Shasta County Field Report - Jan 28

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FunkyRes
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Shasta County Field Report - Jan 28

Post by FunkyRes »

Not in the database yet, but my finds should be within 24 hours.

Started at Location X - elevation 1,068 feet.
Hiked 10 miles along road Y before turning back - ending at elevation 2,644 feet

Live herps encounters :
3 baby Shasta Black Salamander (Aneides iëcanus [=flavipunctatus Shasta lineage]
1 baby Shasta Salamander (Hydromantes shastae)
4 adult Shasta Salamander (Hydromantes shastae)
1 Southern Alligator Lizard shed (Elgaria multicarinata)

Surprisingly (to me any) no Ensatina

Started hiking shortly before sunrise. Did not flip anything until after sunrise, I forgot my headlamp and my crappy camera does not have flash in macro mode, and there wasn't much to flip near beginning anyway, so I just hiked and waited for the sun to come up before flipping anything.

First flip was this young Aneides iëcanus

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It was the first baby of this species I had ever encountered, and encountered it actually got me wondering about something else, but I'll elaborate about that at the end.

Shortly after flipping that one, I flipped a baby Hydromantes shastae, very close to where I flipped two adults of this species last year:

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The picture of the underside is neat because you can see the webbing between the toes.
Handling was a must, there was no way to put the rock back w/o squishing it if I didn't handle.

Moving up higher in elevation, a second young Aneides iëcanus:

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Not too far from that one, a third young Aneides iëcanus:

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That one was under rocks in a dry creek bed where I stopped for lunch.
After I finished lunch, I thought I heard something very large in the Manzanita - could have been a young bear, but I did not see it. I was a little worried because I had food in my backpack but if it was a bear, it was not accustomed enough to people to reveal itself or try and get a free meal. It also I suppose could have been a coyote or fox, but it did sound bigger than either of those.

Having found 4 baby salamanders, I was starting to get a little tired of babies. I wanted an adult.
Got my wish as I continued to climb in elevation, 3 adult Hydromantes shastae under one rock:

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Moving still higher, hoping for an Ensatina, I found the shed skin of a Southern Alligator Lizards.
The skin was clearly too large to be from a Northern. I know, skins can stretch, but this was just way too big.
Part of the skin is shown here:

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Habitat:

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The skin had lost pattern so I'm guessing it was from the fall, and not an early riser.

I peaked at elevation 2644 - had gone 10 miles at that point, so I needed to head back.

On way back, I found one more adult Hydromantes shastae - and is a plump one. Gravid ??

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With how plump it was, thinking it might be gravid, I did not take many photos and put the rock back as quickly as possible, not wanting to disturb it too much. Fortunately where it was, I could replace it's cover without needing to physically disturb it.

I did find it interesting that along the trail, not a single Pseudacris sierra. No breeding chorus, no warmup calls, no evidence of eggs in any of the ditches, no evidence of specimens in any of the ditches.

This locale is often quite full of them, and they are in full chorus at elevations below 1,000ft. I'm guessing that the issue is the ditches etc. up above 1000ft at this location are currently still largely being fed by melting snow (small patches of snow started showing up at 2K feet - and I was mostly on south facing side of mountain), so it may still be a little too cold for them, and that within a few weeks they should be in full chorus.

I did find a few places that look like potential Ring-necked snake habitat, I'll have to check them out later in the year, would love to voucher me a Shasta County Ring-necked snake.

-=-
The thing I am wondering about

There are 5 California Slender Salamanders vouchered at USNM. All five collected by same person in the 70s at same trip, from two different locales (but not too far from each other).

After seeing these baby Shasta Black Salamanders, even though they clearly are not slenders, part of me has to wonder if the 5 vouchered California Slenders are a mis-identification. Basically there are 3 possibilities:

A) They are correctly identified and from Shasta County
B) They are correctly identified but are mis-labeled
C) They are mis-identifications

Right now I am assuming A is correct, but I'm going to try and see if I can get photos of them to rule out C. Hopefully they are in good condition or had photos taken while in good condition, and hopefully USNM won't scoff at the idea of a nobody like me asking for photos.

I do want to try to get to locale, if I can get to one of both of the locales during right time of year, and I find slenders there, that would confirm that A is the most likely scenario.

If they are correctly identified but I can't confirm their presence, I may suspect B but I don't see how B could really be demonstrated.

