1 Topic by amantheman (edited by amantheman 2011-03-09 11:40 pm)

  • amantheman
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Topic: Biodiversity in Batesville (Independence County)

I am attempting to catalog ALL the amphibians occuring on my college campus. Rough estimate (thanks to this site) says there are 28 species found in Independence county. So far I have... Three. A. blanchardi, H. cinerea, and L.c clamitans. Anddddd it's midterm. I know I can't possibly get them all, but I'm hoping that activity will have increased when I go back to school and spring gets into swing.

SO I guess my questions can be summarized as such:

A) How/where the hell do I find/catch salamanders?

B) How/where can I find more frogs?

C) Is is irresponsible to collect eggs to see where they came from?


In the meantime, here are some neat pictures big_smile

2 Reply by gopherman

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Re: Biodiversity in Batesville (Independence County)

Are you at Lyon or UA batesville?

not all dung is created equal (pellets, juicy pads, partially undigested, fully digested, big quantities, small quantities)--Paul Skelley

3 Reply by kaptainkory

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Re: Biodiversity in Batesville (Independence County)

Good luck with this!  In general, follow the water...ponds, streams, etc. may all provide good habitats for amphibians.  Drive roads on rainy nights...watch for things crossing the roads and listen for frog calls.  Look for less traveled, moist, lowland areas of the campus with leaf litter and logs or other flippable materials to turn up.

Personally, I'd avoid trying to raise amphibs from eggs for this project.  It seems like it would just add a layer of work and complexity that a college student likely wouldn't have time to mess with.

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4 Reply by amantheman

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Re: Biodiversity in Batesville (Independence County)

I'm at Lyon.

Spent a while today looking, which was stupid cause it was too cold.

Rest of the week is looking positive though, 70's with the possibility of rainnn.

Thanks for the encouragement guys smile

5 Reply by amantheman

  • amantheman
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Re: Biodiversity in Batesville (Independence County)

Haven't updated in a while, so here it goes.

I caught a Rana spenocephala (Southern leopard) a few weeks ago. He was in a ditch and quite muddy, so before I took a picture I figured I'd wash him off in the stream. Bad idea. I fell in trying to recapture him.

There were multiple Bufo americanus (Dwarf american toad) outside a party I was at last weekend... I was that weird guy chasing toads haha.

There is a fairly good sized breeding population of H. versicolor in the fountain in front of the library. Seems like they appeared out of nowhere a week or so ago. I've gotten to observe amplexus in the wild which was pretty neat, and I'm fairly certain I've seen eggs in there.

Not amphibians, but there are lots of skinks on campus (note we're talking about skInks NOT skAnks). I'm having trouble identifying them, but I have a good picture of a huge skInk I might share (you'll have to look elsewhere for pictures of huge skAnks). Also saw a large snake, but he'll remain unidentified because he swam off before I could ID or take a picture.

I think that about wraps it up for now, I'm hoping I'll see a few more species before my project is due.