Research, Conservation, Education
Are you going to JMIH? Are you looking for a way to give back to SSAR? We’re looking for a small number of JMIH attendees willing to take photographs of some key events at the conference. See the wishlist here: SSAR Annual Meeting Photography 2018.
If you’re interested in helping, please email us at ssarherps@gmail.com.
In this fifth installment of the human stories behind herpetological research, we hear the story behind a 2014 Natural History Note in SSAR’s Herpetological Review from one of the note’s authors, Sean Graham. If you like Sean’s account–focusing on the science and filed adventures behind herpetology–you should purchase his excellent new book, American Snakes.
The citation for the note this story is based on is as follows:
Newman, J. C., T. Robbins, and S. P. Graham. 2014. Sceloporus undulatus (Eastern Fence Lizard). Envenomation. Herpetological Review 45:133-134.
SSAR members can access the article here. Enjoy Sean’s account below!
Probably my favorite Herp Review note I was involved with was back in 2012, when I was a postdoctoral student in Tracy Langkilde’s lab at Penn State. Langkilde studies interactions between fence lizards (Sceloporus undulatus) and exotic fire ants, showing that in areas where fire ants have been established longest, the lizards have evolved longer legs and behaviors appropriate for escaping ants. So, we were scouring the woods catching fence lizards in areas where fire ants are well-established (southern Alabama) and also in areas where fire ants are absent (northern Tennessee and Arkansas) for various comparisons. Fence lizards are often common in areas where there is a considerable human footprint: our best sites were often farms, backyards, or junkyards with open habitat edged by trees and woodpiles. At Geneva State Forest in Alabama, we made a beeline for a campground near the lake, which had a park-like area with widely spaced trees. And, for us, a goldmine: a junk pile with big piles of old wood and boards.
Right away we saw a fence lizard perched atop a pile of boards. It was in the standard, upright, alert posture of basking fence lizards. We got our nooses ready.
The best way to catch a fence lizard is with a lizard noose: a long pole with a small loop of dental floss at the end. In our case we used fiberglass, collapsible, reel-less fishing rods you can get at Walmart. Locals often gave us strange looks and even overcame their reluctance to ask us what in the hell we were doing stalking the campgrounds looking at tree trunks carrying strange fishing poles. Our nooses lacked the rings of real fishing poles and extended some 20 feet. We usually only used the last two segments of the rod but kept the extra-long sections in our vehicle in case we found a particularly elusive lizard. We called this one the “big daddy”. For this lizard, we didn’t need the big daddy, and instead walked slowly up to it and got the noose around its neck. Soon we had it in hand. But something was amiss.
A fang protruding from the dead fence lizard. (c) Sean Graham
The lizard was decidedly dead. We looked it over at every angle, and even though the lizard had seemed alert, it was positively deceased. Our first clue to the developing mystery was that its belly appeared bruised and discolored. Then somebody noticed something protruding from its back. I looked it over and couldn’t quite tell what I was looking at. It almost looked like some worm emerging from the animal, so our first suspect was a botfly. Occasionally, lizards like anoles fall prey to these despicable, flesh-eating parasitoids. But they are usually large and look like big maggots, so we quickly cleared flies as a suspect. I pulled out a pencil to probe the object, and it fell into my hand. It was curled, hollow, and needle sharp on one end. The murder weapon.
“This is a pitviper fang,” I said, looking down around my feet. I saw a perfect flat board at the bottom of the pile. “There’s going to be a copperhead under there.”
I lifted the board, and sure enough, reveled a copperhead.
The culprit: a copperhead. (c) Sean Graham
From what we know about pitviper hunting tactics, we deduced that the lizard had been scurrying around the boards earlier that morning, and the copperhead ambushed him. Probably while struggling to get free, the lizard broke the copperhead’s fang and ran off. Normally the snake would have struck the lizard and held on, swallowing it after the venom incapacitated the lizard. Pitvipers also strike and release prey, then use their tongue to search out the victim after it has died. The snake was unable to track down the lizard, possibly because of the trauma of losing a fang. The lizard then proceeded to bask in the sun, an interesting behavior consistent with what we know about the immune response of snakes and lizards; there is evidence that reptiles bask when they are sick because immune function is more efficient at hotter temperatures. By the time we got to the lizard that morning, the venom had finished him.
