Herpedex: All the Herps I Have Seen In The Wild: northern green frog

Saturday, 4 April 2015

Herping in Will County, Illinois

Blue-spotted Salamander: PC Tristan Schramer

Date:
April 4th 2015

Species Found:

Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum)
Blue-spotted Salamander (Ambystoma laterale)
Western Chorus Frog (Pseudacris triseriata)
Eastern Newt (Notophthalamus viridescens)
Northern Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans melanota)

The Trip:

Tristan had herped in Will County before and found a lot of cool species that Noah and I had never seen. We decided to make a stop there after we were done helping with the mudpuppy research. We got there and started making our way toward the ponds. Deer were everywhere and what was weird was that these deer seemed to be more brave than the other deer I had seen. You could get as close as 10 meters to them before they ran away. We finally got to a pond and flipped a log by the water's edge. Surprisingly, 2 of the species we had come to find were sitting right there. A Spotted Salamander, which I had seen before, and a Blue-spotted Salamander, a new species for me. I was really excited to see my first Blue-spotted but I was just as excited about the Spotted because it had orange spots on its head, a trait that I had never seen before.

Salamander and Frog Habitat: PC Tristan Schramer

Under the first log we flipped: PC Tristan Schramer

We knew we would find more of these salamanders so we carried on without taking too many photos of these. The second log we flipped had a large gravid Spotted Salamander. It was the fattest salamander I had ever seen.

Gravid Female Spotted Salamander: PC Tristan Schramer

As we continued to look under logs, we found whole clumps of these salamanders, just crawling all over each other. We also found some salamanders living in the logs, under the bark.

Salamanders under log: PC Tristan Schramer

Salamander living in log: PC Tristan Schramer

We then settled down by a pond to photograph the salamanders. As pretty as they were, they were frustrating specimens to photograph. They just refused to sit still for longer than a second.

Spotted Salamander: PC Tristan Schramer

Blue-spotted Salamander: PC Tristan Schramer

Some of the salamanders we found had some weird lumps on their throats and bellies. We weren't sure what this was but we knew it wasn't good news. We took pictures of the affected areas to forward to herpetologists so that they would be able to find out what was wrong.

Diseased Salamander: PC Tristan Schramer

The background music to all of this was the deafening sound of Chorus Frogs calling. A small log that I flipped had a small Chorus Frog under it.

Western Chorus Frog: PC Yatin Kalki

Western Chorus Frog: PC Yatin Kalki

Western Chorus Frog: PC Yatin Kalki

Western Chorus Frog: PC Yatin Kalki

Western Chorus Frog: PC Tristan Schramer

We moved away from the small ponds and went to a large pond with lots of vegetation and algae in it. Tristan said that this would be a good place to find newts, an amphibian that I had never seen before. It took about 5 minutes for Tristan to catch a male Eastern Newt in his net. This was a new species for me so I took my time examining it. Its skin was much rougher than the skin of any salamander I had seen before. Newts are also known to be poisonous, but only when ingested. I had no plans of eating the newt so I was pretty safe. Tristan later caught a female with a large, fin-like tail.

Eastern Newt: PC Yatin Kalki

Eastern Newts: PC Yatin Kalki

Male Eastern Newt: PC Tristan Schramer

Female Eastern Newt: PC Tristan Schramer

Somehow Tristan managed to get pictures of the newt yawning. This was hilarious.

Yawning Newt: PC Tristan Schramer

At some point we caught a tadpole of a Northern Green Frog. It looked a lot like the Bullfrog tadpoles I had seen before but the spots were different.

Green Frog Tadpole: PC Yatin Kalki

Green Frog Tadpole: PC Yatin Kalki

This trip was pretty successful. I got 2 new species to add to my American Herp List, which now stood at 48 species.

UPDATE:
We sent the photos of the diseased salamanders to herpetologists Chris Phillips and Andrew Kuhns and wildlife veterinarian Matt Allender. According to them, the lumps were formed by "yellow grub", a parasitic fluke that needs salamanders (or fish) to complete its life cycle. Here is the wikipedia excerpt:

Yellow grub require two intermediate hosts, usually a snail and a fish, but in vernal ponds salamanders are often infected, and one definitive host - birds. If an infected salamander is ingested by a heron or other wading bird, the fluke matures in the throat of the bird, eggs are released through the birds feces, hopefully back into the water, and picked up on the foot of a snail, they then reproduce asexually and exit the snail foot as free swimming larvae in search of another fish or salamander to repeat the cycle.

It is unclear what effect this parasite has on the salamander's survival, but the disease is apparently quite widespread.

Friday, 27 March 2015

Herping in Floyd County, Indiana

Cave Salamander: PC Yatin Kalki

Date:

March 21st to 27th 2015

Species Found:

Redback Salamander (Plethodon cinereus)
Five Lined Skink (Plestiodon fasciatus)
Southern Two Lined Salamander (Eurycea cirrigera)
Northen Zigzag Salamander (Plethodon dorsalis)
Cave Salamander (Eurycea lucifuga)
Northern Slimy Salamander (Plethodon glutinosus)
American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus)
Northern Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans melanota)
Longtail Salamander (Eurycea longicauda)

Background:

I was looking for wildlife at my friend Garrett's farm over Spring Break. The farm is a 100 acre property, which is mostly deciduous forest with a few creeks and ponds. I spent a couple of days just walking through the woods, flipping logs and looking for animals.

