ll try to have the education conversation, like \u201cYou just killed an animal that the only thing is does is eat fish. So, it\u2019s not going to hurt you. It\u2019s not venomous. If it bit you nothing would happen.\u201d<\/p>\n But I do get people who then tell me I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m talking about. Especially here in the upstate. I get people arguing with me about the different snakes. We don\u2019t have cottonmouths, or another name for cottonmouths is water moccasin, we don\u2019t have those here in the upstate, but people will argue with me that we do. And that\u2019s hard, because we don\u2019t. They\u2019re not here. People will argue with me all the time that they are.<\/p>\n ME:<\/strong> Even with your degrees?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: They don\u2019t care. They know. Their Grandpa So and So\u2019s told them, and they\u2019re here, and they\u2019ve saw one, and that\u2019s just how it is.<\/p>\n ME: Do you see a similar thing with frogs and toads?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: Now, most people don\u2019t care one way or another about frogs. Snakes are one of those things where they will wantonly kill it. Like that is a goal of humans. But frogs and toads, they might be afraid of them but they\u2019re not going to go kill them. They\u2019re just like \u201cI don\u2019t like frogs.\u201d And they just let the frog hop away.<\/p>\n But snakes people will go after and go kill them. They\u2019re like \u201cI don\u2019t like snakes,\u201d and they go grab a stick and try to hit it or throw a rock at it. But lizards, or frogs, or turtles, I don\u2019t see that same behavior.<\/p>\n ME: So are humans a danger to snakes? I mean, you know, is the population going down?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: For the first year of my study at Table Rock State Park when I was doing my dissertation work, the first year the number one predator, the number one death of my snakes, was people. People were the number one killing the snakes in my study. Even though we were in a state park in a protected area, people were the number one [thing] killing the snakes.<\/p>\n ME: How many of those snakes were nonpoisonous?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: The ones I was studying were all rattlesnakes, so they were venomous. And actually no snakes are poisonous. They\u2019re actually all venomous. Poison is something you ingest, whereas venom is something injected. So snakes are venomous. Every one of my study animals was venomous. I\u2019d find dead water snakes that are harmless. We\u2019d find those as well in our study. And that\u2019s just people seeing a snake and killing it.<\/p>\n ME: So what do you hope to achieve through, I\u2019m guessing, your studies? You say you want to educate people not to harm these animals?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: Yeah, one of my goals is to show people the magnificence of God\u2019s creation, and how all these critters have a place in the ecosystem. That we need these critters because they\u2019re meant to be here. And most of them are not here to harm humans. And most snake bites only occur if you try to go get the snake. Very rarely do we get what we consider legitimate snake bites. Or somebody doesn\u2019t see it, somebody actually steps on it, and gets bitten. That\u2019s rare. It\u2019s almost always somebody\u2019s trying to kill it, somebody\u2019s playing with it, somebody\u2019s doing something. Those are the people that get bit.<\/p>\n ME: So do you think that people, do you think that Christians in particular care a lot about stewardship of the environment or not?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: No. I think some do. I would say that most, I don\u2019t know, maybe not most, but I would say that a large of Christians seem ambivalent. They don\u2019t care either way. And then you have a portion of Christians that believe that you know, God created the world for us and that we\u2019re stewards. And that means that we need to do everything for us as humans, and if that means exterminate an animal or that means cut down a forest, as long as we\u2019re doing it for us as humans that\u2019s OK. So some people don\u2019t have an environmental component to their Christianity. They think that God created everything, animals and plants, for us to use, to eat, chop down, those kind of things.<\/p>\n And then you have another side of Christians that realize that when we poison a river, that when we send our manufacturing overseas like we do, our phones, all our plastic stuff, all our cars, most of them are built overseas. And now places pollute those environments, and those environments are where people get food and water. And so, some argue that it\u2019s our Christian duty to not do those kind of things. That, you know, Jesus instructs that you know “what you do to the least of these you do to Me.” I\u2019m paraphrasing, but the idea [is] that you need to be that person. So, if we let the people in China manufacture our cellphones, then all that sludge and toxic goes into their river and kills their animals, and those people try to fish in that river and they\u2019re getting poison fish and eating them, and they\u2019re getting poisoned. Some of it\u2019s on us, because we bought the phone. Because they can\u2019t afford the phone, they send it over to the United States.