Amphibian Crossing
This Wednesday or Thursday, depending on your location in the Northeast, should bring temperatures well past 40 or even 50 with rainy conditions. Since it is late March it may be the first night of amphibian migration as these are ideal conditions for frogs, toads and salamanders to emerge from hibernation and start migrating to a nearby wetland at night! Please slow down for salamanders and frogs when you’re driving back roads near wetlands – even when they don’t get crushed by your tires, the slipstream generated underneath a vehicle when you’re moving more than 20-25 MPH will pick these...
Read MoreSnow Piling Up
The snow keeps piling up for us this February, its weight on the trees and the earth growing. We will have a lot of water to absorb into the soil come spring! If the conditions stay near normal throughout the next few months vernal pools should be filled with plenty of successfully reproductive amphibian life. Additionally, this upcoming weekend may finally thaw us out a bit (if we define “thaw” as the temperature actually rising above freezing for a few hours) and deliver a system featuring…gasp…liquid precipitation that does not freeze on contact! It is also known...
Read MoreLeaf-litter Toads (Rhinella alata)
These Leaf-litter Toads (Rhinella alata) were along a stream bank yesterday in Chagres National Park in Panama. It was great to see this species that can sometimes blend in well with the leaf litter. They also remind me of another toad Twan and I will be checking in on this week – the Atelopus limosus, as it will be the fourth year we will be doing work with a population deep in the Cocobolo Nature Reserve in Panama. Sean Graesser RTPI Affiliate
Read MoreFrog Friday Parenting
Thank Goodness it’s Frog Friday again! Although every day is frog day in my book, I have to admit that I am particularly excited about next Frog Friday because I will be heading down to Panama again to expand our ongoing research on the endangered amphibians found in Cocobolo Nature Reserve. So many questions to answer… Why did some species survive the mass extinctions that ravaged other sites in Panama? How did selective decline of some species in the preserve affect the balance between surviving species? Are there ways to safely re-introduce some of the ex-situ backup...
Read MoreLittle Brown Jumper
A most amazing encounter in a small, drab package… I am a fortunate man…I’ve traveled to all sorts of exotic locales and am lucky enough to have encountered some pretty spectacular wildlife in the process. Photographs of some of these wonderful frogs, birds, snakes and other treasures have graced these posts in the past. This time around I would like to share with you something tiny and drab instead, but something that made me profoundly happy to encounter! During a recent trip to Costa Rica I had a brief opportunity to detour from my already scheduled destinations in hopes of...
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