Cabin Fever

I decided to spend about an hour today photographing some of my animals.  As much as I love the outdoors and even winter hikes, sometimes I just need my reptile fix, and well, I happen to have some.  I do plan on obtaining my macro lens soon - certainly before the spring.  In the meantime I'm testing the limits of my stock lens.  It really is not that great with macro.  But, these are what I got today.  I understand that some day I'll be taking awesome macro photos and then look back on the last couple years' worth of photos and cringe, but I figure it's all part of the learning experience.

This is Sascha, a Chilean rosehair tarantula (Grammostola rosea).  Sascha is an adult female, very likely collected from the wild.  Sascha unexpectedly landed in my care over one year ago but has been a very hardy and fascinating captive.  Years ago, I kept dozens of species of spiders.  Some called me an arachnoholic.  These days I'm willing to settle with this big girl.

This is Maureen, my marine toad (Rhinella marina).  Marine toads are also called cane toads or giant toads.  This one was collected in Florida, though they are native to parts of South & Central America and Mexico.  Marine toads, to me, are one of the most intriguing species of amphibians.  This infamous amphibian grows larger than virtually all other toads and has successfully colonized areas it is not native to, due to introduction by humans.  They are wreaking havoc in northeastern Australia, breeding like crazy and eating their way across the continent.  About 100 toads were released there in the 1930s to combat the cane beetle, an insect that damaged sugarcane crops.  Instead, they ate everything that fit into their mouths.  Today, hundreds of millions of these toads call Australia home, and the Aussies hate them like we here in the Midwest hate emerald ash borers. Almost nothing can eat this toad and survive - it contains and exudes a highly toxic substance through its skin when in danger.  It is responsible for the deaths of many dogs and cats, as well as snakes, lizards, birds, turtles, etc.  The toad problem in Australia is a classic case of human lack of foresight.

"Some of the worst things imaginable have been done with the best intentions." -Dr. Alan Grant, Jurassic Park 3

  I have been fascinated by this species for many years and this is the second marine toad I have kept.

Cassius doesn't understand why I'm taking photos of such strange animals.  

 My male corn snake (Pantherophis guttatus) in a bowl of gourds.  I have worked with some of the most exotic and rare species of reptiles in my years, but I will always have a deep appreciation for corn snakes, particularly the normal, "wild" morph.  It seems that the normal colored corn snakes are becoming rarer than the once-rare albinos, snows, butters, etc, than are seen nowadays.

Done at Dunning (DRCA)

Today was the final stewardship day for the year at DRCA and the site will be closed from December through February.  A lot of work got done today, including improvements to the trail in the woods and planting some grey dogwood (I believe) in another area.  Today I came across something I've been hoping to find here for a while - snakes!  Earlier this year, I set out some boards in an open area of grass south of a treeline, hoping to attract snakes.  I posted about it here:  http://www.thejosecshow.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2013-06-30T17:49:00-07:00&max-results=15

I have gone back a number of times throughout the year, checking the boards with no success.  Last week when I checked them, I was welcomed by a meadow vole.

Discovering that a rodent has taken advantage of artificial cover doesn't bode well for my reptile-seeking endeavors.  Snakes and rodents will generally not share the same roof.  I left the boards in place and will check them in the springtime.  

Luckily, though, I passed a small snake that had come out of the grass and was basking on the warm asphalt fire lane.  It was 51 degrees outside and windy but it was sunny.  It was a young plains garter snake, Thamnophis radix.  After showing the snake to the volunteers, I was on on way to releasing the snake, when all of a sudden my former internship supervisor stops, looks down, and says, "There's another!"  Interestingly, the second snake, which was the same size as the first, was caked in a layer of mud.  It must have begun settling in for the winter (it has been very cold these last couple weeks) and decided to venture out once more before the big sleep.  I released the two snakes together in some taller grass off of the road out of fear that they'd get run over or stepped on.  As I type this, I only hope they are headed to shelter about now, since it is supposed to snow in a couple days.

We had about 8 or 9 small to medium sized green ash trees removed from prominent areas of the site.  They were all heavily affected by the emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis).  