<\/p>\n So if we can help some of the poor people, and I teach this as one of the components of an environmental science class I teach, where we talk about the ethics of that. By curbing the environmental problems, we are actually helping what\u2019s known as the least of these. The people who are the least. The poorest people outside of civilization countries like Europe and Japan and the U.S., you know our poor people can get food usually at a food bank or a church or places like that. Poor people in Africa, poor people in South America, poor people in Asia, they\u2019re poor and they\u2019ve got to do gardens, and they\u2019ve got to fish in the river, and they\u2019ve got to get food that way.<\/p>\n And so, if we destroy the environment, we destroy those people\u2019s livelihood, and essentially destroy them in some way. So some Christians believe it\u2019s our duty to be environmental stewards because it helps humans. And so Christianity and environmentalism runs the full gamut to where some people believe God gave us plants to kill and eat, some people believe that he gave us trees to cut down, and some believe that we\u2019ve got to take care of the environment because it helps people, and we\u2019re commanded to love one another. And so it\u2019s interesting. In some of my classes we get into the ethics of those different situations.<\/p>\n ME: So do you think that there\u2019s a possibility that any of this will ever end up in church, in sermons?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR:<\/strong> Well I\u2019ve seen it. There\u2019s churches, especially some of your more, you know, liberal churches, you\u2019ll see it sometimes. You\u2019ll have pastors who talk about it from the pulpit: Like it\u2019s our duty as a church to take care of the poor, and when we do a missions trip, one of the things on our missions trip is environmental activism. Like we need to, you know, think about that as a component of our ministry. Not just digging a well. Environmentalism is a component of it, because it will help people. When you tell the big company to stop polluting this lake because all of these people are getting fish out of this lake and all their kids are sick, when you stop buying your plastic junk from this company [it] is going to start saying “Let\u2019s stop selling plastic stuff. Let\u2019s do something different. Let\u2019s make a nice biodegradable thing.” So the companies get on board. So, I think to an extent, Christians should be involved.<\/p>\n And I\u2019ve heard different preachers talk about it. That [they] are starting to recognize this. And then you have the other side of it, some people say the United States\u2019s problem with gluttony and obesity is a problem of let\u2019s go destroy this forest so we can have more cattle. More cattle gives us more red meat. More red meat we can eat for every meal of the day. And then we\u2019ve got cholesterol problems, and heart problems, colon problems, and obesity problems, and some people are like that is not living to God\u2019s ideal either. We\u2019re not supposed to eat ourselves to where we\u2019re so big we get all these health problems. And so some people take the environmental thing and turn it into a health thing as well. That if we were more conscious about what we ate, the environment would be better off. If you clear, let\u2019s say a thousand acres, you can feed more people if you grow vegetation than if you grow cattle. Because the cows eat the vegetation, and then there\u2019s like five cows, whereas if you had all the corn or whatever and it went straight to the people, you could feed more.<\/p>\n Now, I like meat, so I\u2019m not advocating no meat. I\u2019m thinking that humans though, especially wealthier Americans, need to pay attention to how we do things, because everything does go back to the environment when you start thinking about some of it.<\/p>\n ME:<\/strong> So everything\u2019s connected.<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: It is, and that\u2019s one of the things I try to teach people in my classes; the whole ecosystem of it. We drink out of a plastic bottle, we through away the plastic bottle, it goes into the ocean, and then a fish, you know, eats some of the plastic, and then the fish gets eat by a human, and then a person is getting some of those toxic PCBs and these other things. Um, BPA used to be a big chemical that now has been outlawed in the United States, it\u2019s still in other places. But we get these PCBs, we get these chemicals that are connected. I mentioned PCB, and that\u2019s one of the ones that came out of the textile industries that went into Lake Hartwell and some of these other places. And we can\u2019t, if you read the regulations on eating fish out of Hartwell, you\u2019re not supposed to eat very many, because they\u2019ve got toxic concentrations of these toxins that are bad for humans. And that\u2019s an environmental problem, and again, poorer people in general are the ones who are going to live off the land, so to speak. Most of your wealthier people are not out there like \u201cWell, I\u2019m going to go catch a fish to eat tonight.