David G. Barker

[2] In 1990 he and his wife, biologist Tracy M. Barker, founded Vida Preciosa International, Inc [VPI], an enterprise dedicated to the research necessary to establish self-sustaining captive populations of pythons and boas.

[5] Next to extensive studies on reptiles in captivity, Barker did field work in the United States,[6] Mexico,[6] Indonesia[7] and Australia.

[13] He also gave hundreds of educational reptile demonstrations and appeared in 1988 on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show.

[14] In 2011, Barker testified to the United States congressional committee on Government Oversight and Reform on the issues of restrictive regulations and governmental interference imposed on small business.

[2] Barker is a member of the Boa and Python Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature [IUCN].