Author Archives: Susan

06/12/11

Hellbenders – Unique Jurassic Survivors

The other day my husband asked if I wanted to go see hellbenders at a state park in Pennsylvania. I knew that hellbenders were salamanders, but I didn’t know much else about them. So I thought I’d learn something about them before we go in search of these unique creatures.

Eastern Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus allegoniensis), the only member of the giant salamander family found in North America, are large aquatic salamanders that can grow from 10 to 20 inches in length. They have wrinkled skin and their color varies from spotted yellowish to red and brown.

The Eastern Hellbender lives in fast-flowing, cold streams with rocky bottoms from southern New York to northern Georgia, but are most abundant in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia. They are primarily nocturnal and spend most of their day hiding under logs or rocks. They like to eat snails and crayfish and are partial to worms, which sometimes leads to encounters with fishermen.

There are two common misconceptions surrounding this aquatic salamander—that it’s poisonous and that it spreads a slime on fishing lines that drives away fish. Both are untrue. The hellbender is harmless. But these misconceptions have led to nicknames such as devil dog and Allegheny alligator.*

Hellbenders have an interesting reproductive process. They mate late in the summer and the male then digs a shallow nest in the stream bottom beneath a log or rock. A female deposits 100 to 200 eggs in the nest as the male releases sperm to fertilize them. Dad then guards the nest for two to three months until the young hatch.

Hellbenders are considered a living fossil. They haven’t changed much since the Jurassic times, over 160 million years ago, which means they’ve been on Earth about 60 million years longer than humans. But human activity is causing them to decline dramatically in most areas.

Some causes for their decline include blocking of the animals’ migration routes, destruction of their aquatic habitat by dams and other development, as well as pollution, disease, and over harvesting for commercial and scientific purposes.

Here’s a National Geographic video about the hellbender. I wouldn’t try this at home (licking a salamander), but it does remind one that tasting really really bad is one of the defenses of animals like hellbenders.

Unike the hellbender in the video above, the hellbender in this video has been left undisturbed and despite its name, I think the hellbender is quite beautiful when you see it in its natural habitat:

*Most of the information in this post came from Longstreet Highroad Guide to the Pennsylvania Mountains by Greg and Karen Czarnecki.

06/2/11

Harnessing the Power of Social Media to Help Frogs and Other Amphibians

I imagine in the early days of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg was not thinking about how his innovative new social networking site might help wildlife. But being globally connected by social media can speed the spread of information and help in conservation efforts.

Because up to one-third of all amphibians are endangered and many species are on the brink of extinction, it makes sense to take advantage of the incredible power of social media to help amphibian conservation efforts in an efficient and cost-effective way.

We’ve recently learned about a new project called The Global Amphibian Blitz , an on-line information sharing hub for non-professional naturalists and biologists to track and record sightings of amphibians around the world.  This information will then help professional researchers to document and determine where conservation efforts are most needed. It also seems to be a great way for those who care about frogs and other amphibians to connect with each other.

 If you’re an amateur herpetologist, please consider becoming a part of the Global Amphibian Blitz. The YouTube video below explains how to participate in the project:

The Global Amphibian Blitz partners are Amphibia Web, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Center for Biological Diversity, Amphibian Ark, Neotropical Conservation. and iNaturalist.org.

05/28/11

The Olm – Earth's Weirdest Salamander

We began this post  as “The 10 Weirdest Salamanders and Newts,” but never got past what may be the weirdest salamander of them all: the Olm (Proteus anguinus), a blind amphibian native to the subterranean waters of caves of southern Europe. This animal is so strange and interesting, it deserves a post of its own. (The 10 Weirdest Salamander post will follow soon.)

The Olm lives in subterranean aquatic habitats within the Dinaric Alps in the countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia. It is the  the only European species of the family Proteidae, an ancient family of salamanders, and is Europe’s only cave-adapted vertebrate (animal with a backbone).

The Olm lives in complete darkness and is a great example of the evolutionary principle of “use it or lose it,” or more accurately, the principle of why waste energy on something if you never use it. When they are young, Olm have normal eye development. But as the animal matures, the eyes disappear under its skin because it doesn’t need them. Although the animal is blind, their eyes (even under skin) are sensitive to light.

© Arne Hodalič, courtesy of EDGE

The Olm’s other senses, particularly those of smell and hearing, are highly developed. It can sense sound waves in the water and vibrations on land. It may also use Earth’s magnetic field to orient itself, detecting electric fields in a way similar to sharks.

In another case of use it or lose it, the Olm has no pigmentation in its skin. Its yellowish-white or pink skin is never exposed to the sun, or light of any kind. But its skin is still able to produce melanin. When exposed the light, the animal will turn darker.

Unlike most amphibians that live a double life—in water and on land—the Olm is entirely aquatic. It swims by twisting its snake-like body like an eel, helped by its poorly developed legs.