\u201d Most of your wealthier people are [going to] restaurants and that sort of thing. But, poorer people, it\u2019s literally sometimes like \u201cA bucket of worms costs $2.00 and I can go catch some fish. I can\u2019t get $2.00 worth of food at a grocery store, so I have to go fishing tonight. I have to go.\u201d And you see that in the low country a lot. That is how they get they\u2019re food that day. They go fishing that day, and they catch fish. Ad they\u2019ll have fish and maybe a little bit of rice.<\/p>\n ME: So the Christina Faith and science actually work together well.<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: I think they do. I think if we truly lived out some of Jesus\u2019s, you know, words: Love everybody, I think if we understood we\u2019re hurting people in some of the environmental things we do, I think we\u2019d change it. I think that\u2019s what the education’s about. If I can start showing people by you buying this phone or this plastic thing or this, you\u2019re actually supporting this group in Thailand where these people work twelve hour shifts and then try to go home and catch an animal out of the river that they\u2019ve dumped the sludge in, if you can start making those kind of connections, I think that Christians would be like \u201cI don\u2019t won\u2019t the slave labor. That\u2019s bad. I don\u2019t want the poisoned fish. That\u2019s bad. I don\u2019t want\u2026\u201d If you can start educating, you\u2019d see a lot, and you’d see things in the industry labeled fair trade. And that\u2019s where there\u2019s a company over there in China or Thailand that does what\u2019s called fair trade, they pay the people a fair wage, they try to not pollute, they do things to try earn this listing of fair trade.<\/p>\n Organics [is] becoming bigger and bigger and bigger. Well, organic is no pesticides, no herbicides. People are realizing that not only are all those pesticides and herbicides bad for the environment, they\u2019re not good for us humans to eat either. We\u2019re starting to see an increase in organics, and fair trade, fair wage, fair labor, those kind of things, and I think that a lot of that goes along with, you know, love your neighbor as you love yourself, and if you consider humans your neighbor, humans in Africa and Asia in these poor little factories, they\u2019re our neighbors. We should stand up, and I think that part of that is environmentally.<\/p>\n ME: So what led to you becoming a professor?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: There was a long, winding road, but I loved animals, and I really liked observing them and learning about them, and then I really like teaching people about them. So its been very enjoyable to teach people.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t a direct route. I did my undergraduate and my master’s, and I got tired of school. So once I got my master’s, I left and I taught middle school for a while. I worked in a zoo. I did construction work. I did roofing work for a little bit. And then, teaching middle school it was hard, because I did not feel I was reaching a lot of the students. I had thirty students in the class. I had troublemakers who would then ruin everything for everyone, and so a lot of times I ended up doing busy work because if you give students a little freedom often times I would see the problem students would start causing trouble, and then the whole class would be focused on the problem students instead of learning. So, the more busy work, quiet work, you gave them, the more easier it was to manage the class but then they\u2019re not really learning. So, I felt more like a cop in a class instead of a teacher. And then I felt that God was calling me to go to a slightly more older age of college students. Combined with that I felt the pull to go get my doctorate so that I could start teaching college kids. because college kids are just a little bit more mature. College is an elective kind of school. I can kick a kid out of my class if I want. I haven\u2019t had to do that at SWU obviously, but you could if you get someone who\u2019s disrupting you too much. That can be done. You know, and people in college are typically people who want to be there. So they want to learn. They might not want to learn every subject at college, but they want to go to college, typically. And I feel like I can have a bigger impact with college students too, because they go tell their friends, tell their parents, and as they get older if they have kids, they\u2019ll teach their kids, and I think that\u2019s really important.<\/p>\n ME: I\u2019m not sure if you told me this already, but what was your undergraduate in?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: Biology. Almost not. I was a computer science major, but I hated being in the computer science labs because I missed going outside, and I ran into a professor that says \u201cWell, why aren\u2019t you a bio major?\u201d I was like, \u201cAah, because I don\u2019t want to study the human body.\u201d \u201cThere\u2019s a whole other side of science that you can study.