The Bull in the Jar

I recently needed to access the specimen collection housed at a nearby University.

This collection has many specimens that are of historical importance.

As I was climbing up and down the ladder, looking through various jars, I happened to glance up and see the following tag.....

Peering back at me through the sheer wall of his eternal resting place, sat The Beast......

......a large Bullsnake (Pituophis catenifer sayi), which is now a rather rare species in our neck of the woods.  In fact, it has likely been decades since one has existed on campus at the now urban university where this specimen is housed.

Although his clouded eye didn't see me, I couldn't help but smile at him.  It may seem strange to smile at the sight of a dead snake in a jar....and it is perhaps a shame that this once impressive critter ended up sitting in preservative on a shelf.

Yet, my smile was broad. 

Just imagining this large fella scaring the hell out of the inhabitants of the "men's dormitories" at the university over 80 years ago....one cannot help but chuckle.

More Box Turtle Stories? Not Quite!

I had mentioned at the end of my recent Turtle Dog post, that there would be more box turtle stories to share.  Figured it was about time!

Earlier in the summer my students and I had another opportunity to work with our state regulatory agency to conduct some rare reptile surveys.

This time, however, we would not be fortunate enough to have Turtle Dogs along to help.  Instead we had a lot of humans, which we got together in a coordinated fashion to "pound the ground" looking for turtles. 

Thus, we all met at a completely different site than the ones we had worked previously.

After a brief organizational meeting and a run-through of our objectives (find as many turtles as possible), we set to our task.  The habitats we would be working in were very cool...including some beautifully well-managed oak savanna....

 

 

High-quality oak savanna habitat is something of a rarity these days.  The primary reason for the loss of such habitat is its conversion to agriculture and urban/suburban development.  But, there's still more that threatens oak savanna and prairie habitat: uncontrolled vegetative succession. 

 

What is succession, you ask?

 

I'll have to keep this somewhat simple, to avoid making this post too long.  So, I'll briefly define succession as the directional change of a plant community from an early community of species that establish immediately after disturbance to a final community of species that are superior competitors. 

 

The community that establishes immediately after a disturbance (such as a fire, or heavy grazing) is called a Pioneer Community.  Pioneer communities usually consist of colonizing species that have specific characteristics. 

• They are often small annual species, and ones we might consider "weedy"
• They can generally handle harsh conditions (high light intensity, high heat, low moisture)
• Their seeds are often dispersed by wind
• They are easily out-competed by later successional species.
• They reach sexual maturity quickly.  In this way they can quickly reproduce and disseminate their seeds to adjacent disturbed habitats before the later successional species (which are theoretically superior competitors) move in and push them out.

Eventually, other species, that perhaps grow taller (e.g., shrubs) enter the area....shade out the pioneers and change the species structure within the community.  An example would be a mowed field that is left untouched for years eventually growing in with shrubby vegetation.

 

In theory, successional change will continue to occur (i.e., the plant communities will progress from pioneer to climax) if no further disturbance happens.  Thus, over time this community will eventually change from a pioneer to a Climax Community.  The climax community is the final community an area can achieve post-disturbance....in other words, these species are the best competitors and will not allow new species to come in, out-compete them and replace them. The plant species in Climax Communities have the following characteristics:

• They are usually larger as adults and shade-out competitors (e.g., trees)
• They are often slow to mature
• They have shade-tolerant seedlings
• Their seeds are dispersed by gravity or seed-dispersers, such as birds 

Image Source: http://faculty.ycp.edu

 

One last important point: Although successional change is directional (i.e., moving from Pioneer to Climax Community) if a new disturbance happens, the community undergoing succession can be knocked back to its pioneer community (or some earlier successional state).

