Author: Owen Caldwell

Owen Caldwell covers wild mammals, reptiles and amphibians for The Faunalist. His guides answer the questions people actually have when something crosses the yard at dusk: what left this scat, is this snake venomous, what does a young one of this species look like, and what does it eat. He works from state wildlife agency material, university extension publications, USGS range data and museum herpetology collections, and he cross checks any identification claim against at least two of them before it is published. Where a field mark is unreliable or the sources disagree, he says so in the article rather than picking the tidier answer. Owen Caldwell is a pen name used by a member of the Faunalist editorial team. He holds no wildlife biology degree and does not claim one. What he brings is patient research, careful sourcing and years of reading tracks and sign in the field.