\u201d So he really changed my life with showing me that I could be a wildlife biologist. [That] I could study that side and become a professor.<\/p>\n ME: What was your master’s degree in?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: Zoology. And my doctorate was in fisheries and wildlife. I guess they called it wildlife and fisheries biology. That was the official name of it.<\/p>\n ME: So what\u2019s your favorite class to teach here?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: Man, I got a lot of favorites. I would have to say my, probably my top three, are the intro classes, either intro nonmajors bio, or what we call the intros for major, part two, it\u2019s the organisms one. Those two classes are really enjoyable because I get to give a broad overview about what science is. So I usually teach freshmen and it\u2019s nice to get a chance to teach young minds and have them eager out of high school to kind of see college, see what college class is like, and learn about things. Those are really fun, and then I love teaching the stuff in my specialty. Like a zoology class is a lot of fun. Next spring, I\u2019m teaching a herpetology class which is on reptile and amphibians, and I\u2019m really looking forward to that one, because that\u2019s my specialty. And so organismal specialty.<\/p>\n And so another fun thing that I really enjoy teaching is study abroad courses, anything with a field component where I get to take students out to go see stuff. I find that very enjoyable. I\u2019ve got two field trips in April where I\u2019m taking students to the coast for one trip and to the swamp for another trip. I love taking students on field trips.<\/p>\n ME: What\u2019s the purpose of these two field trips that you have planned?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: This term I am teaching an aquatics and wetland biology class. And so we\u2019re going down to the coast to observe ocean, wetlands, estuaries, and Barrier Island. That part of the aquatics side of things. And the other trip to the swamps is to show students a swamp, a black water river, and then some Carolina bay wetlands. And so it\u2019s to teach them. I want students to get out there and stand on the edge of the river. I want them to put their hands in the river. I want them to see the critters in the river. I want them to appreciate what a river is.<\/p>\n It\u2019s like you can\u2019t teach a music class without hearing music. I don\u2019t feel you can teach a environmental or a organismal biology class without really seeing the animal. I mean, if I put a PowerPoint up there about a bear, people will be like \u201cOh, there\u2019s a bear.\u201d If we see a bear walking through the woods alive, that\u2019s completely different. It changes your entire outlook. If I put a toad on a PowerPoint, or if I have a dead toad in a jar, people or gonna go \u201cOh, that\u2019s a toad,\u201d but if I make you come into the wetland at night with a headlamp, and you spotlight a toad, and then reach down and catch it; totally different idea. So I like getting hands on.<\/p>\n ME<\/strong>: So have you gotten a lot of biology recruits through your classes?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: Oh yeah, I get a lot. I\u2019m head of the environmental studies program here at SWU, and so I really try to pull them in for environmental studies. But I\u2019ve got a lot of biology people too, because biology students need a couple of environmental courses as well. So yeah, we get a lot. I\u2019m hoping to get more. That\u2019s one of the things we\u2019re going to be working on over the next couple of years; is bolstering our program, and recruiting, and letting students know \u201cHey, this is what we do here.\u201d<\/p>\n ME<\/strong>: Is there any other program that you would like to add to the SWU curriculum?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: Not really. The environmental studies [program] is a great one. It started up three years ago, maybe? Maybe four. It was started right before I came here. This is my second year. So right before I came, they started an environmental studies program. It was going for a couple of years, then the guy who used to have my position kind of shut it down a little bit. Then he left. And I\u2019ve started it back up, so it\u2019s kind of like a new program, because it really hasn\u2019t been advertised and recruited specifically for.<\/p>\n So that\u2019ll be one of my goals to get that one going, and if that one\u2019s very successful, one of the things that we may look into is a master’s program, possibly a Master’s of Science, or something like that. We’ve talked about certificates, like field biology certificates as another possibility down the road, where people would come and do an online course and then do an intensive field trip, and earn a certificate in wildlife, you know, reptile identification or something like that. So teaching those type of courses. Not necessarily a program.<\/p>\n ME:<\/strong> How could you accomplish this online?