DeKALB | For Kristin Stanford, an NIU research associate, it’s just another day at the office, or more specifically, Ohio’s Put-in-Bay Harbor, where she is working to save the endangered Lake Erie water snake, an effort that will soon garner her national fame.

“When you aggravate them, they’ll bite repeatedly and violently spray you with poo,” she said. “They also have musk glands that secrete a nasty odor. And, if they’ve eaten recently, they’ll puke on you.”

Stanford will appear tonight on the program “Dirty Jobs” at 8 p.m. on the Discovery Channel, and will re-air several times throughout the week. The program follows host Mike Rowe as he investigates the filthiest professions in America.

Stanford, who has been a research associate at NIU since January 2003, has been working with the Lake Erie water snake since 2000, a relationship that was spurned by chance.

“I was getting my master’s at the time, and was only supposed to be a field assistant,” she said. “But, another grad student didn’t want to do it, so it just kind of fell into my lap.”

Her research focuses on protecting the endangered snake, which is exclusive to Lake Erie. Stanford focuses on monitoring the snake population by capturing the snakes and taking them back to her lab, where microchips are inserted into the snakes to monitor their position and to learn how fast they grow.

“The island is a tourist hot spot, so there is a lot of habitat destruction. The best documented cases of snake deaths are intentional human killings,” said Stanford, who has helped in conducting an education campaign for island residents to learn more about the snakes; they are not poisonous and pose no threat to humans.

Stanford and her constituents have achieved a measure of success in protecting the species, which currently has an estimated adult population of 7,000 in the United States, up from 2,000 in 1998.

The episode, which was filmed for 12 hours in August, is sure to present some of the entertainment the show is known for.

“They’re going to pick out the dirtiest, grossest parts, but that’s okay,” Stanford said. Along with showing Rowe the basics of her job, Stanford also introduced him to the art of “toothpasting,” which is how one induces vomiting in a snake.

For Stanford, the sudden fame has been a unique experience.

“Though it’s pretty weird, it’s also been fun,” she said. “I’m nervous and excited. I won’t believe it until I see it.”

Justin Weaver is a Campus Reportor for the Northern Star.