 

So, how does the concept of succession relate to the previously mentioned oak savanna?  Well, although too much disturbance is obviously a bad thing, not enough natural disturbance can be bad as well.  Habitats like prairies and savannas typically have a vegetation community that is in an earlier successional state when compared to woodland.  Thus, these habitats are dependent upon natural disturbance to persist.  Usually this disturbance comes in the form of natural fire or moderate levels of grazing/browsing by herbivores.  What this means is that even if a prairie or savanna parcel is protected from development, it must be properly managed or succession will occur until the parcel is no longer comprised of savanna.  So, legally protecting land is only half of the battle.  It is necessary to have the means and resources to effectively manage the prairie and savanna to keep it in an earlier successional state.  The typical management practices used on savanna and prairie include mowing, hand removal of vegetation (chainsaws, etc.), herbicide applications, and purposely starting (controlled) fires.

 

WHEW!  Sorry about the wordiness of this post!

 

Anyhoo...back to the story.....

 

The site we were surveying in had received appropriate management to maintain savannas.  For example, you can see the limited understory vegetation, yet mature trees, in the picture below.  This occurs because a controlled fire was used to kill back much of the small vegetation.  The large trees, however, are resilient to low-intensity fire and so they persist.  Management of this habitat is designed to keep the community in an earlier successional state in a way that specifically promotes oak savanna.

 



 

Interestingly.......this post about "Box Turtle Stories" doesn't have much ado about Box Turtles!

Not for lack of trying, however.

There were at least 18 individuals surveying at one point during the day.  We went over and back over locations on-site that exhibited evidence of box turtles.  The oak savanna habitats were surveyed intensively, as were the more open grassland/prairie type habitats (note the prairie below is starting to grow in with more woody vegetation, i.e., succession is occurring!).

Some of the strongest evidence to suggest box turtles are around is the presence of fresh "forms" in the ground.  These are shallow burrows that the turtles dig in the ground for short-term respite from unfavorable conditions, or to sleep in at night. These forms usually don't go back very far, and they are shaped sort of like the profile of a box turtle shell.  We found plenty of fresh forms on-site during our surveys (see below), so we knew box turtles were active in the area.

One would think that 18 competent surveyors vs. a slow-moving innocuous reptile would be a contest stacked heavily in favor of the humans.

You'd be wrong!

Despite the fact that we knew there were box turtles in the area, and found fresh evidence of them when we arrived, not a single box turtle did we see!!

We DID find other reptiles (one of which was possibly even better than finding a box turtle.....more to come).  For example, we found several beautiful Smooth Greensnakes (Opheodrys vernalis).

This species is mostly insectivorous (eats insects) and prefers the shrubby edges adjacent to grassland/prairie, as in the picture below.

Let me tell you, there are few species that are harder to find than a green-colored snake that hangs out in the grass!

We also found a nice little juvenile Eastern Hognose Snake (Heterodon platirhinos).  Note the upturned scale on the tip of the rostrum (or "nose").  This gives them the appearance of having a "nose" similar to a hog....or that's how it appeared to the person that named them!

 

But those weren't even the best finds that day!

Looks like a snake, doesn't it?

It's not a snake, although it is a reptile....and it is in a closely related group: the lizards.  Snakes and lizards are both in the taxonomic Order Squamata, while snakes are in the Sub-Order Serpentes.....the lizards are in the Sub-Order Lacertilia.

What we have here is a leg-less lizard....the Western Slender Glass Lizard (Ophisaurus attenuatus attenuatus).  An incredibly rare find in our neck o' the woods!

So, how can we tell this is a lizard?  Superficially, it looks just like a snake.  Yet, there are certain clues that belie this critter's ancestry....

First, all lizards have a hole on each side of the head, which is essentially an ear opening.  Snakes have no external ear-opening.

See the hole circled in red below?  You have to look carefully!

Lizards also have movable eyelids, something that snakes don't possess.  In other words: lizards can blink.  Obviously, I can't show you moving eyelids in still photos, so you'll have to trust me that these lizards can blink!

There are other differences too, but this is good enough for the current blog post.

