Spring Peepers in December?

This past weekend, I woke to the sound of two spring peepers calling from amphibian ponds at Owls' Knob. Their constant peeping is a comforting sound to me in spring, but in December it is somewhat troubling. I recall having heard peepers in autumn but this is very late in the year for them to be calling.
These small chorus frogs hibernate under leaf litter in winter. They do not dig deep enough to prevent freezing so their cold blooded body drops below freezing temperatures. Their bodily functions shut down and their body partially freezes. To avoid exploding they force water out of their cells so it turns to ice in between the individual cell walls. They also create glucose, from energy reserves, that serves as a natural anti-freeze. With these adaptations their core temperature can drop to only 21 degrees Fahrenheit!
However, this December has had highs in the 70's and lows in the 50's. So the spring peepers are not retreating under logs, rocks, and leaf litter, but instead singing at the edges of ponds. I worry that they will use up precious energy reserves and not have enough glucose in their system to last the winter, (if winter indeed comes this year.) Hopefully these frogs are fat and just happy to be hopping on a warm winter day.

Salamander Tadpole

Yesterday, just before the cool winds and rains blew in, my uncle took me down to his salamander pond. We found many tadpoles, their gills are like the mane of a Chinese dragon. This one was also getting its front legs. These amphibians are becoming more and more rare. That is why my uncle has dug a special pond for them to breed. We are all excited each year to see the next generation of salamanders tadpoles growing strong. Read more about the Ringed Salamander here!

Ringed Salamander Tadpoles

Big Green Frogs

A Salamander Party

Dark-sided salamander (Eurycea longicauda melanpleura)

Lately I have been finding lots of salamanders at the Ozark Natural Science Center where I work out on the trail with children. It is amazing how few children have ever seen a salamander. Many of them ask me what a salamander IS when I tell them we are going to look for them. I try to explain that salamanders are amphibians but are shaped a bit like a lizard. Truly, they are nothing like lizards. Reptiles are fast on their feet and have the sharp eyes of a predator. The salamander has short stubby legs and it walks awkwardly, as if it is trying to swim or slither but its legs are in the way. In the water, salamander move with the grace and fluidity of a water snake, well really more like a leech. Though you make not think a leech can be graceful, when a large leech swims it looks like a rippling ribbon. Salamanders ripple similarly, like a silk rope.
I had heard that a group of children had spotted a group of cave salamanders near the mouth of Counterfeit Cave the day before. So I hiked with my group of a dozen fifth graders across the river and up the mountain at the Ozark Natural Science Center in search of the cave salamanders. When we arrive at the bluff shelter and began exploring the mouth of the shallow cave there, I told the children to look under rocks with me if they wanted to find salamanders. I did not know if we would find any but I had high hopes.

A dark-sided salamandert, missing much of its tail!

Before long a young girl squealed, "I found one!" I rushed over and was please to see a yellow and black salamander frozen on her palm. I snapped some pictures and looked it up in my favorite amphibian guide: Amphibians and Reptiles of Missouri by Tom R. Johnson. When getting the book out I always have to explain to the children that animals don't pay attention to state lines and the land of Northern Arkansas is more like the mountains in southern Missouri than it is like the plains and swamps of southern Arkansas. With the book in hand I identified the salamander as a species of long-tailed salamanders, called the dark-sided salamander (Eurycea longicauda melanpleura). This tiny salamander's tail looked half as long as it should have been which is common because they distract predators by moving their tails. The missing tail can grow back so it is better to loose a tail than a head. These are lungless salamanders and absorb oxygen through their skin; therefore, we decided that the oils on our hands could cause the poor creature to no breathe properly. For the rest of the day we kept our hands off the amphibians.

A slimy salamander and a cave salamander (Eurycea lucifuga)

I had barely finished reading about the dark-sided salamander when a pair of boys managed to lift up a huge flat rock to discover two more salamanders: a bright orange cave salamander and a bluish-black slimy salamander. Though they wanted to touch them, these larger salamanders were much faster and I insisted we did not want to harm them. Like its smaller cousin, the cave salamander is also lungless and can be harmed by the oils on human hands. The slimy salamander (Plethodon albagula) is also lungless but it has an interesting defense, it excretes a whitish gluey substance when handled that its nearly impossible to wash off of hands and clothing.
While reading about these salamanders, a curious boy flipped over another rock a little further away from the mouth of the cave to discover a zig zag salamander. Both the slimy and the zig zag salamanders are in the Plethodon genus. All Plethodon salamanders lay eggs in underground caves or crevices where they protect their babies until they hatch out as tiny salamanders, skipping an aquatic tadpole stage! (Read more about Plethodon's here!)
I felt lucky to have seen so many salamanders in one day. But as we hiked back down the mountain I heard a girl say, "It is easy to find salamanders, you just have to look under rocks!"
I stopped walking and turned to the children for a final lesson.
"All these salamanders you saw today are in danger of becoming endangered. Amphibians, especially lung-less salamanders are very sensitive to pollution. They are the first to go when an environment is disturbed. All over salamander habitats are being destroyed by cities, buildings, roads and landscaping. All types of pollution is killing them too. Because they eat insects, and people use pesticides to kill insects, all types of pesticides can kill them too. Even the acidity from pine and cedar trees can make their aquatic home too acidic. Also, the fish people populate ponds with will eat amphibian eggs. Salamander populations are decreasing for many reasons. If we don't protect their habitat, they will not survive. They will become extinct."

