Karl attended the University of Victoria (BC, Canada) for his undergraduate degree and there, by a fortunate twist of fate, he came under the mentorship of Patrick Gregory. Pat convinced Karl he could turn his deep-rooted interest in snakes into an MSc thesis. This took him to the Northwest Territories where he studied the ecology of the northern champion of the reptile world, the Common Garter Snake. Following that, he continued on to a Ph.D. at the University of Alberta, where as a Killam Fellowship holder he switched gears and focused on the reproductive success of female red squirrels. This was followed by an Industrial Post-Doc stint with Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries, where he developed a fire ecology program. Dr. Larsen started his academic career at Thompson Rivers University in 1997, where he now is winding down his career as Professor in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences, and Program Coordinator of the Master of Science Program. He has supervised over 40 graduate students on a wide range of projects, ranging from the movement ecology of pillbugs, the nesting ecology of goshawks, and the use of habitat patches by Asian Elephants. However, reptiles have continued to be his long-standing interest, and in particular, a large proportion of projects in his lab have focused on the conservation biology of the Western Rattlesnake. His presentation will showcase the work done by a group of outstanding young researchers examining the perplexing movements of a very northern viper.