On a recent trip out to visit family in Licking, Ohio, we set out to explore the parks.  At Mound Park there were many hills, valleys, and streams. In one of these streams I was lucky enough to spot this herp, a hellbender or Cryptobranchus alleganiensis. It was not fully grown (only about 8") and was easy to spot. They are easy to identify with their flattened head and wrinkly, folded skin. The younger ones contain spots and will eventually lose gills when they grow to about 5 inches. They are aquatic and live under ample shelter such as large rocks. This one was found by this principle as it only took a few glances at rocky areas to be spotted.

Alex Hamad, Miami University

American toad

Much to the chagrin of our leg breaking TA Andrew, and probably luckily for this toad, I was able to catch him after Andrew had given up hope. The toad is an American toad, Bufo americanus, and after capture he puffed his little body up, so that he would be more difficult to swallow, and began calling. American toads can only be confused with the Fowler's toad within their range, and the key distinguishing feature is that the American toad will have only one or two warts per spot, while the Fowler's will have three or more warts per large spot. This specimen was an adult, because he was about 2.5 inches long, and the typical size for an
American toad ranges from 2-3.5 inches.
If you look carefully you can see the location that I managed to nab this little soprano. He was hopping along the rock ledges right along the side of the stream, where he was most likely calling to attract the ladies after the rain that had been falling on and off all day. I replaced him soon after, not wanting to step between my warty friend and true love.

Zack Mikolaj,
Miami University

Late-Night Herping Round 3

This is my final post herpers. I'm sorry. It's me, not you. That same night in Hueston Woods in the flooded field/swamp, we caught a northern cricket frog (Acris crepitans). The call of a cricket frog is the percussion of our phenom call band as it sounds like pebbles being clicked together. The cricket frog can range from .75-1.5 inches long, has random blotching patterns of brown/green/gray, and has a long, slender snout. Their diet consists of insects and they are capable of jumping over 6 ft in the air to avoid predators! This cricket frog was caught on a piece of vegetation sitting on top of a muddy bank. It blended in with the environment quite well. Once again, this is our TA trying to strangle an innocent creature. Please help us.... He threatens us all the time and says we have no future. Do you kids at College of Charleston deal with this? I think not. You guys are too concerned with your warm weather and beaches. Take it easy herpers. Stay strong.

Sean Brimacombe
Miami University

Late-Night Herping Round 2

I'm back again fellow herpers. On that same night trip in Hueston Woods in Oxford, Ohio, we were surrounded by deafening spring peepers (Pseudacris crucifer). The calls were very persistent and annoying. Nearly every peeper had the same pitch, except one guy who didn't get the memo. Let's call him/her Lady GaGa. I'm not sure if it knew it was calling that horribly or if it thought it was cool. You decide. The only problem was that the peepers would stop calling as soon as you walked near them. It was very frustrating. After numerous failed attempts at catching one, this little guy was caught. It was less than 1 inch long and had the large visible brown X on its back. Even for something so small, it can deposit up to 900 eggs underneath vegetation. The picture is of Andrew, our TA, trying to break Lady GaGa's leg. Call your local animal rights group to put him behind jail.

Sean Brimacombe
Miami University

Late-Night Herping

On May 1st, the coolest herpetology students decided to not party on a Friday night and went herping instead. We traveled to nearby Hueston Woods in Oxford, Ohio and stopped at a swamp-like field. With recent rain, the water depth ranged from 1 ft-3ft. The sounds of advertising frogs was deafening. These ads were nothing like the Bud-weis-er commercials and I was very disappointed. After looking around for a while, one of the students was able to track down this green frog (Rana clamitans). It's easily identified by the large tympanum, yellow throat, and green body color (shocking). It was average size for a green frog (2-4 inches). The sound of its call sounded like a plucked banjo string, but they could never get in sync with each other. It was awful. Sounded like Coldplay with a little more talent. I'll be here for another hour as I write 2 more blogs.... Take it easy herpers.

Sean Brimacombe
Miami University

Elaphe obsoleta quadrivittata

My boyfriend caught this Yellow Rat Snake in our backyard earlier today. He can be identified by his 4 dark stripes running along his body with a yellow-olive ground color. Their size ranges from 42-72 inches. His tongue is black and he had weakly keeled scales. His anal plate was also divided. His body was shaped like a loaf of bread. He was very calm while we held him. We released him back into our yard and maybe we can find him again soon to see how he is doing!!

Kristie Burr (SC)

Visiting the Quarry on April 30th, our class was able to find more snakes than previous expeditions. My classmate Justin found this eastern garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis, slithering through some patches of tall grass. He was still a young reptile being less than a foot long and as their patterns can be highly variable, this one had a nice checkered coloration running down its body. For some reason, anyone aside from Justin that got near this snake made him open his mouth in defense and I was able to take this picture just in time for a nice defensive posture. The rain that hit my lense adds for a nice effect I think, as it makes his open mouth stand out more. Even if he were to land a bite on someone, this snake lacks fangs (being from the family Colubridae). But he decided to musk as well feeling his life may be threatened. Eastern garter snakes will eat a variety of foods from insects to small fish to amphibians and, when large enough, will prey on small mammals. Spring is when the eastern garter snake comes out of hibernation and ready to mate. Some of the early males, to gain an edge on their competitors at getting the female, will produce female hormone to lead other males away from the area as a deceitful communication. That male will then go back and collect his reward.

(Drew Smith, Miami University)