Search found 85 matches

by kricket
April 10th, 2014, 7:52 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Noob questions re: technique, safety, etc
Replies: 38
Views: 11185

Re: Noob questions re: technique, safety, etc

I wear leather gloves when I flip logs/rocks for two reasons: (1) If there are black widows, I might accidentally grab one when flipping and get bit (like other have said, they're not at all aggressive—people get bit because they don't see them and grab them) and (2) wasps! I have been saved half a ...
by kricket
December 24th, 2013, 10:24 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: The Ambystoma Appreciation Thread
Replies: 36
Views: 14045

Re: The Ambystoma Appreciation Thread

Just found my first marbled sal larvae of the season (not pictured)! Just lots of marbleds and spotteds around where I live. Have to go out to the mountains to get to the Jeffersons. Sorry, not very artistic photos, but usually don't have time while I'm doing field work to beautifully pose the herps...
by kricket
September 30th, 2013, 4:10 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Another hognose video I KNOW you will all enjoy
Replies: 6
Views: 2513

Re: Another hognose video I KNOW you will all enjoy

Awesome - a tall-stack of hoggies! :thumb:
by kricket
September 21st, 2013, 7:22 pm
Forum: Mammal Forum
Topic: Bats, Bats, Bats!
Replies: 18
Views: 26008

Re: Bats, Bats, Bats!

Lovely bat shots! One of my favorite mammals. I used to live in Brisbane, Australia on the 5th floor of a building a block up from the river (across from New Farm Park, if anyone knows where that is). Every night the flying foxes would fly past at dusk, right at the level of my floor of the building...
by kricket
September 21st, 2013, 7:06 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: New Website! shameless self promotion :) link now included
Replies: 11
Views: 2967

Re: New Website! shameless self promotion :) link now includ

Don't know about snoozy up there, but I don't think it's snooze worthy. Beautiful shots on there - you should be proud! :thumb: Kara
by kricket
September 21st, 2013, 7:04 pm
Forum: Invertebrate Forum
Topic: 3-foot-long Polychaete Worms in Alaska
Replies: 5
Views: 5886

Re: 3-foot-long Polychaete Worms in Alaska

Beautiful shots of the polychaete! Hard to be conclusive without close-ups, but looks like it might be a king ragworm (Alitta virens). :) Kara
by kricket
September 21st, 2013, 6:51 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Why Tracking Matters (Finding Herps)
Replies: 11
Views: 4185

Re: Why Tracking Matters (Finding Herps)

Very cool that you have a habitat to search in where you can see such detailed tracks. If you happen to have any tips for tracking herps in forest habitats, please post them! I have to rely on sound (rustling leaf litter) or follow the trails box turtles make through invasive Japanese stilt-grass. :...
by kricket
September 21st, 2013, 6:43 pm
Forum: Invertebrate Forum
Topic: spider identification
Replies: 1
Views: 2006

Re: spider identification

Can't confirm without a shot of the face, but it looks like a female white-banded crab spider (Misumenoides formosipes). Crab spiders tend to be quite variable in color. -Kara
by kricket
September 16th, 2013, 5:45 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Trip Photos from SC/NC and a few sally id's requested
Replies: 12
Views: 2999

Re: Trip Photos from SC/NC and a few sally id's requested

IDing desmogs is such a pain. Your black-bellied is definitely right-on - it has the distinguishing row on white dots along its sides. The seal is a definitely maybe - the snout looks a bit short and the keel seems to go too far up the tail but that may just be the picture angle. The first two blue ...
by kricket
September 15th, 2013, 3:37 pm
Forum: Invertebrate Forum
Topic: Stick bug question...
Replies: 7
Views: 5214

Re: Stick bug question...

Sorry, you're right - I missed the part about the wings. (Though for the record, giant walking sticks have expanded their range far past the central states.) I had a search for the tropical walking sticks and actually found some pictures that people had taken that perfectly match the characteristics...
by kricket
September 14th, 2013, 7:02 pm
Forum: Bird Forum
Topic: Hummingbird
Replies: 12
Views: 4722

Re: Hummingbird

Beautiful shot! I love the way the feathers look on the head. And considering that I was trying to get a shot of a ruby-throated hummingbird the other day and ended up with zero pictures, I'm totally jealous of your picture! :D -Kara
by kricket
September 14th, 2013, 6:59 pm
Forum: Invertebrate Forum
Topic: Stick bug question...
Replies: 7
Views: 5214

Re: Stick bug question...