I couldn't help but lift a few logs before I left.  What can I say?  They lure me in every time.  Nothing but a bunch of crustaceans with a centipede thrown in here and there.  Here's a cluster of Armadillidium - reminds me of one of those "one of these things is not like the other" segments from Sesame Street.

I hope to post more soon, but as the seasons progress toward winter, updates may be slim - check back soon to see!

Bachelor's Grove Bullfrog

About a couple weeks ago, Aimee, my nephew Jeffrey (Peffers) and I took a trip down to Tinley Park for the bi-annual North American Reptile Breeder's Conference (NARBC).  I've attended the conference most years since its inception, and it's always fun to see familiar faces in the reptile industry (I worked in that industry for a long time, some time ago).  After a few hours of viewing the animals and chatting with a few fellow enthusiasts, we decided to head out.  On the way home I thought it would be fun to stop by Bachelor's Grove cemetery, located in Midlothian.  It was on our way anyway, and seeing as it was the season for spooky haunts, we parked the car in the parking lot across the street from the entrance, crossed the street, and soon were on our way to one of Chicagoland's most infamous cemeteries.  Jeffrey had never been there before so we had to school him on what it was all about.  After taking some photos in the cemetery, I decided to show him the creek, the old house foundation, and stone-lined well in the woods.  We spent a good deal of time at the creek, which at this point had dried up considerably.  There were very few sections of the creek that were connected; there were many isolated pools with only a very tiny trickling of water that fed them.  The creek was lined with limestone and pebbles and autumn leaves were everywhere.   The "bigger" pools contained schools of small minnows, while the smaller ones contained a few lonely stragglers or were vacant.  As we strolled along the dry rocky bed, I noticed a few small "plops" of frogs entering the water.  To be honest, I was surprised to see any active amphibians, since it was quite cold out.  I was able to catch one of the small frogs after it had jumped in; it was trying to hide by staying motionless at the bottom of the pool like most frogs do, but it didn't do a very good job.  I reached my hand into the icy water and brought it to my nephew so he could see.  It was a young bullfrog, Rana catesbeiana.  After explaining to Jeffrey a few interesting features of the bullfrog, I released it back into the water, but not before noticing that it suffered a deformed back leg.  As it slowly swam through the cold water, I clearly saw that one leg was smaller and weaker than the other.  It influenced the way the frog swam, and I imagine it being detrimental to the frog's future development.  This was certainly not the first time I've seen this kind of deformity in Rana.  I have seen it occur where frogs live with polluted water.  Retention ponds and streams with discharge pipes releasing runoff often produce animals with similar debilitating features.  This water seemed clear and clean, and being in the forest preserve, one would assume it would be fit for frog life.  But there could be something upstream causing this problem - runoff drainage, industry, etc.  It doesn't take much to impact downstream amphibian populations.  I just hope that I'm wrong and that this was an isolated, freak frog.

Fragmented stream

 A more substantial section

 Jeffrey Peffers wishing he were me (in the background) getting dirty!

 Young bullfrog

Italy

Well, it has been a while since my last post.  I have been tied up with all kinds of projects and whatnot, and honestly haven't had a whole lot of time to go out with my camera.  However, I just returned from a three-week trip to Italy last Friday, September 20th.  We travel a lot but never have I been away from home that long in my life (well, at least as long as I've been working - I did spend weeks on end in rural Georgia three times when I was a teenager).  In planning for the trip, I decided to spend some time field herping when possible.  Well, it turns out that I wasn't able to dedicate any serious time for that - long story.  But, I did take advantage of any and all time when I was in proximity to reptile habitat and kept my eyes open for local lizards.  I know that Italian wall lizards (Podardis sicula) are plentiful throughout the country, and did I ever find them, in all but one major stop in our travels.  I really wanted to find Western whip snakes (Heirophis viridiflavus), grass snakes (Natrix sp.), Vipera aspis, and even the common toad (Bufo bufo), among others, but alas, I wasn't able to get out to the right habitat the way I wanted to. I did manage to see a few species, and just being in Italy was an amazing experience.