Ozark Zig Zag Salamander (Plethodon angusticlavius)

We walked on in silence. I let it all sink in.
Then a boy asked me, "What would happen if we did not have nature."
"We could not exist," I answered solemnly.
"Because we ARE nature," another boy said.
I turned to him and smiled, "You are SO right!"

Frogs and Boys!

Ozark Zigzag

Along the trails, the Ozark Zigzag salamander has been spotted often in recent weeks under logs around the glade area at the Ozark Natural Science Center. This salamander is in the Plethodon family which is an amazing group of strange amphibians. They are lung-less salamanders that breath through their skin; therefore, they are very sensitive to pollution.  The Ozark Zigzag lays eggs in moist caverns or crevices deep in the earth. These eggs look like jelly marbles and are hung in a clear mucus-like sack suspended from the ceiling of their cavernous den. Parent salamanders stay with their eggs, watching over them until they are hatched.  When the offspring hatch they are not tadpoles like most amphibians; instead, they look like a smaller, baby version of their parents. Plethodons are unique among salamanders because their babies have no aquatic stage of life, defying the definition of amphibians!

Spotted Salamander

At the end of my hike today at the Ozark Natural Science Center I took my group down the pond and we peeked under the rocks and logs near there. I knew that with the first warm rains of spring we were likely to see the rarely viewed spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum). This beautiful creature is very secretive and spends most of its time underground in short-tail shrew holes and winters in the deep holes of white footed mice. These holes are so necessary that the spotted salamander range matches that of these mammals. The spotted salamander is nocturnal and ventures out to eat worms, insects, spiders, and snails.
Once a year, on the first warm, rainy night in spring, these amphibians emerge and dance in fish-less ponds. They have an elaborate mating dance in which the males fertilize the females' eggs. The eggs are laid in a ball of jelly. After a while the jelly will turn green. This green tint is due to a symbiotic relationship the eggs have with a certain species of algae (Oophila ambystomatis). The algae provides oxygen for the developing salamander embryos while the embryos provide carbon dioxide and waste which is nutrients to the algae. This relationship is mutualist, meaning both species are benefiting from the each other.
Though these salamanders use to emerge in hoards back in the '80 and would fill the roads on warm, rainy nights. However, these days they are becoming harder and harder to find. Vehicles are one of the many ways they are often killed. Also, amphibians are very sensitive to pollution and acidic waters.  Salamanders, like all amphibians, are bio indicators and their decline signals a general presence of pollution in our ecosystems as well as a decline in our water quality. To protect this species it is important to keep 200-500 meters of deciduous forests around vernal ponds (or temporary pools that are fish-free) clean and devoid of toxins or an abundance of acidic plants such as evergreen trees. Lets protect natural places so that the spotted salamanders can survive.

The Chorus of Spring

A spring peeper (Pseudacris crucifer) on a lily (Lilium)

All winter spring peepers (small tree frogs) have been hibernating under logs, leaves, and under shallow soil. Because frogs are cold blooded their body temperature drops below freezing in winter. When the winter world freezes, about 65% of frog's body also freezes. It stays alive by producing glucose which acts like anti-freeze and keeps their vital organs from freezing solid. Half frozen their heartbeat slows and they only occasionally draw a breath. This week we heard the first spring peepers of the season. They are thawing out and beginning to call. Their chorus is loud and very important to the matting process because females will choose their mate by the quality of his call. Now that the peeper are singing, spring must be near!

Reptiles and Amphibians in the first week of February

 This Thursday it felt like spring, many reptiles and amphibians agreed. The naturalist notes I have noticed lately inspired me to start posting weekly Naturalist Notes for the Ozark Natural Science Center's blog. Owls' Knob already has regular naturalist notes, but expect to see even more as spring emerges.

While walking out at the Ozark Natural Science Center early Thursday afternoon with a group of 5th graders from a Rogers school, we discovered many unexpected animals. The first was a leech, which a boy spotted swimming in the pond. The children did not know what it was at first and I let their obliviousness and curiosity lure them in close. When I told them it was a leech, they all jumped back in horror. I went on to explain that these leeches only feed on fish and frogs so they would not bit us. Soon I convinced a few of them to touch and hold the strange creature.
As we entered the forest. I heard a scuttling sound in the leaves. In a flash we saw a large fence lizard (also called a prairie lizard). It was well camouflaged on an oak log, except for its bright blue belly. I explained my students that it was a male because only the males have bright blue bellies. Many of my students, being from the city, had never seen a lizard so close in the wild like this one, even though they are very common. Further down the trail we found bobcat tracks. Slowly and carefully we tiptoed through a muddy glade, tracking the large cat. As we reached the end of the mud and began walking in leaves, my tracking skills failed me and we lost its trail. The Ozark bob cat has become a rare species, so I told my students we were very luck to be seeing the cat's tracks.

