Latest News and Events – Page 29 – Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles

SSAR Student Travel Award to attend JMIH 2016

Posted April 20, 2016 by Farallo, Vincent

SSAR is offering twelve awards of US $500 each to students to help defray the cost of traveling to the 2016 Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, (July 6-10)due April 30, 2016. An applicant for a travel award must be a student and a current member of SSAR, must not have previously received a travel award from SSAR, and must be the first author of a paper or poster to be presented at the 2016 meeting. The application package must include: 1) a letter signed by his/her major advisor or department chair that states that he/she is not completely funded for travel from another source and, if the research is co-authored, that the work was primarily the product of the applicant; 2) a copy of the abstract that was submitted for either poster or oral presentation. The winners will be chosen at random. Winners will also be required to volunteer 3-5 hours to help with the auctions we use to help fund these awards. More information about the award can be found on it’s designated webpage. If you have additional questions, or would like to submit your application please email Vincent Farallo.

2015 Award Winners (6 of the 12 total winners shown)

JMIH Abstracts Due March 18th (no extensions!)

Posted March 14, 2016 by Farallo, Vincent

March 18th is the deadline to submit an abstract for this year’s JMIH held in New Orleans, Louisiana, July 6th-10th 2016.

This includes regular symposia presentations, contributed oral presentations, posters, and 5-min lightening talks.

For more information or to submit your abstract, please click this link.

It should be noted that in order to present in New Orleans, all presenters, including symposia presenters, must register and pay for the meeting. Meeting registration is done through a separate online system accessed from the Registration Information page and requires a separate login username and password. Your username and password are not necessarily the same for the two systems. This is not required by the deadline, but is required in order to give your presentation(s).

We look forward to seeing everyone this summer in New Orleans!

New meaning for the word ‘toadstool’: An interesting calling site for a Granular Toad.

Posted March 11, 2016 by Nicole Angeli

A Granular Toad (Rhinella major) was observed sitting on top of an adult Rococo Toad (Rhinella schneideri) as it called to attract a mate (Fig 1A). After remaining motionless for ten minutes, the Rococo Toad decided to leave the pond. When the Granular Toad realized that it was not calling on top of a rock, it responded immediately by grasping the Rococo Toad in cephalic amplexus (Fig 1B).

What’s striking is the difference in body size between these two species: the maximum size for female Granular Toads is 80 mm SVL (snout to vent length), but female Rococo Toads can grow to over 200 mm SVL! The Rococo Toad being amplexed was at least two times the maximum size of an average female Granular Toad, but the pair did not seem to mind. They were in amplexus for at least an additional 20 minutes.

Schalk, C.M. 2016. Rhinella major and Rhinella schneideri (Granular and Rococo Toad). Reproductive Behavior. Herpetological Review. 47:120-121.

Ask the author a question on ResearchGate.

Struggling through Friday? Get inspired with this story of escape from Ritigala Strict Nature Reserve

Posted March 4, 2016 by Nicole Angeli

In a forest in Sri Lanka, a common freshwater crab (Ceylonthelphusa sentosa) snatches the tail of a Schokar’s Bronzeback snake (Dendrelaphis schokari). The snake makes vigorous body movements trying to escape. The crab’s claws don’t break through the snake’s tail, so the crab bides its time, holding fast. The snake continues to thrash and stretch itself away from the crab, trying to head into nearby woody debris.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes pass. Four minutes….five minutes…..the crab begins to move to its hole with the weakening snake.

At this moment, the crab realizes it has an audience: members of the Department of Biological Sciences at Rajarata University of Sri Lanka in Ritigala Strict Nature Reserve for research. Distracted, the crab releases the snake’s tail. The snake quickly moves off into the forest.

Herpetological Review published this observation because predation by freshwater crabs on snakes has rarely been documented. But perhaps there’s something more, a metaphor for a lousy situation or the end of the week. Just keep moving enthusiastically – the situation is bound to change unexpectedly!

Citation: De Zoysa, H., D. Samarasinghe, and S. Wickramasinghe. Dendrelaphis schokari. Predation. 2015. Herpetological Review 46(4): 642-643.