The Olm doesn’t go through metamorphosis like most other amphibians. Instead it keeps the features of its larval stage, like external gills, which form two branched tufts at the back of its head. Because of its aquatic lifestyle, it also retains its tail fin and lacks eyelids. The Olm has only three fingers on its forelimbs and two toes on its hindlimbs.

The Olm feeds on small crabs, snails and sometimes insects. Food can sometimes be scarce in a cave, but that’s not a problem for the Olm. It can eat large amounts of food at once, and store the nutrients. When food is scarce, it becomes less active and its metabolism slows down. Controlled experiments have shown that an Olm can survive up to 10 years without food!

The Olm has a surprisingly long life for an amphibian. It has a maximum lifespan of over 100 years; the lifespan of an average adult is around 68.5 years.

According to the EDGE website, there are many threats to the Olm, several of which are similar to threats to other amphibians: water pollution, overdevelopment, illegal collection for the pet trade, hydroelectric damming schemes, and casual and uncontrolled dumping of domestic and industrial garbage, among many other threats.

In Slovenia, the Olm is considered to be a national treasure. In 1982, the Olm was placed on a list of rare and endangered species, which also prohibits the trade of the species. It is also somewhat protected in Croatia, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Olm is listed on the IUCN Red List as vulnerable because of its fragmented and limited distribution and ever-decreasing population.

To learn more about the Olm, please visit the Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) website.

05/22/11

Frog Paparazzi – Photographing Amphibians this Summer

This summer we’d like to encourage you to get out and photograph amphibians while on vacation or near home, even in your own backyard! The beauty of photographing frogs and other amphibians is that you don’t have to go on a safari or travel to someplace exotic to photograph them.

Here are a few tips from the book Frogs: A Chorus of Colors by John and Deborah Behler, which has a chapter on photographing these well-camouflaged creatures:

• Try to learn about the animal first. What is its habitat? When are they active?
• Walk slowly and stop frequently [it helps to have someone with you who is less than 3 feet tall and has sharp eyes]. Frogs and toads blend in so well that they are hard to find. Be alert for subtle movements.
• In summer, you might find the sit-and-wait frog predators hanging out on the edges of ponds and lakes.
• Be aware of the position of the sun. Avoid taking pictures at midday on bright sunny days. In the morning, face east and it will keep sunlight from coming into your lens and washing out your photos.
• Don’t necessarily put the subject in the middle of the photo. Keep the whole animal in the photo, but compose the picture so the background tells a story.
• Bracket your photos, i.e., take the same shot with different settings. Also, try taking a flash photo. Without a flash, animals in photos may look lifeless and poorly lighted.
• Try to be on the same level as your subject.
• State parks, bird sanctuaries, and wildlife refuges are good places to find amphibians.

You don’t need a fancy camera to get interesting shots. I took this photo of a  spring peeper in low light with a Kodak EasyShare camera on the Flower Setting (might be called “close up” on your camera). When we were traveling in Virginia, my husband stopped the car so that we could listen to the peepers. Although peepers are often heard with their distinct high-pitched “peeps,” they are seldom seen. My son spotted the peeper below, but it took my husband and I about five minutes before we were able to see the inch-long and extremely well-camouflaged frog. Once we spotted it, the frog sat stock still for a few minutes to allow all three of us to behave like amphibian paparazzi (we took a dozen pictures before the frog had had enough and hopped off).

I think this is one of the reasons I enjoy photographing frogs: they have a survival behavior that causes them to freeze when they sense danger, in order to avoid detection from predators (unlike mammals like rabbits, deer etc, which will hop or run off long before you’ve even focused) so that it’s possible to get some great pictures of them.

spring peeper, photo by Mary Jo Rhodes

For inspiration, we recommend taking a look at the book Frog: A Photographic Portrait, a gorgeous collection of photographs by wildlife photographer Thomas Marent, who traveled to rainforests all over the world to photograph unusual amphibians. As he says, “The variety of colors, shapes, and sounds of frogs is truly spectacular, and a wildlife photographer’s dream….!”

Don’t forget to submit your best amphibian photograph to our 3rd Annual Photo Contest!

FROG: A PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT by Thomas Marent

05/13/11

Creating a Wildlife- and Eco-friendly Backyard

Each spring at Frogs Are Green, we try to encourage people to create backyards (or gardens, if you’re English) that are friendly to wildlife and the environment, water-wise, and easy to maintain without using herbicides and pesticides.

Imitate Nature

It is possible to create a wildlife friendly garden without using pesticides and herbicides, but you’ll need to mimic nature a bit and do some detective work to find out what types of plants and flowers flourish in your area. Sometimes you don’t even need to plant these natives—they may migrate to your backyard, and if you like them, you can find a place for them. This happened with me—a native fern migrated over to my yard and it is quite beautiful. Over the years, the ferns have spread and make a nice ground cover. That doesn’t mean you need to restrict yourself to native plants. My New Guinea impatiens obviously are not native to New Jersey, but I definitely try to fit in a number of low-maintenance native plants.