These interesting little critters are not only hard to find, they are hard to catch.  At certain times of year (such as late spring) they have a tendency to sit concealed in the thatch of short grasses.  This provides them with cover and allows them to still soak up the sun.  It also makes them incredibly difficult to find.  Usually one only sees these lizards if they are almost stepped on, which prompts them to make a quick break for it.  The motion gives them away and they can be located.

In addition to their cryptic nature, there are two other difficulties a glass lizard surveyor must deal with: (1) they are incredibly fast, (2) they have the ability to perform caudal autotomy (i.e., break off their own tails when captured).  Why?  The tail, after separated from the body, continues to thrash and twitch....presumably to distract the predator and allow the lizard to escape.  The ability to break off pieces of their body is also apparently the origin of the name "glass" lizard.

We don't want them to loose their tails if they don't have to.  The tail takes a while to regenerate.  Better if they use that strategy when it really counts (i.e., avoiding a real predator).  Yet, if one is incredibly gentle when capturing and handling the lizard, they are much less-likely to drop their tails.

So, capturing glass lizards requires a quick, but careful, response.

We actually found a fair number of glass lizards, which was even better!

I tried to explain to my students that I had seen less than five of these lizards in my entire life up to that point.  On that day, we found 10!!!

On at least one occasion, there were two right next to each other......

...and so ended our second effort at finding box turtles.  Although not a box turtle was found, we still got some great wildlife captures!

There's still one more small box turtle story to tell, but I'll save that for a later date.

The Beaten Bear, Poor Ol' Slim, and a Size-13 Snapper!

A random conglomeration of stuff from recent happenings during summer field work.  There's been alot of things going on.  There's so much to share that I can't fit it into a blog post in any type of logical order.

We've been running the drift fences surveys since the beginning of May, which has resulted in many excellent captures (one of which is below).

Yet, we also see cool stuff while we are walking out to our fences.  For example, there's an old gnarled tree that overhangs the creek near one of our fences.  Every day there are multiple Northern Watersnakes (Nerodia sipedon) hanging on the branches catching some rays.


Photo by N. Rudolph

They never really appreciate my grabbing them...and the result is usually a bit of drawn blood (as you can see on my hand below).  The bite looks much worse than it is, however.  They are non-venomous, and their teeth feel like nothing more than tiny pin-pricks.

Photo by N. Rudolph

The poor watersnake frequently suffers greatly at the hands of humans.  When the average person sees a snake near the water with a body pattern that is NOT similar to a gartersnake, they often think: "cottonmouth!" or "water moccasin!" and the snake is killed.  There are NO cottonmouths or moccasins in the upper Midwest, unless one inlcudes southern Illinois (and I don't think they do?). 

Amazingly, folks often argue with me about this!  Here are example responses I get to telling them it wasn't a cottonmouth they saw: "Nope, I saw a cottonmouth on that canoe trip.  There's nothing else it could have been." ...or..... "Well, I'm pretty sure that it was a moccasin that swam along the bank next to me while I was fishing." 

But, let me re-iterate: the snakes in my hand above are NOT cottonmouths/moccasins!  We do not have said venomous species 'round these parts.

BUT....none of this is even the point of my current post!  So, I'll get on with it....

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The Beaten Bear:

Below is an impressive and "battle worn" Black Bear (Ursus americanus) that the wolf researchers captured on one of the camera traps.

Take a look at the lip on the left side of his face (right at the beginning of the clip).  It looks to be torn....and his ears have clearly seen better days.  He must be a wily sort to have avoided the hunters all these years.

I wonder whom he had a run-in with to have acquired all of that damage?  Males compete for breeding rights, and perhaps his

I wonder whom he had a run-in with to have acquired all of that damage?  Males compete for breeding opportunities and perhaps this was from another male Black Bear?  They certainly run afoul of wolves, which may be particularly problematic when wolves have pups in the den. Hunting dogs are another possibility, I suppose.  But all of that damage is to the face and head.  Is this type of damage typical of such encounters?  Could the torn up ears be where identifying ear tags were yanked out?

