Salamander Chronicles

I spent a week in Georgia scouting field sites at the end of March. I found some great sites and saw some great animals, largely in part due to meeting up with Todd Pierson who is currently finishing up at the University of Georgia and knows the area well. As I mentioned in my previous post, we were able to find the Patch Nosed Salamander (Urspelerpes brucei) which was a real treat. I have been fortunate enough to see many of the micro-endemic salamander species like the Patch Nosed Salamander, San Marcos Salamander, Peaks of Otter Salamander, and Big Levels Salamander. The next leg of my spring fieldwork trip focused on checking up on low elevation sites in North Carolina and Tennessee and then finishing up by heading to Virginia to sample my Big Levels Salamander sites with William Ternes. Will Ternes, Celeste Wheeler, and myself will be presenting a poster on microhabitat use of the Big Levels Salamander at the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists later this year.

I was able to find some cool animals during this trip, I tried to highlight some of them in this short video. I am planning on making my next post a somewhat informal guide to identifying small bodied Plethodon species. I found out first hand that some of the species can be very difficult to tell apart if you have never seen them before (even if you are experienced with salamanders), but once you know what to look for the task can be made a bit more manageable.   For now, enjoy the nice spring weather and go find some amphibians!