These kinds of chance observations are invaluable for understanding our natural world. Pitviper hunting tactics are so difficult to observe that they have only recently been systematically studied using expensive technology such as radio transmitters and high definition videography. And an intensive study on copperhead hunting may never have revealed such an interesting, idiosyncratic misfire.
The author, practicing his noosing skills and contemplating his next Natural History Note for Herpetological Review.
We started writing down various details in our field notebooks. Time of day, date, etc. We got measurements from the lizard and measured the distance between the snake and lizard. We collected the lizard in one of our cloth bags and eventually accessioned it into the Auburn University collections. We collected the fang in a small vial we used for storing lizard blood. We had what we needed to write up a note. However, we couldn’t confirm that the copperhead we found was the killer (by checking to see whether it was missing a fang) because we didn’t have any of the proper equipment for handling venomous snakes. So, our case was based mostly upon circumstantial evidence.
The most challenging thing about reporting this observation was that I wanted the note to reflect how we systematically figured out what had happened, including the Holmesian prediction that a copperhead did it. The way the notes are formatted, it is sometimes hard to tell the story the way it really went down. Fortunately, the editor was kind to us and we were able to include enough detail to make it clear how we used good, old-fashioned police work to find the killer.
Calling all authors! We want to feature your latest publications in Journal of Herpetology and Herpetological Review on our website. We want to hear the story behind the research. Did the research project arise from an interesting natural history observation? Did you persevere through challenging field conditions to collect your data? Was the work motivated by an enigmatic mystery in herpetology? We want to know! We plan to feature short posts describing the personal side of your research. Send us an email at ssarherps@gmail.com if you’d like your work to be featured! Check out our “Behind the Scenes” posts for recent examples.
In this fourth installment of the human stories behind herpetological research, we hear the story behind a recent publication in SSAR’s Herpetological Review. The citation for that article is as follows:
Hutton, J.M., Price, S.J., and Richter, S.C. 2018. Diet of the Black Mountain Salamander (Desmognathus welteri) in southeastern Kentucky. Herpetological Review 49(1): 12-19.
SSAR members can access the article here. Below is a first-hand account from the lead author, Jake Hutton.
During my last year as an undergraduate student, I happened across some salamander diet literature. I was fascinated and immediately became consumed by the broader ecological impacts of this type of research. However, I soon found that there were very few salamander diet studies that didn’t sacrifice the entire animal just to obtain its stomach contents. So, with the support of one of my advisors, Dr. Bill Ensign (who had some partial experience with fish dietary studies back in the 80’s), I decided to further explore this field of research. We combed through the literature until we found consistent and successful techniques for a non-lethal salamander diet technique, collectively called “gastric lavage”, which is definitely the most awesome way of saying a way to make something throw up.
A spotted dusky salamander and its regurgitated earthworm prey.
With my kit of mini-vomit-inducing materials and a slightly-more-than-vague understanding of the ethical technique, I took to the field to find some guinea-salamanders. After a few rocks, I spotted what would be my first lavaged salamander, a lovely spotted dusky salamander (Desmognathus conanti). I anxiously took out my container and added the estimated amount of Orajel and mixed in the water to create the most wonderful pre-throw up smell, at least in my opinion. After I had created the “jeloution”, the salamander just sat staring up at me, as if saying, let’s get some diet data, but please don’t kill me. Knowing the stakes, I placed it into the solution and waited nervously. After a few minutes it went limp and was unresponsive to my frightened verbal calls and nudges. The salamander was either dead or properly anesthetized. I had to know which one, but first I had some experimenting to do. So I snakingly, but accurately, inserted my incredibly tiny tubing down the esophagus and inserted the water-filled syringe into it. I took a breath, then pressed my thumb down on the syringe expecting to see an explosion or something else equally horrible. Instead, a massive earth worm nearly flew out of its’ mouth! To end the perfect first salamander lavage experience, my science-loving salamander friend began moving in the recovery water bath after just a few minutes. While waiting for it to fully recover, we had a lovely conversation about diet composition and the endless possibilities of using this technique to answer incredibly important questions about the potential influence of salamanders on the ecosystem.
Fast-forward to hundreds of non-lethally stomach flushed salamanders and salamander conversations later (0% mortality or actual talking from the salamanders). I was working as a field technician on a salamander project in the Stephen Richter Lab (Eastern Kentucky University) for J. Alex Baecher’s thesis in southeastern Kentucky. Between sampling periods, I would go out and collect as much diet data as I could, perfecting the technique as well as the handling and recovery times. I also look this chance to learn how to identify the prey that were collected from the salamanders. Each diet sample became like an exciting murder mystery, minus the murder but with alike with clues, patterns, and a magnifying glass, well an Accu-Scope 3075.