Looks like a Giant Walkingstick (Megaphasma denticrus). It's a native species. The smaller one would be the male - when there is sexual dimorphism in insects (and herps!), it usually tends to be the females that are bigger. ;) - Kara
by kricket
September 14th, 2013, 6:47 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Fake herp photography
Replies: 85
Views: 21961

Re: Fake herp photography

Kara, you will find as your experience grows, some of what you read & are told in this wildlife business is but partially correct, yes some snakes w/ invasive surgery do die after translocation, but remember too, snakes are dying out there all the time for all sorts of reasons. If released snak...
by kricket
September 12th, 2013, 7:56 pm
Forum: Image Lab
Topic: Suggestions: Heterotrophic and Autotrophic Oddities
Replies: 13
Views: 7316

Re: Suggestions: Heterotrophic and Autotrophic Oddities

Don't corals and algae have a symbiotic relationship? Corals have a symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae, which are often described as being algae and/or plants, but they're not. Zooxanthellae are photosynthetic dinoflagellates, which can live as free-living plankton as well. They have symbiot...
by kricket
September 12th, 2013, 7:44 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Copperhead babysitter
Replies: 5
Views: 2204

Re: Copperhead babysitter

Awww, they're so cute! Sweet find!
by kricket
September 12th, 2013, 7:42 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Fake herp photography
Replies: 85
Views: 21961

Re: Fake herp photography

I don't understand the argument that "I've seen this snake multiple times and handled it, therefore I'm not stressing it because otherwise it would go somewhere else." Do you guys know anything about the ecology of snakes or what? Many species are territorial or at least have home ranges. ...
by kricket
September 6th, 2013, 8:23 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Fake herp photography
Replies: 85
Views: 21961

Re: Fake herp photography

Lest we start to think that the only times these animals are stressed is when herpers find them and insist on posing them for pics, let's state for clarity that any multitude of factors can cause said stress, and the vast majority of these factors have nothing whatsoever to do with herpers. I absol...
by kricket
September 5th, 2013, 7:58 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Fake herp photography
Replies: 85
Views: 21961

Re: Fake herp photography

For those of you who think that you haven't stressed an animal out because it "seems" okay -- looks can be deceiving. The more we learn about the biology of animals, the more we find potential long-term impacts. Collecting a herp stresses it, causing a release in corticosteroids. The longe...
by kricket
September 5th, 2013, 7:33 pm
Forum: News
Topic: new species chytrid fungus wipes out Salamandra
Replies: 1
Views: 2495

Re: new species chytrid fungus wipes out Salamandra

Thanks for posting this - I shudder to think what's going to happen when this starts to spread. It's probably only a matter of time. :(
by kricket
September 5th, 2013, 6:46 am
Forum: Image Lab
Topic: Suggestions: Heterotrophic and Autotrophic Oddities
Replies: 13
Views: 7316

Re: Suggestions: Heterotrophic and Autotrophic Oddities

Stohlgren, is permission granted to all of us to teach with that great green egg photo? -Frank I second that question! I think my students would enjoy that picture too when we get to amphibians later in the semester. And I'm tentatively supposed to teach herpetology lab in the spring, so it would d...
by kricket
September 5th, 2013, 6:40 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Photos from the Field (DUW)
Replies: 30
Views: 13552

Re: Photos from the Field (DUW)

This is such a wonderful post! I've never been to Texas, but now I feel like I've gotten a virtual tour of part of it. The habitat shots are especially helpful to put everything in context and all the images are really beautiful. You could totally publish these as a naturalist's guide to the area.
by kricket
September 4th, 2013, 7:01 pm
Forum: Image Lab
Topic: Suggestions: Heterotrophic and Autotrophic Oddities
Replies: 13
Views: 7316

Re: Suggestions: Heterotrophic and Autotrophic Oddities

I was going to say you beat me to it, but you didn't (completely!). It was found recently that spotted salamander larvae themselves are colonized by photosynthetic algae. Here's the link for the paper: http://www.pnas.org/content/108/16/6497.full There are also jellyfish ( Cassiopea sp. and Mastigia...
by kricket
September 4th, 2013, 6:36 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Fake herp photography
Replies: 85
Views: 21961

Re: Fake herp photography

Jim, I think the difference between in situ vs posed pictures is whether the picture is teaching you something about the behavior of the animal rather than just being "herp porn." I totally appreciate the beautiful pictures that some people are able to take with posed animals and there isn...
by kricket
September 4th, 2013, 5:35 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Fake herp photography
Replies: 85
Views: 21961

Re: Fake herp photography

Sam, I don't "rip up" logs to take pictures of salamanders - I carefully turn over logs during the course of my research and document every species that I find underneath them as part of the agreement I have with the parks I perform research in. Since we don't have X-ray vision, the only w...
by kricket
September 3rd, 2013, 6:35 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Both ends of the Spectrum
Replies: 14
Views: 2994

Re: Both ends of the Spectrum

That was really poetic and lovely! Though, am I the only one who has never had a watersnake even try to bite me? Or maybe they just don't like men... :lol: Kara
by kricket
September 3rd, 2013, 12:20 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Euthanizing non native species.
Replies: 30
Views: 8823

Re: Euthanizing non native species.