Next I spotted a red bellied snake slithering across the path. Quickly a grabbed it, which wasn't hard because the cool weather kept the cold blooded animal moving slowly. I held the snake as it wrapped its body, which was about 8 inches long around my fingers. The warmth of my hand seemed to comfort it  because it did not try to escape, instead it coiled around and between my fingers. None if the children had ever touched a wild snake before. At first they were a little afraid. After a lifetime of being told that snakes are venomous and dangerous, it was hard for them to grasp the concept that this little snake would not get much bigger than a large night crawler worm, would not bite, and did not have venom. But before long they all grew to like it so much that they wanted to hold in in their own hands. We voted on names for our new found friend and decided on Fire Belly Spring (nickname "Early"). Then we watched as the tiny snake slithered away quickly, now that it had been warmed by our hands, and disappeared among the leaves.
Once we got back to the science center for dinner, we shared our stories with other students. They in turn shared their discovers, which included a Zig-Zag Salamander found under a log and a Cave Salamander found in a spring near the mouth of a cave. Also, hepatica was seem blooming and spring beauties were starting to pop up. Later on, during a class that we call "creek critters" the children examined live benthic macroinvertabrates (BMIs)in fresh water samples collected from a nearby creek. Among the BMIs, we also found a few immature salamanders, which were so tiny they made their arthropod friends seem huge.
I love sharing spring with children. It is a magical time. I hope you can share spring with others as it emerges in the coming months.

Ringed Salamander (Ambystoma annulatum)

Taken by George Imrie on his farm south of Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
George has been laboring to provide a safe haven for these creatures.

The ringed salamander (Ambystoma annulatum) is secretive and endemic to the Ozarks. Once upon a time these salamanders were seen by the hundreds each autumn, but now you are lucky to see just one in your lifetime. These endangered amphibians live under log, rocks, and in the ground. Their main defense is to hide themselves away. They have soft black bodies striped with yellow so camouflage fails them. Their tiny legs make it look laborious to walk and they are fairly defenseless especially when as an egg or tadpole. Therefore, they live hidden, eating grubs and worms all year.

Once a year they emerge from hiding to mate and lay eggs in the clean fishless pond they were born in but finding clean water without fish is becoming harder and harder. The mating event always takes place on the first cool rainy night in autumn. This year we had a cool rainy night in late September, but then again this past week we had another similar night. The ringed salamander took advantage of both nights and matted twice this year. Both times, I was lucky enough to see one at the Ozark Natural Science Center where I work as a teacher/naturalist.

This first time I saw a ringed salamander it was trucking across the trail at theOzark Natural Science Center, ONSC, after the students had all been sent to bed in the lodges. Only the teacher naturalists remained awake and we were making our way to bed when we found a salamander out in the open on a trail near the pond. We watched it walk on stubby legs, its long fat tail slithering like a snake’s behind it. I felt privileged to witness its annual journey by night but disappointed that I didn’t have my camera.

The second time was during the day, after the rain we had this past week, when I had a group of students from Bentonville’s Baker Middle School. My group crowded around a log where we had found a ringed salamander hiding. It tried to dig itself to safety at first but eventually gave up and crawled along the ground close to the log. My students, a group of ten 5^th graders, were mesmerized. They sat silently watching it with awe and respect. I knew that this was the first time any of them had seen a salamander. Many of them didn’t even know what it was until I told them.

While they watched the salamander, I read and discussed all I knew about the species. I told the children that they only come out once a year, so this is a specially occasion. They lay from 300-500 eggs but 99 percent of those eggs will never mature into adults, many will be eaten as caviar, others as salamander tadpoles, and many more as young adults. The ones that survive will not be able to reproduce until five to eight years of age, which is a long time for such a venerable creature. Also by breathing through their skin any type of pollution in the water or soil will kill them. Their mere existence is a bio indicator of a pollution free environment. As they got to know this fantastic creature, I encouraged them to name it. They couldn't choose between Sally or Steve until I informed them that because it was smaller in size it was most likely a male but it would be hard to be sure. He became Steve the Salamander and with that he was no longer a forigen wild animal but a friend.

The experience changed their perspective immediatly. For the rest of our time together, two days and one night, they were respectful and in awe of everything we found. They named every caterpillar, spider, and millipede we found, befriending all species. An old man once told me, "You can't force children to grow up and protect nature, you have to teach them to love it, then they will WANT to protect it!" I think that Steve the Salamander may have taught these kids such love.