Close encounters with reptiles

The story begins in Oss, a town in the Netherlands, where Coen grew up. According to Coen's parents, his interest in biology began when he was only 6 years old.

- I've always thought it was fun poking about in nature. I often went fishing in the local area, and when I was about 7 I got my first fish at home. When I was 12, I got a job in a pet shop in the Netherlands, and I had that job for 10 years. I actually took part in a national competition about recognising fish when I was 13 - and my friend and I won! Just because we could remember the names of a lot more fish than the runners-up could," recalls Coen with a huge smile.

Coen moved to Wageningen in the Netherlands in 1994 to start his studies and spent 10 years there until he completed his PhD on the physiology of birdsong in 2004. After his PhD, he went to Salt Lake City in the USA as a postdoc, before receiving a Carlsberg scholarship in 2008, which led him to the Department of Biology here at NAT, where he was employed as an Assistant Professor in 2010 and then later as an Associate Professor in 2014. Today, he is head of the Sound Group, which is particularly concerned with neuroscience, biomechanics and acoustic communication.

Coen's fascination with animals grew and grew as he got older - and while he was writing his PhD, he had 200 snakes, 7-8 species of lizards and - yes, you guessed it - a crocodile in his apartment!

Chaos in the Amazones

- I've always been incredibly fascinated with reptiles, and I've travelled a lot to places like South America and North Africa, where I've studied snakes and other reptiles. In 2000, I went to the Amazon for 2-3 weeks on my own because I wanted to know more about caimans, small alligators. It turned out to be a trip I'll never forget. One evening I went out in a canoe with a guide to look for caimans, but the water in the river had risen by 6 metres during the night, so the treetops were level with the boat - and so were the snakes and other creepy-crawlies! I saw a caiman and jumped out into the water after it, but it got away and swam past very close to my leg. I hurried back to the canoe, but in the commotion the guide rowed us into a treetop, where there turned out to be a massive 40-metre spider's web with what I reckon to have been around 300,000 spiders in it. Then suddenly in the darkness a couple of river dolphins tried to capsize the canoe. We made it back to camp, got a beer and were very glad that we got to see the sunrise the next morning. It was probably one of the wildest experiences I've ever had, concludes Coen with a story that has clearly made a great impression on him.

In spite of his many wild experiences, Coen has never been bitten or injured during his trips. He has great respect for the poisonous reptiles, and over the years he has become a little more sensible than he used to be, although it is clear that he still cherishes close contact with the animals:

- As recently as last week, I was at the field station in Svanninge, and we managed to find two adders in the area. I love photographing reptiles, and these days it's my way of getting close to them, now that I no longer have a house full of reptiles. But I hope I can find a little space in our new house for a couple of reptiles, says Coen hopefully.

Together with Gitte 

Last year, Coen moved into a new house outside Odense with his wife, Gitte, and their two children, Eva-Milou, 3, and Rosaline,1, and his experience of being in Denmark is positive but also challenging in some ways, after coming from the colourful Netherlands:

- I'm incredibly happy working at the Department of Biology, and I particularly value my colleagues, who come from all over the world. It seems to me that on the surface Danes are very similar, and I've taken some time to get used to that. In the Netherlands, people are much more different - and it's totally OK to be colourful, lively and maybe even a bit eccentric. In Denmark, the Law of Jante makes people scared to stand out, which then means that there's no room for eccentricity. And I miss eccentricity now and then when I'm going about in DK, says Coen, and with that concludes an interview with a most entertaining, slightly eccentric but also very thoughtful person.

Thank you, Coen!