MARITAL STATUS: Married to the same wonderful woman since 1969.  We have two children and three beautiful grandchildren.

Click here for some great old and new family photos

I am a man with many interests.  Some of these are related to my academic specialty of animal behavior while others are quite unrelated to my profession. At this point in time, my primary avocational interests include playing bluegrass music, raising old world chameleons, and fishing.

Bluegrass Music

I play trumpet, bass fiddle, fiddle, and 5-string banjo.  Although the fiddle is the last instrument I learned to play (I started at age 40) it is also my favorite.  I play fiddle in various bluegrass and country bands, including the Mill Creek Boys, Tommy Rynick & the Fabulous Country Travelers, and more recently, Prairie Dawg. In 2008, Prairie Dawg won the Delaware state Bluegrass Band Championship in Rehoboth, Delaware. At the same competition, I took 1st place in the fiddler's competition. 

Prairie Dawg

Praising Prairie Dogs  by Anthony Falbo  

I am also a long-time, active member of the Holmesburg Jam. This is an open bluegrass and country jam session in northeast Philadelphia that has been meeting every Thursday night since 1971. In addition, I maintain web pages of acoustic jam sessions and bluegrass festivals in the region. I also have an extensive e-mail distribution list to announce upcoming jams, festivals and concerts. To be added to my distribution list just e-mail me and request to be added to the list.  This is NOT a listserv. It's a plain, old fashioned distribution list.

Bluegrass and Acoustic Jams

East Coast Bluegrass Festivals

Philadelphia Area Bluegrass Teachers

Jam Etiquette

Miscellaneous Bluegrass Links

Prairie Dawg Bluegrass Band

Herpetoculture

(The Keeping & Breeding of Reptiles & Amphibians)

My home contains numerous habitats for reptiles including a 150 aquaterrarium for turtles, geckos, tree frogs, and other miscellaneous creatures. See viv_construction.htm for my latest creation. But my greatest herpetological love is for the group of lizards known as the Chamaeleonidae (Old World Chameleons) and I edit a website, http://www.adcham.com/, that is arguably the single most comprehensive website on these amazing creatures. Our web site team includes veterinarians, taxonomists, ecologists, hobbyists, and importers and exporters. I am particularly fond of those members of the genus Chamaeleo that give birth to live young such as Chamaeleo (Trioceros) hoehnelii and the Chamaeleo (Triceros) jacksonii jacksonii pictured here. These unique creatures have very demanding requirements and should not be kept by the casual hobbyist.

FISHING

Beginning with our family fishing trips to Rice Lake, Ontario and Back Lake, New Hampshire, I have been an avid freshwater fisherman.  For the past 20 years our family has enjoyed fishing in the magnificent 1,000 Islands on the New York-Ontario border. More recently my wife and I have enjoyed saltwater angling in the Florida Keys for bonefish, barracuda and tarpon and in Homosassa Springs, Florida for redfish.