Category: Uncategorized

Common Name: Spring Salamander
Scientific Name: Gyrinophilus porphyriticus
Family: Plethodontidae – Lungless Salamanders
Locations: Canada and the United States
US Locations: Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont, and West Virginia
Size: 9 inches record length, generally only 7 inches

The Spring Salamander is found in and around cool mountain springs, creeks, and seeps. They can spend time under logs, stones, and leaves near the springs. They are noted as being hard to find even with their wide range. Few egg masses from the Spring Salamander has been found because the eggs are laid in underground recesses in the springs.

 

Common Name: Cave Salamander
Scientific Name: Eurycea lucifuga
Family: Plethodontidae – Lungless Salamanders
Locations: United States – Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia
Size: 8 inches total length

The Cave Salamander can be found in and around caves, hence the name. They are also found along springs and streams. They primarily in the limestone regions. Cave Salamanders are adept climbers and climb the walls of caves and limestone rocks.

While the salamander is listed as Least Concern by the Internal Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), its populations in certain states are dwindling. In Ohio, Kansas, and Mississippi, they are listed as an Endangered species. In West Virginia, they are listed as Rare. The main threat is habitat destruction due to their specific habitat requirements.

 

Common Name: Great Basin Spadefoot Toad
Scientific Name: Spea intermontana
Family: Scaphiopodidae – American Spadefoot Toad Family
Locations: Canada and the United States
US Locations: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming
Size: 2.5 inches

The Great Basin Spadefoot Toad is found in the western United States and southwestern Canada. They live primarily in arid, desert regions where rain is hard to come by, but they have adaptations to overcome these hostiles environments. The Great Basin Spadefoot Toads are explosive breeder. Once the spring rain falls, the males migrate to ponds and start calling. After mating, the eggs hatch in 2-4 days. These tadpoles can be herbivorous or carnivorous, depending on the locality. The tadpoles take over a month to fully undergo metamorphosis.

Like all Spadefoot Toads, the Great Basin Spadefoot Toad is great at burrowing. They have powerful hind legs that have keratonized sheaths on their rear feet. This helps them to burrow deep in the ground to protect themselves from their arid environment.

Common Name: Leatherback Sea Turtle
Scientific Name:  Dermochelys coriacea
Family: Dermochelyidae

The Leatherback Sea Turtle is the largest living species of turtle in the world, weighing up to 1,500 pounds and over 7 feet long. It is also the only extant species in the family Dermochelyidae. The turtle is named after its unusual leathery shell.

The Leatherback Sea Turtle is in trouble of becoming extinct. Some of the threats to them are plastic and chemical pollution, becoming bycatch of fisherman, over-harvesting of their eggs, and climate change. We need to tackle these issues to secure a future for the turtle.

I visited the Milwaukee Public Museum to see the new exhibit on frogs. The exhibit was pretty good, except they didn’t include the conservation status of the frogs that they showed. I didn’t take pics of all the species of frogs so go check it out if you are in the area.

The first frog was the Smoky Jungle Frog. It’s a beautiful frog from South America.

Next was one of the many species of Monkey Tree Frogs (Phyllomedusa bicolor). They too are found in South America.

Here’s a Tomato Frog that was hiding from me. I forgot to write down what exact species it is but all 4 members of the Tomato Frog genus Dyscophus are found in Madagascar.

 

There was two big Ornate Horned Frogs They are good boys.

There was a group of Borneo Eared Frogs (Polypedates otilophus). Never seen these frogs before but they were pretty cool even though they were sleeping.

Another new species that I didn’t know about is the Smooth-sided Toad (Rhaebo guttatus). These guys are actually really big, they can reach over 6 inches long.

These Chinese Gliding Frogs (Rhacophorus dennysi) were pretty cool to see even though they were asleep. Sadly, none of them were gliding.

The Asian Tree Frog (Pedostibes hosii) is native to southeastern Asia. It’s pretty awesome.

 

Here are some of the Poison Dart Frogs they had. I am stupid and forgot to write down all the species they had.

 

Last, we have the Amazon Milk Frog (Trachycephalus resinifictrix). These guys are cute and they can grow a lot bigger than I thought they could.

 

November is Manatee Awareness Month! Did you know there are three different, living species of manatees or sea cows? The three species are the West Indian / American Manatee (Trichechus manatus), Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis), and the African manatee (Trichechus senegalensis). All three of species are listed by the IUCN as vulnerable which sucks. In the US, the major threat to our manatees is humans, specially watercraft collisions. Manatees are hard to see in the water and they are slow swimmers which lead to these collisions. We need to protect these creatures for future generations.