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: A lot of my online study abroad, let\u2019s say we\u2019re going to Costa Rica, so if we\u2019re going to Costa Rica for a couple of weeks, let\u2019s say that we go in May, we start in January, you know I give you a species list, you know, here are some of the creatures you\u2019re going to see: sloth, white faced capuchin, spider monkey. And so the students have to learn the animals we\u2019re going to see. Here\u2019s some of the habitat\u2019s that you\u2019ll see of the animals, here\u2019s their behavior, here\u2019s what they eat, here\u2019s some of the trees you\u2019ll find them in. And so students learn all these things and how all that works. What the rainforest is. Here\u2019s wire rainforest. See that stuff is online. That way when we set foot in the country and point up in the tree, it\u2019s like \u201cOK, you guys already learned that this is an cecropia tree. What kind of birds do you see in the cecropria?\u201d Hopefully, they\u2019ll think back, \u201cI remember toucan like cecropia, and I remember sloths like this.\u201d So they\u2019ll be able to piece things together they\u2019ve already learned and then see them for real. That would be kinda how we do an online course. So there would have to be a real component, because most sciences have a lab component. It would just be an online course with the lab component at the end, and a big field trip.<\/p>\n ME: Do you have a unique story about going out and studying wildlife that you would like to share?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: Ah, man. I\u2019ve got so many unique stories. One to share, umm. I don\u2019t know. I\u2019ve got a lot of unique stories. A lot of fun stories, going out and catching stuff. I mean, I\u2019ve been diving with manta rays; caught a whole bunch of different snakes. Um, been lobster diving, swimming with penguins in the Galapagos. I don\u2019t know, there\u2019s a whole bunch of unique stories. I can\u2019t think of just one that\u2019s any cooler than the rest though. They\u2019re all kind of just fun get out there and see stuff.<\/p>\n ME: What\u2019s the rarest animal that you\u2019ve ever seen?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: The rarest animal I ever seen is a lizard I caught while I was in Costa Rica. It was only the third time the lizard has been caught by humans. It was the third one ever caught, so it was pretty rare. It\u2019s a arboreal lizard, which means it spends most of its time in the canopy, up in the top of the trees. [Which is] one of the reasons it\u2019s so hard to catch. It\u2019s awesome, this lizard falls and hits the ground right in front of me, and I run up, and it starts running to the tree, and I run up and I grab it, and I look at like \u201cWhat in the world!\u201d And I get back, and I look through the field guides that you know show you, and I could not find, I could not find, I could not find, and I talked to some other people and they\u2019re like \u201cI\u2019ve never seen it before,\u201d and finally we found an obscure thing that said this is such and such lizard. The type specimen was caught in this research station years ago. And the type specimen is the first time its ever been caught. That\u2019s what a type specimen is. And it said that one other one had been caught. And so, I was the third time that this critter had ever been caught.<\/p>\n So that was kind of neat to have a lizard that was probably, and if you consider native peoples you know catching it, maybe half a dozen people have ever held this lizard before. Maybe less, maybe native people have never held the lizard before. I don\u2019t know. So to be a human that has seen and captured an animal that I don\u2019t know maybe less than ten people in the world have, I\u2019m sure native people have caught it and were like \u201cI don\u2019t know what this [is],\u201d and let it go. But to be one of three scientists to every catch an animal is pretty, pretty cool.<\/p>\n One other neat experience that I\u2019ve had is at Table Rock State Park I caught a ringneck snake. Which I measured, and is the world\u2019s largest ringneck snake. So, I hold the record for the world\u2019s largest ringneck snake. Up until that point the largest was eighteen and a half inches, which wasn\u2019t that big. But the one that I caught was twenty and a half, and missing part of its tail, so it was even bigger than that. So that was kind of neat. I always joke with people that I\u2019ve caught the world\u2019s largest ringneck snake, which is only twenty inches, but still it\u2019s the world\u2019s largest. That\u2019s kind of a fun thing.<\/p>\n ME: Are they only native to this area?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: They\u2019re native all over the U.S. So I just happened to have the largest one ever, so. There\u2019s different species in the U.S., but this is an eastern ringneck. So, it\u2019s cool to say I\u2019ve caught the largest one ever. I took some photographs of it, let it go, so it\u2019s still out there. Could be larger now, who knows.<\/p>\n ME: So is there anything else that you would like to share?