Nominations for the Meritorious Teaching Award in Herpetology

Posted February 29, 2016 by Farallo, Vincent

Each year the Herpetological Education Committee (HEC) selects the recipient of the Meritorious Teaching Award in Herpetology. The awardee is selected based upon outstanding and/or notable teaching effectiveness and mentoring of research students in the area of herpetology. Letters of nomination should be submitted to the HEC Chair (Scott Boback, bobacks@dickinson.edu) by 31 March 2016. More information can be found here.

A problem of portion control? A giant earthworm escapes a Pepper Frog.

Posted February 26, 2016 by Nicole Angeli

Are your eyes bigger than your stomach? This Pepper Frog (Leptodactylus knudseni) found a giant earthworm (Rhinodrilus piolli: Glossoscolecidae) that might have been too big to swallow.

Leptodactylus knudseni eating an earthworm (A), and regurgitating an earthworm (B).

Rhinodrilus piolli are evening active earthworms reaching 2.1 meters that cruise the forest floor during rainstorms, sharing space with Leptodactylus knudseni, a large sit-and wait-predator. Outside of Manaus, Brazil, observers encountered a Pepper Frog of 97.8 mm SVL that froze and began regurgitating a giant earthworm measuring 210 mm. The frog was just half the size of the earthworm, so the authors conclude that the earthworm’s size overwhelmed the frog. An alternative guess is that regurgitation of the worm was a defensive response by the frog to the presence of the observers. In either case, the earthworm was unharmed by its experience and wriggled off into the forest, perhaps to become a much larger adult.

Citation: Barros, A., P. Viana, D. Mendes, D. Pires, and R. Vogt. 2015. Leptodactylus knudseni (Pepper Frog). Diet. Herpetological Review 46 (4): 613.

Find the authors on Research Gate.

North Carolina establishes a task force to manage the state’s American alligators

Posted February 16, 2016 by Nicole Angeli

The SSAR Conservation Committee applauds the decision of the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission (NCWRC) to create an Alligator Task Force! Careful study of North Carolina’s alligator populations will provide guidelines to conserve and manage the species for the future.

Photo credit: Todd Pierson

We got involved in this issue in early January, when the NCWRC proposed opening a hunting season for alligators. When the public comment period opened, the SSAR Conservation Committee submitted a letter urging scientific study of North Carolina’s alligators before a hunting season is established. We hope that the North Carolina Alligator Task Force will look more carefully at each of the points in our letter, detailed below.

Reasons to gather more evidence before an alligator hunting season is established in North Carolina:

Studies indicate that North Carolina’s alligator population will decline if a hunting season is established.
North Carolina’s advisory Reptile and Amphibian Scientific Commission supports the alligator’s current ‘Threatened’ population status because it is very rare.
North Carolina is the alligator’s northern range limit, and the cold creates conditions where alligators mature and reproduce more slowly than in the rest of its range.
The proposed hunting season is to fall during the alligator nesting season, which will affect females guarding nests.
Depredation permits are available for ‘nuisance’ alligators in the state, so a hunting season to prevent human-wildlife conflict is redundant. On average, 20 depredation permits are issued each year.

Photo credit: Todd Pierson

Media reporting on the Commission’s decision can be found here.

Tips for living with the iconic American alligator come from the NCWRC website.

A spider catches, traps, and envenomates a toad: always bring your camera to the field!

Posted February 14, 2016 by Nicole Angeli

In Herpetological Review, we publish observations of predation, parasitism, diet, and other interesting natural phenomena. We peer-review each observation for its originality, veracity, and potential to inform biology. These important observations can include photo vouchers, like this spider restraining a toad in the December 2015 issue.

Pryadarshana et al. (2015) report on predation of a Kelaart’s Dwarf Toad (Adenomus kelaartii) on the Hunuwela Rubber Estate in Ratnapura District, Sri Lanka. A huntsman spider (Heteropoda) clung with the help of sticky webs to a sub-adult toad trying to escape, eventually immobilizing the toad with its venom. The Kelaart’s Dwarf Toad is a critically endangered Sri Lankan endemic anuran, and very little information exists on its ecology and behaviors. Now, we have evidence that at least one time an individual was consumed by a spider!

