Tracy M. Barker

Tracy Jo Barker (née Miller) (born December 10, 1957)[1] is an American herpetologist specializing in pythons.

Barker grew up in Washington, D.C., as the daughter of J. Jefferson Miller[2][3] who was Curator of ceramics and glass at the Smithsonian Institution.

She worked as a field biologist for repopulating Green Iguanas in Panama[8][9] and studied the reproductive behavior of Tuatara on Stephens Island in New Zealand.

[10][4] In 1990 she and her husband, biologist David G. Barker, founded Vida Preciosa International, Inc. (VPI), an enterprise dedicated to the research necessary to establish self-sustaining captive populations of pythons and boas.

[13] Barker has written numerous papers in scientific journals as well as dozens of popular publications.