Hi, listeners. We have a really cool special episode for you today. In this one, we interview

Gina Zwicki. Gina is a graduate student at the University of New Orleans, where she studies reptile

immuno-evolution, and she knows a ton of stuff about toads, frogs, alligators, and turtles.

In this episode, we learn about snapping turtles, butt breathing, how to tell an alligator from a

crocodile, and why frogs have the coloring

they do. We also learn about Gina's evening frog watch events and why they're helpful to science.

Of course, we also learn how kids can help protect animals. We hope you enjoy the episode,

and we'll be back soon with another episode in your feed. Thanks for listening. My name is Gina Zwicki. I'm 25 and I'm a graduate

student at the University of New Orleans. I study reptile immune evolution. How many of the

animals you study are cold-blooded? So all of the ones I currently study are cold-blooded

because I have only one study species that I work on for my project. So they're called Sabanol,

Anola-Sabanas, and they're from a really, really small island in the Caribbean called Saba,

and they're really cool because the males and females are very different. Do you guys know what an

Anol lizard is? Where do you guys live?

Oregon. Oh, okay. So, yeah, no annals up that area. I used to live there as well, though, by the way.

But annals are pretty small lizards, but they're really, really diverse. There are hundreds and hundreds of species all through Central and South America, and even a couple in North America. So, again, the one I study is from the Caribbean, but that's my only species at the moment.

So yes, all of them are cold-blooded of the one.

Have you ever studied animals besides that?

I have.

I worked on a project in bird behavior when I was doing my undergraduate research.

So they're called Hakanas or Jasanas. There's a lot of

different pronunciations, but they're really, really cool because they have a very, very unique

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