Knoxville Zoo's herpetology director, bog turtle advocate dies (Via Herp Digest)

Knoxville Zoo's herpetology director, bog turtle advocate dies
by Amy Mcrary, 5/10/11, knownews.com

Bern Tryon, the Knoxville Zoo director of herpetology and a champion for East Tennessee's endangered bog turtles, died Friday after a battle with cancer.

Tryon, 64, was Tennessee's best authority on bog turtles, which he studied and helped to save for 25 years. His dedication to the animals included developing a zoo program that hatches and later releases the turtles in native East Tennessee habitats. The conservation awards he earned for his work included one from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"Bog turtle conservation in Tennessee is without a doubt his legacy. I don't know if it would be at all without him," said zoo Curator of Herpetology Phil Colclough.

A biology graduate of Gardner-Webb University, Tryon began his zoo career in 1971. He worked in herpetology departments at zoos in Atlanta, Fort Worth, Texas, and Houston before coming to Knoxville in 1984.

Some of Tryon's ashes will be scattered at a bog turtle site in upper East Tennessee, said Colclough. The rest will be spread this fall in an area of South Carolina he visited to search for snakes annually over the last 42 years.