I love a natural history mystery!
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Poor Ol' Slim:

Poor Slim.....the unfortunate Short-tailed Weasel (Mustela erminea) that I found dead on the road not far from my house.  I caught a glimpse of it while my daughter and I were driving home one day....and I thought it looked like a weasel, so we had to turn around so I could pull over and snap a picture (it wasn't in good enough condition to turn into much of a specimen).

Slim is either a juvenile Long-Tailed Weasel (Mustela frenata) or an adult Short-Tailed Weasel (M. erminea), based on the size and the black tip on the tail.  The other weasel in our state...the Least Weasel (M. nivalis) has no black tail tip. 

Adult Long-Tailed Weasels attain average sizes (13-16 inches) and this individual is not that large.  Yet, this could be a juvenile Long-tailed Weasel....which would also make sense, seeing that the Long-Tailed Weasel is more common in the southern part of the state (where I am located) than the Short-tailed.  But the tail on this specimen looks to be particularly short. 

Hmmm.....

Another good mystery!

Fortunately, the summer hasn't been only negative encounters with weasels.  Below are pictures of a little Least Weasel my students and I captured in a drift fence a few weeks ago (note the lack of black-tip on the tail).  The drift fences are primarily for amphibians and reptiles, but we get just as many small mammals.  In fact, the hidden secret of this herpetological technique: it's probably just as effective and less work day-in and day-out for small mammals as Sherman Traps.  Although the fence takes alot of effort to install initially, there isn't the hassle of setting and re-baiting traps all the time.  Plus, we get many intectivores (Shrews) and the occassional weasel, which Sherman Traps aren't effective at catching.

I imagine these little carnivores are attracted to the fence due to the smell of vole, which we catch many of.  According to King and Powell (2007, The Natural History of Weasels and Stoats, Oxford University Press) the Least Weasel is the weasel that is the most narrow in its dietary preferences....eating almost exclusively on rodents and then focused primarily on voles (especially Microtus sp.).  I've caught Least Weasels on several occassions in drift fences in years past, so I wasn't totally shocked.  This is also not my first weasel post in the last year (see here).

But that doesn't mean I wasn't incredibly excited to see one!  The Least Weasel, in particular, is rare 'round here....so it was quite a treat!  Holding still is not the strong-suit of these frenetic little carnivores....so forgive the blurry pics (these were the best of about 30 attempts).

Photo by N. Rudolph

Photo by K. Rutzen

 

Photo by K. Rutzen

I love me some Mustelids.....

A Size-13 Snapper:

Mid-summer is when I often do most of my turtle trapping.  As part of survey work this summer, I've been trapping in wetlands with the hopes of catching some Blanding's Turtles (Emydoidea blandingii).  I've caught a few (as you can see)....

We also catch many, many Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta)....


Photo by N. Rudolph

Frequently these are given a unique mark.  This is done by notching the edge of their shells in a certain order with a file or dremel tool so that we can identify the turtles in the future.

Photo by N. Rudolph

But, in addition to the Painted Turtles, I almost always also catch Northern Snapping Turtles (Chelydra serpentina).  In fact, I would not be shocked if just about every water body in the state (from tiny pond to giant river) has at least one snapper lurking in the depths.  The Northern Snapping Turtle (previously called the "Common" Snapping Turtle) rarely leaves the water.  It doesn't usually sit on logs and bask in the sun, like many other pond turtles.  It mostly remains unseen in the mud and muck on the murky bottom.  The females are seen more frequently on land during the nesting season, when they must traverse the dangers of an over-land movement to lay their eggs.  It's during these times that snappers must frequently head out into vehicular traffic.  Poor snappers.  Especially considering that people apparently swerve to hit turtles crossing roads.

