Chantelle Derez is a field-based ecologist with a passion for herpetology. Starting out as a part-time reptile keeper at the Adelaide Zoo, then as a animal attendant at the largest private laboratory, Venom Supplies, herps has always been a large part of her life. An undergraduate degree in South Australia led to Honours with the late Dr Mike Bull, looking at sociality in the tree skink in tree habitats, which led to the first study in the wild looking at the ecology of the endangered slater’s skink in Northern Territory. In 2018, she was the leading author on a paper describing a new species of elapid snake in Queensland, Australia. Currently as PhD student at University of Queensland, her main focus is radio-tracking carpet pythons to understand urban python behaviour, translocations and how these affect python ecology. She also involved with Reptile Rehabilitation Queensland as a wildlife carer, educator and scientific officer.
