Salamander Collecting Trip Photos 2

[Chris Anderson]

Hi Everyone,

In addition to chameleon feeding (which is my primary research focus at the moment), the lab I'm in here at USF also works on other herps, including salamanders. Once a year, we go on a collecting trip to collect various salamanders for the next years worth of research. I've just returned from this years trip so I thought I'd post some photos.

For our week long collecting trips, we station ourselves at the Highland Biological Research Station in Highlands, North Carolina. This area is a temperate rainforest and is rich with salamander diversity in and around the area. As you can see, its an unpleasant, ugly area to work:

This is a photo of I took while we were 4wd-ing into one of our collecting sites somewhere near the NC/SC/GA border:

Anyway, collecting techniques vary based on the species but its a lot of bending over flipping rock after rock for hours and walking around in streams at night in the rain looking at the banks, among other techniques. We were incredibly busy so I only took the time to photograph species I had not already gotten good photos of or that we were not collecting (Cryptobranchus, Aneides, P. patraeus, E. lucifuga, etc.). You can see a some of my photos from last year in this thread for the other species: https://www.chameleonforums.com/salamander-collecting-trip-photos-24910/ Here, however, are some of my photos from this year:

Plethodon metcalfi (Southern Gray-cheeked Salamander):

Pseudacric crucifer (Spring Peeper):

Pseudotriton ruber schenki (Black-chined Red Salamander):

Desmognathus ocoee (Ocoee Salamander):

Desmognathus quadramaculatus (Black-bellied Salamander):

Desmognathus marmoratus (Shovel-nosed Salamander):

More on the way!

Chris

 

[Chris Anderson]

The Rest:

Cryptobranchus alleganiensis (Hellbender):

Eurycea wilderae (Blue Ridge Two-lined Salamander):

Scincella lateralis (Little Brown Skink):

Bufo americanus (American Toad):

Myotis lucifugus (Little Brown Myotis Bat):

Baby Aneides aeneus (Green Salamander):

Baby & Adult Plethodon petraeus (Pigeon Mountain Salamander):

Eurycea lucifuga (Cave Salamander):

Hope you enjoyed the pics!

Chris

 

[CleaTheChameleon]

WOW thanks for sharing Chris. the pics and all those critters look great! I hope you had fun.

 

[Syn]

Those are great pictures, Chris. Very neat bat as well! Did you collect that as well?

 

[Lizardlover]

Neat! I remember last time I went to NC I found all sorts of salamanders.

 

[Cainschams]

Great photos, Chris!!! I love going out and flipping over rocks The best place I have been to was one of the hiking trails on Skyline Drive on the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia. I found much more species than the typical two lined salamanders that seem to be what I normally find.

 

[chamelisa]

Excellent photos. You can almost touch the clammy little things. Did you lick any?

We used to go "save" the salamanders or newts or whatever that crossed the road up in the mountains. April would collect the pacific tree frogs but she couldn't stand touching the salamanders. So Ashley would jump out of the car when we saw one and she'd hold the flashlight with her mouth while picking up the salamander and moving it to the side of the road. She was using sanitizer in between. But she didn't realize that touching the flashlight with her hands and putting it in her mouth might not be a good idea. She said, "hmmm, my mouth is kinda tingly." Then it dawned on us what was happening. We don't do that any more.

Do you know Dr. Lee Katz at Pepperdine University? He said he usually licked one during field studies to get a reaction from his students. But one time he collapsed. That was the last time... or so he says. lol The story was much funnier when he told it.

 

[eisentrauti]

Great pics, Chris ! Thanks for posting !

 

[jojackson]

I love Eurycea wilderae Chris! Very nice, is the species endangered?

 

[chams1]

Great pics Chris!

 

[Chris Anderson]

Thanks for all the comments, everyone. I'm glad you all enjoyed the pics.

Syn - Nope, didn't collect the bat, it just happened to be hanging out in a cave we were exploring looking for salamanders so I took the opportunity to get a couple macro pics.

Elisa - I know of Dr. Katz but don't know him personally. I'm curious what species it was that he licked and collapsed though. I didn't lick any of the salamanders this trip but there are researchers who study amphibian toxicity that do lick their subjects to get a quick idea of the toxicity.

Joe - The Eurycea wilderae are quite pretty. They are actually fairly common in their range but they are very small. They are ~3-5cm SVL but as you can see, very elongate so there really isn't much to them. In addition to having had difficulty keeping them long term in the past because of their size and diet, they are a little too small for some of what we are doing so we don't collect them typically.

Chris

 

[fluxlizard]

My son caught some of those big red ones up on top of a nearby mountain where his best friend lives. They have a spring house where they get their water for their home and drinking, and that is where these red ones were found- they come there to breed I guess in the winter sometime. We looked them up in a field guide book and decided to return them because we are at a lower elevation and have no place cold enough to keep them here. Very pretty. He can still go look at them in the winter any time he wants in his friend's spring house. They figure if these salamanders go there the water must be healthy. LOL

 

[Dooley1]

Chris,

Do you know why P. r. schencki is called the black-chinned version of the red salamander? Any northern reds P. r. ruber I've found in P.A. have the same distinct black chins.

Also, love the hellbender! It's been a couple years since I've seen one in the wild here.

Kevin

 

[Syn]

Syn - Nope, didn't collect the bat, it just happened to be hanging out in a cave we were exploring looking for salamanders so I took the opportunity to get a couple macro pics.

Glad you did! Even though we have bats here in Arizona... you don't get to see them much. Really neat!

 

[AJA]

Chris, I am sorry to hear of your horrid working conditions. Just think you could be in a cubicle with the rest of us rats.

So, not to stir the pot but my curiosity has got me. You said that you collect to research on the various salamanders. Couldn't FWS raise their own salamanders and prevent the harvest of the wild ones? Can you tell us what kind of research is being done or would you have to kill us all ?

 

[Chris Anderson]

Kevin - To be honest, I'm not sure why this subspecies is called the Black-chinned Red Salamander when at least some of the nominate subspecies have the black lips as well.

Amy - Our salamander work focuses on the physiological ecology and biomechanics of feeding and movement. Basically we look at how salamanders are able to cope with and overcome environmental challenges or limitations to their performance.

I don't work with or have anything to do with FWS but I'm sure they have better things to do then breed salamanders for research purposes. The state authorities issue scientific collecting permits in which we have to justify the purpose of our collecting as well as the exact species, quantity and locations of our collecting. We don't collect state or federal species of concern, only species that would not be threatened by collecting. In fact, in many areas, the Plethodontid salamanders represent the single largest vertebrate biomass and collecting at the scale we do has no impact on their populations.

As for the morality of collecting wild specimens, I would argue that collecting wild specimens for scientific research is far more beneficial than any collection for the pet trade, which we both support in chameleons. As for alternatives to collecting from the wild, there really aren't any. While some biological supply companies breed and supply certain "model organisms", including some salamanders, these "model" species are hardly sufficient to answer most scientific research questions so the term "model organism" is kind of misleading. The species we work with are simply not produced in captivity in any number close to what is needed to conduct our research.

Chris

 

[hallenhe]

Enjoyed all the pictures, Chris, particularly the hellbender. We have several salamander species in Michigan but, nine times out of ten, when I turn over a log the red backs (Plethodon cinereus) are what I find. They're cool, but a bit disconcerting to find vertebrates smaller than earthworms.