Regardless, the Northern Snapping Turtle is one of my favorite turtles: ornery, cantakerous, dirty, smelly, mean-looking.....everything I like in a critter :)

Photo by N. Rudolph

This summer, we've been lucky enough to catch many snapping turtles, like the individuals above.  At one particular pond, I caught at least five individual snappers in a single night that had carapaces (upper shells) which ranged from 8 to 12.5 inches.  The one below is a prime example.....

 

But that one pictured above wasn't even the biggest captured this summer.

That prize belongs to the individual below.  To put this into perspective, the boot on my chest-waders in this photo is a size 13.

It would be nice if more snapping turtles could make it to this size (or bigger). 

I guess we have to start by getting folks to restrain from hitting them on purpose (I can't believe I had to actually say that). 

Next we can try and come up with ways in which the average person can avoid hitting them on accident.

-sigh-


Winter is for mammals....but summer is for HERPS!!!!

So much going on....

I guess I should start at the beginning of the real herp field season this year....and it began with a field trip that I took my advanced ecology class on.  This is the same trip we took last year, although back then we didn't have much luck finding the cold-blooded crawly critters.

The conditions were alot better this year, so we pulled out of the parking lot with feelings of hopefullness a few weeks ago.

After nearly 2 hours in the car, we reached the first of our destinations: a sand prairie/savanna located immediately adjacent to a large river.  The part of the property where we were given access to is primarily used by a retriever club.  As a result, there was alot of more typical "grasses" that one might fing in a homeowner lawn.  As we moved further away from where the club operates, we ran into the results of recent habitat management.  These activities involved removal of some un-desirable/exotics: common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) and Honeysuckle (Locinera sp.).  While it's good to get rid of these troublesome species of vegetation, it didn't provide great "herping" habitat.....

Yet, there were several pot-hole wetlands on site and lots of downed debris that the critters we wanted could be hiding in.  The morning was still a tad cool, but the sun was quickly warming things.  I felt confident we'd find something....

It wasn't long before....success!  One of my students called out that they found a snake...

A small species, the Northern Brown (or Dekay's) Snake (Storeria dekayi).


Photo by K. Kron

Brownsnakes are highly fossorial (living below ground or ground debris) and rarely seen for that reason.  They are relatively common, however....but still a great find!

We also found several other species at this site: a Common Gartersnake (Thamnophis sirtalis), a Northern Leopard Frog (Lithobates pipiens), various birds, and some interesting plants (although this site was a tad disturbed for any really cool plants).

We ended our time there with only a handful of captures.   BUT...it was still early and there were several more sites to check.
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Next we headed towards a floodplain forest habitat along a major river in the state.  The primary objective here was salamanders and frogs, which require a bit of log-rolling (and "log-returning" after checking underneath).

So it was that we hopped out of the vehicles and plunged into the deer tick infested forest in search of sallies....

With 19 plus sets of boots on the ground, our chances of finding something were high.  It wasn't long before calls started going up that critters had been found.  The most commonly encountered was the cute little Blue-Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma laterale).

Photo by K. Kron

Another commonly captured critter was the terrestrial phase of the Eastern Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens).  The one pictured below is employing an interesting anti-predation behavior.  I believe the goal is to make themselves too awkard for certain predators to swallow whole.

A variety of frogs were also hopping around in the forest.  This included the Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvatica), easily identifiable by it's coppery color and black mask.....

We also found Spring Peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) and a few American Toads (Anaxyrus americanus)....

So....the flood plain forest was mostly successful.  Thus, we moved on, hoping to grab some lunch and get to the next site: a sand prairie.
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Then....the equivalent of a herpetological distaster occurred!  On an already almost too cold day, clouds rolled in.  Next came the water-works, and the rain began to pour!  As we drove to the new location we were bombarded with a deluge.  Thus, we ate lunch and I watched through the windows glumly as the rain came down. 

We hadn't seen many snakes so far.  If the rain kept up this way, we were sunk.