I was actually referring to freezing when I was thinking of what I wrote - freezing is not consider a humane method by the AVMA and I've never seen any evidence supporting their position. I chased up the citations that AVMA used to "support" it's claim that amphibians shouldn't be frozen ...
by kricket
September 3rd, 2013, 7:26 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Euthanizing non native species.
Replies: 30
Views: 8823

Re: Euthanizing non native species.

Hi Josh, I am a biologist so I'm not basing my anti-head smashing bias on emotion - it may be fast but it will still cause the last few seconds of an animal's life to be an extremely painful one. Decapitation for ectotherms is also not a good choice because it does not cause instant brain death - th...
by kricket
September 2nd, 2013, 7:30 pm
Forum: Image Lab
Topic: What herps do you have problems photographing?
Replies: 22
Views: 9514

Re: What herps do you have problems photographing?

I've found treefrogs to be particularly problematic. They are fine if you don't touch them, but then then you'll generally only get pics of them with their legs tucked up close to their bodies. Case in point this green treefrog I was trying to take pictures of today jumped in my hair, then onto the ...
by kricket
September 2nd, 2013, 7:09 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Euthanizing non native species.
Replies: 30
Views: 8823

Re: Euthanizing non native species.

Smashing an animal's skull in is certainly not less painful than euthanizing it properly, especially since there is a chance you won't hit your target perfectly. You can use Orajel (the toothache medication), which you should be able to get at any drug store. Just smooth a dollop on their skin. It h...
by kricket
September 2nd, 2013, 8:50 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Fake herp photography
Replies: 85
Views: 21961

Re: Fake herp photography

Hey Kelly, you might like this one too. One of my favorite log flips from last October - a five-lined skink, marbled salamander and red-backed sal. They probably didn't even know they were under there together. This shot is right after I flipped (before they moved). Then the skink circled around a b...
by kricket
September 1st, 2013, 2:47 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Fake herp photography
Replies: 85
Views: 21961

Re: Fake herp photography

People who want to slap P (for posed) on photos should consider getting a chronic skin disease or something so they have an outlet for their energies. There are hardly any truly unposed photos. That was totally rude and uncalled-for comment. I think it would be nice to know if a photo was posed or ...
by kricket
September 1st, 2013, 2:16 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Rattlesnake!
Replies: 10
Views: 1976

Re: Rattlesnake!

So pretty! :D
by kricket
September 1st, 2013, 2:01 pm
Forum: Image Lab
Topic: Choosing a Field Recorder for Anurans - A Primer
Replies: 4
Views: 8738

Re: Choosing a Field Recorder for Anurans - A Primer

I looked into all the above when I was trying to decide the best way to keep a record of the calls for the FrogWatch monitoring that I do, but even the least expensive of the good recorders was $200 and I've got no budget. So I just use what I have - my iPhone (which was a hand-me-down so it was fre...
by kricket
August 27th, 2013, 11:11 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Hognose? questionable photo
Replies: 6
Views: 2120

Re: Hognose? questionable photo

Yarrr, 'tis a hoggie, yer white whale! :D Seriously, I just finished looking through 140+ pictures of hognoses for someone's dissertation project. A hognose can be skinny, but a rat snake can't point it's nose up like that! - Kara
by kricket
August 27th, 2013, 11:04 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: The Black-Eyed Toads of Bristol County, MA
Replies: 17
Views: 5411

Re: The Black-Eyed Toads of Bristol County, MA

Nearly black irises have been recorded in many frog species, though not in American's of Fowler's to my knowledge. The color is probably due to a mutation in the pigment cells. Amphibian skin pigmentation is really complicated, so I'm trying to keep it simple here. Colors in amphibian skin cells (in...
by kricket
August 27th, 2013, 10:21 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: BLM To Euthanize Desert Tortoises Due To Lack Of Funds
Replies: 12
Views: 3152

Re: BLM To Euthanize Desert Tortoises Due To Lack Of Funds

I'm confused. So are only sick tortoises being euthanized and the healthy ones being relocated?
by kricket
August 27th, 2013, 10:17 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: i know it's only a garter snake
Replies: 5
Views: 2289

Re: i know it's only a garter snake

That's a really cool video Ben! Hope she makes it. :)
by kricket
August 19th, 2013, 9:09 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Spring-Summer in Ohio
Replies: 16
Views: 5846