The author’s supplies for gastric lavaging.
I was collecting data from multiple streams but at one stream in-between two incredibly creepy houses, there was a robust population of Black Mountain Salamanders (Desmognathus welteri). I’m sure other salafinders agree, but these are by far the most difficult semi-aquatic salamanders I’ve had the pleasure of attempting to catch. When this D. welteri diet study started, I would be lucky to have a 20% catch rate per sampling. Despite the creepy houses and black bear encounters, I kept at it and began to know exactly which rock they would be under and where to put my net. We eventually captured enough individuals for a solid representative study of the previously unknown adult Kentucky and larval diet of this incredible salamander.
A Black Mountain salamander, the subject of the featured publication.
I went on to use this technique for my master’s thesis at the University of Kentucky (Steve Price Lab, follow us @PriceHerpLab!) examining the effects of surface mining on stream salamanders in southeastern Kentucky. Although sometimes it can be physically and mentally demanding to make a bunch of salamanders throw up and then have to identify it, I don’t regret a single lavage. With our incredible amount of diet data, we hope to continue answering questions about the ecologies and importance of these amazing animals to stream and terrestrial systems. I’m incredibly lucky to have had nothing but support from my advisors, mentors, and PI’s. I only hope others will continue to make salamanders throw up (without killing them), so that we can fill the gaps in our knowledge of these magnificent, slimy, and evasive creatures.
Jake M Hutton
University of Kentucky
Department of Forestry and Natural Resources
Lexington, Kentucky 40546, USA
jakehutton@uky.edu
HR March 2018, Volume 49, Number 1. Our cover features a family group photo of Cunningham’s Skinks (Egernia cunninghami), photographed near Canberra, ACT, Australia by Julia Riley. This issue is scheduled to be mailed 27 March, although full contents are now available online to SSAR members at https://ssarherps.org/herpetological-review-pdfs/. All Natural History Notes, Geographic Distribution Notes, and Book Reviews are Open Access and are now available for download at the same link. If you are not a member of SSAR, please consider joining the leading international herpetological society. Student and online-only rates available. Follow the “Join SSAR” link on the home page. Congratulations to Julia for her outstanding cover photo!
Reminder: SSAR is pleased to announce that it will provide funds for selected junior and senior high school students to attend the 2018 Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. Applications are due on March 15th, 2018. For more information, see the following form: SSAR_Student_Meeting_Support.
HERP BOOKS TO BE AUCTIONED AT ROCHESTER MEETING
STEVE BUSACK has generously donated his herpetological library to SSAR. This outstanding collection will be sold at the live and silent auctions during the JMIH event in Rochester, NY, in July 2018. All books are in very good to excellent condition, and everything will be on display for personal examination.
The books to be auctioned are listed below. “DJ” means original dust jacket is included; “autographed” means signed by the author; “bound” means cloth bound; “paper” means paper bound. All books are original copies, unless marked “reprint.”
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105.Kimbrough, D. L. 1995. Taking Up Serpents. UNC Press, Raleigh. bound
End of list
SSAR is very pleased to announce that it will continue to provide support for postdoctoral fellows to attend and present their research at SSAR’s annual meetings and meet and interact with leaders in the field, which comes at a key time in their careers when they are seeking permanent positions. Awards are open to postdocs from all countries. The next round of awards will be made to attend the Society’s 2018 meeting as part of the JMIH event at the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center (July 11–15, 2018).
Applications are due on May 4th, 2018. For more details about this award, visit its permanent webpage here. For more details about the 2018 application, see the following document: Metallinou Award 2018
Ten awards of US $500 each are available to students to help defray the cost of traveling to the 2018 Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists meeting in Rochester, New York (July 11th-15th). For full details, see here.
Now available! – SSAR’s massive (926 pp.) new Facsimile Reprint of the works of Giorgio Jan, featuring the 300 snake plates of the Iconographie des Ophidiens (1860-1881) and 168 pages of new text and commentary by Jay Savage and Roy McDiarmid. You can purchase this exciting new publication in our bookstore through WildApricot here.
For full details, download the advertisement here: The Herpetological Contributions of Giorgio Jan (1791-1866)