The Trip:

The first herps I found were Redback Salamanders under a log near an old barn. I had seen at least a hundred of these before so I didn't bother taking very good photos. I was still pretty excited about finding an amphibian so close to a building, but that was because I didn't know that I would see another 100 of them later that day.

Redback Salamanders: PC Yatin Kalki

Redback Salamanders: PC Yatin Kalki

Shortly afterward, I found a juvenile Five Lined Skink under a piece of roof tiling. I could tell it was young by its blue tail. I had seen one of these before in Southern Illinois but I couldn't catch it and therefore had no photos of it. Luckily I managed to catch this one.

Five Lined Skink: PC Yatin Kalki

Five Lined Skink: PC Yatin Kalki

Five Lined Skink: PC Yatin Kalki

Juvenile Five Lined Skink: PC Yatin Kalki

Later that day, I found an adult Five Lined Skink and another juvenile under decaying logs. The adult was duller and didn't have a vibrant blue tail.

Adult Five Lined Skink: PC Yatin Kalki

Adult Five Lined Skink: PC Yatin Kalki

Juvenile Five Lined Skink: PC Yatin Kalki

Juvenile Five Lined Skink: PC Yatin Kalki

Under a log near where I found the first Skink, I found a Southern Two Lined Salamander. I had seen some of these before in Vermilion County, IL but it was still cool to find another species of salamander so close to the house. Later that day, when I was herping in a creek, I found around 50 more Southern Two Lined Salamanders under rocks. I also found a few larvae in small pools under rocks.

Southern Two Lined Salamander: PC Yatin Kalki

Southern Two Lined Salamander: PC Yatin Kalki

Southern Two Lined Salamander Larva: PC Yatin Kalki

Under logs on hillsides and under rocks by streams, I found some Zigzag Salamanders. I had seen these before at Snake Road but these had brightly colored zigzags which were much more prominent.

Zigzag Salamander: PC Yatin Kalki

Zigzag Salamanders: PC Yatin Kalki

For hours, I went on flipping rocks by the stream, finding Redbacks, Two Lineds and Zigzags but it all paid off when I found a Cave Salamander. I had never seen one before and it was really cool to see its bright orange body with black spots. I wasn't sure if it was a Cave Salamander or a Longtail Salamander so I sent a picture to Tristan and he confirmed that it was a Cave Salamander. After I took photos of it, I went to put it back under the rock I found it under and found another Cave Salamander!

Cave Salamander: PC Yatin Kalki

Cave Salamander: PC Yatin Kalki

Cave Salamander: PC Yatin Kalki

Just when I thought I was done finding all the salamander species I could find, I found a large Northern Slimy Salamander under a log along with 6 Redback Salamanders. I had also seen these before at Vermilion County, IL but it was cool to find so many salamander species in one place.

Northern Slimy Salamander: PC Yatin Kalki

Northern Slimy Salamander: PC Yatin Kalki

On the way back to the house I flipped a rock to find a tiny Bullfrog. It jumped into the water but I managed to catch it and take some photos. Bullfrogs are some of the most common frogs but I just hadn't managed to catch one in the last six months. So it was good that I finally got one. I also netted some large Bullfrog tadpoles in a pond.

American Bullfrog: PC Yatin Kalki

American Bullfrog: PC Yatin Kalki

American Bullfrog: PC Yatin Kalki

Bullfrog Tadpole: PC Yatin Kalki

Bullfrog Tadpole: PC Yatin Kalki

The next day I found all of the same species, with the addition of a new one. I found a total of 6 Northern Green Frogs under large rocks in a creek. They mostly occurred in twos but two were alone. I had seen another subspecies of Green Frog in Southern Illinois called the Bronze Frog, but the Northern Green Frog was new to me.

Northern Green Frogs: PC Yatin Kalki

Northern Green Frog: PC Yatin Kalki

Northern Green Frog: PC Yatin Kalki

Northern Green Frog: PC Yatin Kalki

While looking in various water bodies, I repeatedly came across Wood Frog egg masses but I couldn't find any actual Wood Frogs. The eggs were present in HUGE concentrations at some places and unfortunately, many of the masses were on the banks of ponds that were close to drying up.

Wood Frog Egg Masses: PC Yatin Kalki

Wood Frog Egg Masses: PC Yatin Kalki

A couple of days later, I found Longtail Salamanders, too. The first one was under a large rock a few meters away from the creek. It was much bigger than any of the Longtail Salamanders I had seen befpre, about double the size. Like most Longtails, it was orange with black spots and had a really long tail. The other Longtail I found was severely wounded. Its whole tail had been cut off and it had a deep wound on its lower jaw. Salamanders are known to have amazing regenerative capabilities so I knew that he could very well make a recovery.

Longtail Salamander: PC Yatin Kalki

Longtail Salamander: PC Yatin Kalki

Longtail Salamander: PC Yatin Kalki

Longtail Salamander: PC Yatin Kalki

Injured Longtail Salamander: PC Yatin Kalki

Though I failed to find any of the infamous snakes that Garrett had told me so much about, I did manage to find a total of 9 species, 3 of which were new to me. My American Herp List now stood at 44 species.