It's just weird that are slenders so far isolated from any other known populations of the species yet has so few vouchers, they aren't really that secretive of a species in my experience. There should be other independent vouchers, the locales are in NF and I know there have been quite a few surveys, so I would think others would have turned up, but maybe that part of NF wasn't really surveyed much. Or maybe they were found and documented but just not in a paper I read?
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Speckled Rosy
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Re: Shasta County Field Report - Jan 28

Post by Speckled Rosy »

Those shasta salamanders are sweet!
Robert Hansen
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Re: Shasta County Field Report - Jan 28

Post by Robert Hansen »

Michael:

Some nice finds. I would be surprised if the USNM specimens are not correctly ID'd to genus, but it's certainly worth checking. Have you seen the 2007 paper (Martinez-Solano et al.) that details molecular variation in the species? If not, I can email you a pdf.

Cheers,

BH
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FunkyRes
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Re: Shasta County Field Report - Jan 28

Post by FunkyRes »

Robert Hansen wrote:Michael:

Some nice finds. I would be surprised if the USNM specimens are not correctly ID'd to genus, but it's certainly worth checking. Have you seen the 2007 paper (Martinez-Solano et al.) that details molecular variation in the species? If not, I can email you a pdf.

Cheers,

BH
That's true, every case I've read about where a museum ID has been incorrect, the genus was correct.
Robert Hansen
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Re: Shasta County Field Report - Jan 28

Post by Robert Hansen »

FunkyRes wrote:
Robert Hansen wrote:Michael:

Some nice finds. I would be surprised if the USNM specimens are not correctly ID'd to genus, but it's certainly worth checking. Have you seen the 2007 paper (Martinez-Solano et al.) that details molecular variation in the species? If not, I can email you a pdf.

Cheers,

BH
That's true, every case I've read about where a museum ID has been incorrect, the genus was correct.
And there are lots of Batrachoseps in museum collections (especially those outside of California) where species IDs are incorrect, but that is because the taxonomy of the group has changed so dramatically in recent decades, going from 2 species to 19 (jumping to 21 in a couple of weeks). Based on our current knowledge, having locality info will narrow it down to no more than 2 species and in many instances just 1. There are no localities where more than 2 species co-occur.
hellihooks
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Re: Shasta County Field Report - Jan 28

Post by hellihooks »

Nice field report. On my trip up to Shasta, a month or so ago, I saw a car I want (for the 429 cobra jet, in it... :D ) Hopefully I'll get back up there this spring...jim
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Natalie McNear
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Re: Shasta County Field Report - Jan 28

Post by Natalie McNear »

Great stuff, Michael... Those Hydromantes are awesome! Have you been getting much rain up in your neck of the woods? I was up in Mendocino County last week, and though they got several inches of rain during the last storm and the creeks were quite high, salamander abundance was dismal. Most of the expected species were found, but in much lower quantities than I normally see this time of year.
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FunkyRes
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Re: Shasta County Field Report - Jan 28

Post by FunkyRes »

It's been drier this winter than most, but we did have a decent storm about a week before this outing.
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Schell
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Re: Shasta County Field Report - Jan 28

Post by Schell »

Nice Michael - I love me some Hyromantes. It seems like with their preferred microhabitat, as long as temps are suitable, there is enough moisture for them to be active at the surface.

If we get some weather (fingers crossed), I'd like to come up there for Aneides iëcanus. We're supposed to get another storm around the 10th. I hope it materializes. And then one after that and then one after that...

Cheers,

Rob
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Owen
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Re: Shasta County Field Report - Jan 28

Post by Owen »

I'm enjoying this post. I spent last weekend in a wet Whatcom Co. and Island Co., but had no free time to search for anything. Oh well, next time...
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FunkyRes
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Re: Shasta County Field Report - Jan 28

Post by FunkyRes »

Yes, it was weird to only find baby Aneides - last year about same time I only found adult.
Must have been some difference in weather / humidity / etc.

It was definitely a little warmer last years trip, as Rana boylii was out in one of the creeks - no R boylii or P sierra this time.
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Fundad
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Re: Shasta County Field Report - Jan 28

Post by Fundad »

Nice job Sir Funky,

Love those manders.. I am going to have to get my rear end up that way, and soon..

You represent us well up there in Upper Northern Nor Cal.. :thumb:

Fundad
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