Odds of Hanging On
Once you're in as a herpetologist, you're in for good. Like a fine, stinky French cheese, the longer you stay cooped up in that research basement, the more valuable you're going to be in the marketplace.
Unlike the fields of, say, marketing or partner management, your experience in academia is considered linear; a herpetologist with the relevant degrees and five years of experience is directly more successful than a herpetologist with the relevant degrees and one year of experience. That's rarer in Jobville than you might think, so enjoy it.