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: Not really. You\u2019ve asked some good questions. I have a lot of stories if you talk to students in my classes. One of the ways I teach is through stories. To tell students about this type of moss, and then to show them a picture and to say I was in Peru where I caught this type of moss, and I\u2019ve got pictures of me in Peru taking this type of moss and squishing it, and showing the students. On my trips I often take videos and pictures of stuff to use in my classes. Some I\u2019m constantly thinking about [it]. I never get far away from my work, but people say, and its true to a large extent, that if you do something you love, you\u2019ll actually never work a day in your life. And in many ways I do feel that way like that. I feel like at Southern Wesleyan I\u2019ve been blessed to be here. And its really a great feeling to walk into a class and teach students about something I actually love. I mean you hear all the time, people like \u201cI can\u2019t wait till Friday,\u201d and I don\u2019t feel like that. It\u2019s fun.<\/p>\n It\u2019s what I do in my spare time. I\u2019ll go walk around the woods and take a picture of an animal, and talk to people about it in my class. So I am blessed, and I think students really need to spend some time in college thinking about those things. A lot of students come into college and they\u2019ve got ideas of money. You know, I want to get a job that will make some money, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do. And the problem is we all need money. I mean you can\u2019t get around that and current today\u2019s society works on money. Sometimes, especially students I see in the sciences, they want to be a doctor because they make a lot of money. But they don\u2019t have that passion to be a doctor, and I think some of these guys will get burned out. And some of them way before they even make it to be a doctor.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t have the passion to be a doctor studying about mitosis or meiosis and genetics and everything to get there, you don\u2019t have the passion anymore to study. And so those students generally don\u2019t do well in my class, because the passion is not there. One of the things I do for my students when they\u2019re in my intro classes, I\u2019ll have them write down their name, their major, and what their passion is and what their dreams are. Because I want them to think about their dreams and then think about their career and see how close they are.<\/p>\n ME: Do any students ever leave after this?<\/strong><\/p>\n MOHR<\/strong>: I\u2019ve had them leave and go to other majors, and I\u2019m fine with that. One of my duties at a school such as SWU is to do what I feel God\u2019s called me [to do], but also to help you grow, and to do what you feel God\u2019s called you to do. If you sit down in this chair here in my office and you\u2019re one of my bio majors, and you say \u201cI\u2019ve never felt like I should be a bio major, I\u2019ve always thought I should be something else,\u201d my job is that if you feel God pulling on your heart that you should listen to that. I\u2019m not trying to keep them a biology major, I\u2019d like to see them develop. I mean you could log into the web page at SWU, and if you get on the front web page, as soon as you look at the web page it talks about everything that we do. \u201cA faith filled community, dedicated to inventive learning, a Christ centered\u2026\u201d And I think if you are following what God is calling you to do, he\u2019s going to provide for you a way to make money, and have a life, and those kind of things.<\/p>\n I mean you\u2019ve got be reasonable with it like anything in life. Jesus says several times \u201cHave I not taken care of the sparrows? Has My Father not taken care of the flowers in the field? You\u2019re so much more important. Of course I\u2019m going to take care of you.\u201d But you can\u2019t just sit on the street corner and say, \u201cI\u2019m going to be a movie star,\u201d and not do anything to become a movie star. And then if you start doing, you know, going to auditions and you\u2019re not making it, not making it, not making it, then I think it\u2019s time to start praying \u201cIs this my dream or is this God\u2019s dream,\u201d right? And then if it turns in to be more of your dream, well maybe that\u2019s why you\u2019re struggling a little bit. Maybe you’ve got to look a little more to what God is telling you to do. And I feel without a doubt that He\u2019s called me to teach students about the world around them, and help mentor students whether it\u2019s med school or environmental consulting, or something else. I feel that\u2019s where I need to be. So I love it. I love doing what I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dynestee Fields Dr. Jeffrey Mohr is an Associate Professor of Biology and the head of the environmental studies program at Southern Wesleyan University. This is his second year teaching at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":2335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[343],"tags":[82,110,373],"class_list":["post-2333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religious-studies","tag-conversations","tag-science","tag-swu-stories","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2333"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2525,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2333\/revisions\/2525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}