Re: Spring-Summer in Ohio

Carl, I'm not sure I understand your point. Of course there are intergrades (there are even intergrades here in VA), but his picture isn't of an amoenus x helenae , it's a helenae . I study these guys, so I think it's important for them to be accurately identified, especially since the ranges of man...
by kricket
August 19th, 2013, 6:59 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Spring-Summer in Ohio
Replies: 16
Views: 5846

Re: Spring-Summer in Ohio

Beautiful pics! I hate to burst your lifer bubble with the worm snake though :( , but that's a midwestern worm snake ( Carphophis amoenus helenae ). You can differentiate them based on the scales on their head. In midwesterns the prefrontals and internasals are fused and in easterns they are separat...
by kricket
August 19th, 2013, 6:37 am
Forum: News
Topic: And the Canadian anti-python propaganda begins... again
Replies: 3
Views: 3549

Re: And the Canadian anti-python propaganda begins... again

Oh my god, a room full of deadly ball pythons! Won't someone please think of the children!!! :lol: Seriously, if the SPCA wants to actually prevent cruelty, then maybe they should do a better job of not encouraging ophidiophobia, which is going to lead to people killing snakes unnecessarily. The com...
by kricket
August 14th, 2013, 12:58 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: August Species Counts
Replies: 28
Views: 7172

Re: August Species Counts

Fairfax County, VA - August 14 (not much out, but a beautiful day!)
1 eastern worm snake
1 southern leopard frog (hiding inside log)
3 marbled salamanders (subadult)
1 spotted salamander (subadult)
1 eastern hognose DOR - she was a real beaut too :(
by kricket
August 13th, 2013, 6:45 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: alligator snapper baby vs regular snapper baby
Replies: 7
Views: 5266

Re: alligator snapper baby vs regular snapper baby

The alligator babies have the same distinguishing characteristics - alligators have spikes on their scutes while common snappers are just a bit bumpy. Here's a pic of a young preserved alligator snapper above (sorry, we don't have alligators up my way, but you can still see the characters) and a (li...
by kricket
August 13th, 2013, 6:21 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: August Species Counts
Replies: 28
Views: 7172

Re: August Species Counts

Hi Jake - Yeah, tadpoles are a pain and they're really variable in color and pattern. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I can see in the pictures: the intestinal coil is not visible, the eyes are lateral (pointing to the sides rather than up) and the tail fin is high, clear with dark blotches a...
by kricket
August 13th, 2013, 4:12 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: August Species Counts
Replies: 28
Views: 7172

Re: August Species Counts

Hey Jake, are those 100+ wood frog tads a typo? There shouldn't be any of those around in August. :?
by kricket
August 12th, 2013, 2:02 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Oddly colored Chelydra Serpentina
Replies: 5
Views: 1727

Re: Oddly colored Chelydra Serpentina

Yup, the shell darkens with age and you usually see them covered in muck. All the little ones I've seen were that color.
by kricket
August 12th, 2013, 1:58 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: August Species Counts
Replies: 28
Views: 7172

Re: August Species Counts

Anne Arundel County, MD - August 12
1 5-lined skink (juv)
5 Southern leopard frogs
1 6-lined racerunner
5 Fowler's toad metamorphs
1 American toad (juv)
2 Eastern worm snakes
1 Red-backed salamander (sub-adult, white-striped morph)
1 Snapping turtle (juv)
several green frogs heard calling
by kricket
August 11th, 2013, 5:40 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Salamander behavior question
Replies: 3
Views: 1338

Re: Salamander behavior question

I'd highly recommend you invest in a copy of Dodd's The Amphibians of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, if you don't have one already. It's a great amphibian book in general, but also has maps of the species distributions within the park and anecdotal information of when and where you might s...
by kricket
August 9th, 2013, 8:56 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Jeffersons and collaborative ID guide
Replies: 1
Views: 971

Jeffersons and collaborative ID guide

Hi everybody, I've been working on a tadpole ID guide (since I need to make one for a vernal pool citizen science project I'm setting up anyway) which I was going to post up here. Then I thought - hey, why don't we pool our resources? There's already the great salamander and egg guides, but they cou...
by kricket
August 8th, 2013, 10:55 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Summer in the Southeast
Replies: 9
Views: 2821

Re: Summer in the Southeast

Beautiful photos! Love the spadefoots and the cute little Cope's gray metamorph too. :thumb:
by kricket
August 8th, 2013, 6:06 am
Forum: News
Topic: Man caught selling endangered turtles
Replies: 3
Views: 2888

Re: Man caught selling endangered turtles

I agree they should definitely include latin names in these sorts of articles so we actually know what species they're talking about. I just happened to know about the spotted turtles ( Clemmys guttata ) off the top of my head since I've been doing a mark-recapture study on them and if they were fed...