But...then...as we were finishing our meals and throwing away our trash...things changed.  The sun suddenly poked through, the clouds started to break....and I got excited as the air temperature began to climb.

So it was that our boots hit the ground at the next location....

 

Although it was still a bit cloudy, the sun was peeking through occassionally and it became noticeably warmer.  Due to this positive change in the weather, it didn't take long for us to start catching things.

Within 20 minutes of arriving...one of the students yelled out: 

"Doc, there's a snake over here!" 

"Well, grab it!" I replied.

"There's actually two snakes!"

"Well, grab THEM!" 

I don't know if they heard me or not over the commotion, but when I got there, we had two nice Eastern Hognose Snakes (Heterodon platyrhinos) to admire!

 

One was a very pretty orange-brown......

Photo by K. Kron

Photo by K. Kron

In total, we found four (or maybe even five?) Hognose Snakes in a matter of an hour.  Presumably, they were congregated in such a tight area for breeding....although we didn't actually see them doing so.

Next we moved to the north a bit, searching for some of the other critters that I knew were on-site. It was not long before we found one: the incredibly rare Ornate Box Turtle (Terrapene ornata).  The Ornate is the only fully-terrestrial turtle in the upper Midwest.  It generally requires deep, sandy soils to burrow below the frost-line in the winter.  Because such habitats have mostly been converted to agriculture or housing developments around here, this species has been nearly extirpated from the region.  In addition to habitat loss, herp-enthusiasts who collect them to keep as pets have severely impacted their populations.  Luckily, our fine state protects this species, and large fines can be incured for removing them from the wild.

Given how rare they are, it was encouraging to find a juvenile individual.....

Also...a very nice looking adult male.  Males have bright-red eyes and reddish orange on their front-legs.

As we moved along, we found another rare species: the Racer (Coluber constrictor).


Photo by K. Kron

.....but we weren't done there!

A rare snake and a rare turtle....not to mention a few Hognose Snakes.  I was feeling pretty good about our trip, but not completely satisfied.  There were two other species that I knew were present, but we hadn't seen yet.  If we found only one of these, I decided that I would consider the day a success.

Luckily, the Herp-Gods smiled on us, and it was not long before we found one of the two sought-after species. 

Someone found a Bullsnake (Pituophis catenifer sayi)....my favorite snake in North America....

This one was polite enough for several of the students to get a chance at holding it.  Many of them were shocked that a snake species of this size lives in our region.  Unfortunately, this is another species that has been significantly (and negatively) impacted by the activities of humans.  The reasons run the gamut:  habitat loss is a key factor again....direct killing/persecution by folks afraid of snakes is another (to have such an unreasonable fear of something that you would kill it outright has never made much sense to me).  And...as with the poor Ornate Box Turtle....the Bullsnake has suffered greatly at the hands of collectors.  Unscrupulous "herp-enthusiasts" just can't resist bringing these back to keep in an aquarium....a damn shame, if you ask me.

It was not long after that when I heard more yelling "Doc! There's another big snake over here!".  Again, I yelled "grab it!", while running up towards the student waving his hands in the air. 

Another Bullsnake!

In total, we found five Bullsnakes! 

Even the students that were alittle uncomfortable with snakes, at least sucked it up and held one (even without any chiding from me! :)  ).

With every capture and encounter, they became more confident and several even grabbed the snakes without help.

All-in-all, I'd say it was a very successfull trip!  Probably one of the most important achievements of this trip is that those who are afraid of snakes (hopefully) see them in a more positive light.  Snakes really aren't scary....heck, they aren't even aggressive, if you leave them be.  Every snake we encountered on this trip first made a mad-dash for escape...it was only after we started to "mess" with them that any took a defensive posture.   Some never even did that. 

It also exposes younger folks to rare herps, and helps them understand the importance of conserving all components of an ecosystem....not just the furry/feathery charismatic ones....

I look forward to bringing a new crop of students on the trip again next year!