Welcome to the HERP Lab! We are a group of ecologists and other animal scientists at Montreat College in western North Carolina under the leadership of Dr. Josh Holbrook. Our lab has a strong focus on the natural history of amphibians, reptiles and macroinvertebrates and its importance on all that is downstream: behavior, habitat selection, adaptation, distribution, and more. 

Dr. Holbrook worked with fish colonization of isolated waterbodies (e.g. wetlands, small ponds) and their effect on the rest of the wetland fauna (insects, amphibians, etc.) for his Masters and PhD; and the HERP Lab has engaged in research as varied as alligator diets, chytrid fungus detection, and invasive plant-faunal interactions. For ambitious students, the sky's the limit!

Although most of the HERP Lab members are in Environmental Science at Montreat College, we've also had strong Biology and Health (Veterinary) science majors work in the HERP Lab. Environmental Science (ES) is heavily field-based at Montreat College with Dr. Holbrook and Dr. Anna Hardy leading classes throughout the southeastern United States, the Desert Southwest and Perú. Montreat College ES majors have gone on to work in environmental services (macroinvertebrates/stream health), private consulting (wetland delineation), forestry, horticulture, animal rehab, and a variety of other ES-related jobs!