Our first wall lizards were found on Isola di San Michele, an island cemetery just a short vaporetto ride from Venice.  Not only were there wall lizards, there were thousands of wall lizards - running about every which way as we strolled about the island.  And for every lizard, there must have been 50 mosquitoes.  We experienced these mosquitoes in the shaded areas of the cemetery, which were at a premium during the searing heat of the day.  I managed to catch one or two young lizards before the mosquitoes chased us out of there.  We paid the price with countless itchy bites wherever our skin was exposed.

Some areas of the cemetery were in ruins.  This is where the lizards were found in greater numbers.

Our next stop was the region of Tuscany, where we stayed in Florence, Pisa, and Sienna.  However, there were no opportunities for field herping.  After Tuscany, we headed to Rome, where our next lacerta friends were found, all in the Ancient Rome ruins.  It was very hot and all lizards were seen cooling off in the shade.

Some wall lizard habitat

Our next leg of the journey took us to the smelly, decrepit city of Naples, where no lizards were found but cockroaches fearing neither human nor sun thrived.  Nearby, on the island of Capri, however, they lived in luxury.  In addition, they were found basking on Mt. Vesuvius, even at the summit (at over 4,200 feet).  

Capri

This guy found what appeared to be colored pieces of pet food.  I think someone actually put these here for the lizards, because I watched as one lizard struggled to swallow a few of these pieces before giving up.

Mt. Vesuvius.  It is most definitely brewing in there...

Sicily offered a more rural landscape, and a more diverse array of herps.

What I believe to be a Mediterranean painted frog (Discoglossus pictus), found at the edge of an in-ground swimming pool in the mountains of northern Sicily.

A katydid found nearby

There were a number of nocturnal geckos present at various locations in Sicily.  I saw both Tarentola mauritanica and Hemidactylus turcicus).  This young one was found at a friend's house.

And these two large adults were found in a ruin atop La Rocca, Cefalu (about 900 feet).  This was as close as I could get without falling into the pit of death and becoming part of the ruins myself.

That pretty much covers the herptofauna I encountered on my trip to Italy.  I was kind of bummed that I didn't have more time to poke around in the mountains, but there is always next time.  Besides, I decided that because of the lack of time spent field herping Italy, I'll simply have to make up for it here before it's too late for the year.  I hope to make at least one more outing in search of reptiles and amphibians.  Stay tuned...

Desert of the East

Some photos of my trip to the Desert of the East today.

Mesic prairie as far as they eye can see - stunning.

Young praying mantis

 Rana pipiens, Northern leopard frog.  A "species of special concern" in Indiana.

Midland painted turtle, Chrysemys picta.  This turtle was found as it was moving from one pond to another.  Seems it has suffered both a seemingly debilitating injury to a front corner of its plastron and what look like burns to one of the bridges of its shell.  Everything appears healed and the turtle didn't seem impaired - more evidence that these animals are a lot more resilient than many make them out to be.

Xeric prairie - one of the most beautiful and calm places I have ever been to.  This location exemplifies the classic desert environment, only in the Midwest.

Small Eastern prickly pear, Opuntia humifusa.

 One of many clumps of this most intriguing plant.

The lone blooming plant - likely the last plant to flower this later into the season.  My goal on this trip was to find a flowering prickly pear, and this made me very happy to see.

Lead plant (Amorpha canescens)

Peace & Quiet & Mosquitoes & Ticks

I took a ride today to (code name) the desert of the East.  I intended to go herping and had my sights set on snakes, specifically Pituophis, Coluber, Lampropeltis, Heterodon, and Thamnophis.  I found none of the above, but instead the hordes of mosquitoes and many pesky ticks found me.  Before I left, I did manage to find all of two toads.  I want to return when the parasites die down a little because it was getting to be really irritating.  I was here two weeks ago and got rained out, but managed to do a little scouting which helped me to plan today a bit.

Woodland road that leads to sand dunes

A beautiful Fowler's toad (Anaxyrus fowleri)

They will always be Bufo to me...

Typical sand prairie habitat

Anaxyrus (Bufo) americanus toadlet

One of many seemingly endless backroads

Hey!

 A fitting end