Friday, February 6, 2015
Spring has come to Idaho! Just last night I tracked down my first long-toed salamander right outside Moscow. It is going to be a good year of herping! I can feel it!
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Ambystoma macrodacylum columbianum
Friday, February 6, 2015
Spring has come to Idaho! Just last night I tracked down my first long-toed salamander right outside Moscow. It is going to be a good year of herping! I can feel it!
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Dicamptodon aterrimus
After a couple months living in Idaho I was finally able to explore the Idaho Panhandle National Forest, where giants roam. Well, giant salamanders, anyway. It was in a small headwater stream that I discovered my first tailed frogs and Dicamptodon aterrimus, the giant salamander.
Plethodon vehiculum
After the WCH, my friend, Rory Telemeco, and I took a day to explore Vancouver Island in the vicinity of Victoria. Luckily, on the ferry over from Vancouver we bumped into Kristiina Ovaska, a herpetologist who lives and works in Victoria. She was kind enough to show us her field site, where we flipped about a dozen of these species, which is more or less the West Coast version of Plethodon cinereus, the species I work on in Massachusetts. This species is slightly different in general form, and the dorsal stripe is wider and extends to the tip of the tail, unlike with P. cinereus. It's a pretty little 'mander.
Ensatina eschscholtzi oregonensis
While at the World Herp Congress in Vancouver this year I was able to sneak away to a secluded corner of the UBC campus, where I was lucky enough to flip an individual of this beautiful, if somewhat enigmatic species. While many scientists agree that the Ensatina salamanders form a single species, this is the result of years of discussion and heated debate. The source of the confusion is that while members of this species can (usually) freely interbreed with their neighbors, the distribution of the species forms a great arc around the Central Valley in California and at the southern edge the east and west forms coexist without much (if any) swapping of genetic material. To complicate matters further, this species is highly variable, with the northern forms looking like the individual I discovered, while some of the southern forms take on the appearance of syntopic (found at the same locality) toxic newts or bright splotches of color that break up their salamander-esque outline on the forest floor. In summary, this salamander is absolutely fascinating. I hope to find more in the future.
Bolitoglossa striatula
On a recent trip to Costa Rica I was able to spend over a week herping the Limon Province. On one night hike we found an individual of this beautiful species foraging on a banana leaf near a marshy grassland, its preferred habitat.
Plethodon caddoensis
The next day, we traveled to a different corner of the Ouachitas, the Caddo Mountains. These mountains contain Plethodon caddoensis, their own mountain-top endemic species of plethodontid. Like many mountain-top endemics, they make up for their small range by becoming locally abundant. We found well over a couple dozen in just a couple hours of searching!
Eurycea multiplicata
In addition to the many individuals of P. ouachitae, we flipped a single Many-Ribbed Salamander in a seep downslope from the P. ouachitae habitat.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)