In my first years of gardening, I had to water my backyard every day with a hose to keep it alive. Now with a backyard filled with lots of native plants, I only water the potted plants.

Survival of the Fittest

After several years, I’ve realized that I can’t plant hostas—they’re like candy to slugs. Rather than spend money and effort, and possibly introduce toxins to the soil, to get rid of the slugs, I now keep the hostas in pots, above the ground, and then periodically lift the pots to check for any slugs. (Yes, I tried the tuna can full of beer method to get rid of slugs, but they didn’t fall for that trick.)

Since I don’t have much sun in my urban backyard, I don’t plant sun-loving annuals anymore. These flowers didn’t flourish and so seemed to attract disease and bugs. Have you tried some flowers that didn’t quite make it, or if they did, required a lot of watering or pesticides to maintain them? You may have found that other plants just seem to do great year after year without much attention. In my garden, potted geraniums seem to do well, lasting all the way through until frost, even without a lot of sun or attention. Even though they’re not the most exotic flowers, I have lots of them in interesting colors.

Courtesy of Sierra Club (New York)

KEEP THE ANIMALS HAPPY

I put out seed for the birds, although around this time of year in late spring, I start to cut down on bird seed. I put out water for them in a bird bath as well, and I sometimes also notice bees dipping into the bird bath. Because I don’t use herbicides or pesticides, I am not unintentionally killing off good insects—bees, lady bugs, etc. or potentially harming other animals like songbirds.

Build a Frog Pond

We don’t have any amphibians in my city (that I know of), but if you have amphibians in your area, put out a toad abode to keep these local insect-eating amphibians happy.

It’s also possible to create a frog pond relatively easily without a huge expense or effort. My sister put in a frog pond by her house in Connecticut, and on one summer day, she counted eighteen frogs enjoying her pond, including one frog who jumped up and sat right beside her on the garden bench. Here’s how she did it:

She dug out a base that was 4 feet by 7 feet, about 2 feet deep. On each corner, she created a shelf, 1 foot deep, for aquatic plants.

She bought pond liner from a garden center, a piece larger than the pond (so it was 12 feet long by 9 feet wide) and put stones down to hold it in place. She also piled smaller stones in one corner that came just above the water as a ramp for the frogs to get in and out of the pond.

She also added water flowers with leaves and lily pads. These plants act as filters for the pond (and, of course, our froggy friends like to sit on them).

She put in a pump to circulate the water (with an outdoor extension cord buried in ground to house).

She notes that the pond should be cleaned out every year. Take out the water, but be careful if there are frogs eggs in the pond. Put the eggs in a clean bowl with pond water before putting back in the pond. Also, she did not add the frogs to the pond—they migrated to her pond from another small pond on her property. Don’t introduce non-native frogs to your pond as they could disrupt the local ecology and introduce disease to native frogs

Please send us your ideas for creating a natural backyard and if you have some pictures, send them along and we’ll add them to our backyard gallery (see the photo gallery in our sidebar to the right).

Here is more information about your having your backyard certified as a Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.

05/4/11

Another Fairy Tale Wedding

On the morning of the April 29, I got up at dawn to watch the Royal Wedding. Because it was also the 3rd Annual Save the Frogs day, my mind was full of frogs, too. So frogs, princes, frog princes, and fairy tales were all mixed up in my mind. I was trying to find a connection between these two events. True, the groom’s father, Prince Charles, is the main spokesman for the Prince’s Rainforest Project, which has a frog as its mascot, but…

Yesterday I came across a story in the Dorset (England) Echo that tied these two events together. It turns out Will and Kate weren’t the only couple married in England on April 29. Another couple, Sabrina Laben and Simon Pittman, also tied the knot. They did not (I don’t think) arrive at the church in a Rolls-Royce, probably didn’t have a trumpet fanfare, and definitely didn’t have a billion people watching their ceremony.

Instead, they created a Save the Frogs wedding. Sabrina loves frogs and in lieu of gifts, she requested that donations be made to Save the Frogs. A “frog and frogette” stood on top of the wedding cake instead of traditional bride and groom figurines, and they sent out frog-decorated invitations. They had their reception Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, noted for its idyllic setting and multiple ponds.

courtesy of weddingandcakes.com

The more I thought about it, the better I liked this idea of an amphibian-themed wedding. In many cultures, frogs are symbols of good luck, prosperity, and fertility. They are associated with fairy tales and happy endings and transformations (the frog turning into a prince). As Susan and I know, people seem to love giving frog-related gifts. And what better place for a wedding than near a beautiful pond? If it rains, even better—frogs love rain and you might have a frog chorus accompaniment to your wedding!

For more information about other events that occurred on Save the Frogs day, and about the organization’s ongoing efforts and activities, please click here