While we deal with amphibians and reptiles here at SSAR, natural history observations are missing for predation, diet, and behavior of lots of species of invertebrates and vertebrates. When you trek outside your door, keep your eyes open. You never know what you will find. In fact this observation occurred during a field trip to search for dragonflies. So always record your natural history observations by taking photos. Send your photo to a local expert to see if they are unusual sightings, tweet at biologist, or upload them into an online database like iNaturalist. With each observation, we learn more about our natural world.

Citation: Pryadarshana, T. S., and S. J. Perera. Adenomus Kelaartii (Kelaart’s Dwarf Toad). Predation. 2015. Herpetological Review 46 (4): 611.

Just in time for Mardi Gras – successful reproduction reported for a reintroduced Louisiana alligator!

Posted February 5, 2016 by Nicole Angeli

If your journeys bring you to Louisiana this week, keep your eyes open for individuals of the species Alligator mississippiensis with marked tails – maybe your alligator sighting is a direct result of the Louisiana alligator renewable resource program!

Wildlife management programs for species vulnerable to over-collection often include a component called “head-start”, where juveniles are raised and released back into the wild to re-join their wild cohort. The idea is that reintroduced individuals will reproduce to ensure that future generations survive.

Commercial alligator farmers in Louisiana may collect wild eggs, and a portion of those eggs are allocated to a head-start release program. After one to two years, the juveniles receive permanent identifying marks including notches on their tails before farmers release them into the swamps where they were collected.

During a search for wild eggs in June 2014, a nest was observed by C. Wall and an associate. As they approached the nest, they realized that a female was present. They watched the female deposit six to eight eggs over 20 minutes into the nest cavity. Using photographs of the tail markings, Elsey et al. (2015) report that the observed individual was a farmed animal released in 1994 at one to two years of age under the sustained use program of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Additional data to measure nest success and lifetime fertility of reintroduced alligators could help inform population management models, but for now the program is working as intended for at least this one individual.

Citation: Elsey, R., C. Wall, and M. Wall. Alligator mississippiensis (American Alligator). Nesting by a reintroduced female. 2015. Herpetological Review 46 (4): 622-623.

Student Travel Awards Available from the Gans Collections and Charitable Fund

Posted February 3, 2016 by Farallo, Vincent

The private foundation established by the late Carl Gans is continuing his legacy in herpetology and biology through the dissemination of his works and offering grants to students within his fields of study.

The fund has announced that it will support travel awards available to both graduate and undergraduate students who are attending any of three different meetings in 2016, two of which are herpetology focused, including the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in New Orleans, LA (July 6-10) and also the World Congress of Herpetology in Hangzhou, China (August 15-21). All students are eligible for these awards regardless of nationality. Applications can only be submitted for a single conference (ex. you can not apply for funding to attend both JMIH and WCH). Applicants must present a paper (oral or poster) at the meeting within the broad spectrum of research conducted by Gans on the biology of reptiles and amphibians to be eligible. The application deadline for both awards is 15 March 2016. See here for more information and application instructions.

Professor Gans was considered one of the preeminent specialists on the biology of reptiles and made contributions to their systematics, comparative and functional morphology, physiology, biomechanics, and behavior in over 600 publications. The fund consists of a Board of Trustees led by Leo Gans, Dr. Ronald Gans, and Eva Lynn Gans, and a Scientific Advisory Board, which is under the direction of Drs. Kraig Adler, Aaron Bauer, Amos Bouskila, Herb Rosenberg, and Linda Trueb.

Carl Gans in 1997 holding a Shingleback Skink (Tiliqua rugosa), taken from the 2010 obituary in Herpetological Review by Kraig Adler

The Gans Collections and Charitable Fund has recently published Gans’ Biology of the Reptilia series online, freely available at carlgans.org. The series consists of 22 volumes and approximately 14,000 pages, covering the morphology, behavior, development, ecology, neurology, and physiology of reptiles. The webpage provides the complete table of contents and index of the series, as well as direct access to the full content of every volume. The Fund hopes that access to this valuable resource will enable and inspire further study in these fields.