Tag: Amphibians

Wildlife Biologist Celebrated for Inspiring Non-Scientists of All Ages to Become Passionate Conservationists

by Lindsay McNamara, Communications Manager

A powerful force behind the conservation of wildlife in New Jersey, MacKenzie Hall began working as a wildlife biologist for Conserve Wildlife Foundation in 2004 and was been involved with projects spanning bat colonies, migrating amphibians, and grassland birds. What is most remarkable about Ms. Hall, however, is her ability to motivate the public to participate in these projects, inspiring non-scientists of all ages to become passionate conservationists.

 
Ms. Hall has supported and participated in bat research projects throughout the state. She took part in colony monitoring, mist-netting, and banding, working through many nights in order to benefit these enormously important species. In 2012, she launched a “Bats in Buildings” program offering New Jersey homeowners bat-friendly “eviction” resources, as well as free bat houses for displaced colonies.

 

In addition to her involvement in bat conservation, Ms. Hall is a passionate advocate for New Jersey’s amphibians and reptiles. She worked to address amphibian mortality on state roads, teaming up with working groups to help species of frogs and salamanders safely cross roads during their spring breeding season. She successfully coordinated amphibian surveys throughout the state, a task requiring road closures, the cooperation of multiple municipalities, the recruitment and training of volunteers, and the willingness to work outdoors overnight on cold, rainy nights!

 
In her work to implement conservation programs such as the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program, Ms. Hall’s keen understanding of the process and positive attitude turned many farmers and landowners alike into dedicated environmental stewards.

 

Join us to honor MacKenzie and the two other 2015 Women & Wildlife Award Winners on Wednesday, October 28 beginning at 6pm. Purchase events tickets and find more information.

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We asked MacKenzie a few questions about what working in wildlife conservation means to her:

 

What motivates you to get out of bed each morning and go to work?

So much to do!  Somehow the day always ends with more on the to-do list than it started with.  Working statewide means a lot of ground to cover, a lot of emails to answer, and a lot of people to convince that the bats in their eaves aren’t looking to murder their family.  Every day is a different adventure, even if I never leave my desk.  Days that I actually get to spend up-close with animals or see our work making a difference – like finding kestrel eggs in a nest box we put up for them, or cupping a beautiful salamander in my hands and moving her to the safe side of the road – those are the little moments of glory that make it all feel so simple.  It’s also really great to work with people who look at the world the same way I do, and who I can keep learning from.

 

What do you find most challenging about your profession?

Same answer as the last one, I think.  This is work that’s never done.  We rarely get to clap our hands together and say, “Ok, that species is saved, who’s next?”  Most of our successes take years and years, a lot of educating others, a lot of help from others, and endurance.

 

Name one thing you can’t live without.

Sunshine…summertime.  These crisp October days feel clean and refreshing, but I don’t want to close the windows and put a coat on!  I want to bask in the sun like a turtle.  I want sand that’s almost too hot to stand on.  I want to run around in a tank top and pick berries and stay out in the balmy night in flip-flops, with frogs screaming from the trees.

 

What interests you the most about New Jersey’s wildlife?

Most of them live at or near some interface with the human world, because so much of New Jersey is covered in our footprints.  We’ve got falcons on skyscrapers and shorebirds raising their chicks between houses and beach umbrellas.  And yah, colonies of bats living up in the eaves.  There’s a sense of sharing, because we’re all trying to make the most of our little spaces.  We have so many chances to connect and commune with wildlife on common ground, if we just pay attention and learn to share nice.

 

Name one piece of advice you would give to someone who wants to change the world.

Figure out what you want the change to look like, and start with you.  Be a positive example for the people who are close to you, and they’ll help you pass it forward.  Don’t get too frustrated by the ones who don’t.

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Please join us on Wednesday, October 28, 2015, from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. at Duke Farms in Hillsborough, New Jersey to honor the contributions that MacKenzie Hall, Tanya Oznowich, and Pat Hamilton have made to wildlife in New Jersey.

 

This year’s very special event will feature keynote speaker Governor Christine Todd Whitman. The event will also celebrate CWF’s past decade of honoring women for their success in protecting, managing, restoring, and raising awareness for the Garden State’s endangered and threatened wildlife species.

 

Learn more:

• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Women & Wildlife Awards: Past Honorees

 

Lindsay McNamara is the Communications Manager for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.

Conserve Wildlife Foundation Volunteers Survey For New Jersey Frog and Toads

by Larissa Smith, Wildlife Biologist/Volunteer Manager

Each spring, our Calling Amphibian Monitoring Project (CAMP) volunteers drive along a fifteen mile route after dusk, stopping at ten established stops along the route. They are hoping to hear the calls of some of New Jersey’s 17 species of frogs and toads. If they are lucky they’ll get to hear a chorus of several different species, sometimes so loud it’s almost deafening. Other times, they strain to hear a lone call from far away and many times they only hear the passing cars. It takes a dedicated volunteer to spend the time surveying and hearing only a few or no calls. But even the negative data is important, amphibians face many threats in New Jersey and establishing a long term database is key to learning about the population.

 

This season, twenty-one routes were surveyed and 16 of the 17 New Jersey frog and toad species were heard. The Eastern Spadefoot Frog was not heard this season. This year, the American Green Treefrog was recorded on one route in Salem County. This species of frog was first discovered in New Jersey in June 2011 in Salem County. The Northern Spring Peeper was heard on 19 out of the 21 routes, with Green Frogs heard on 15 routes and Northern Gray Treefrogs heard on 14 routes.

There are 63 CAMP routes through out New Jersey. Currently 34 routes are available for the 2016 CAMP season. If you are interested in volunteering for the CAMP project, please contact Larissa Smith via email.

 

Learn more:

• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Calling Amphibian Monitoring Project

 

Larissa Smith is the Wildlife Biologist/Volunteer Manager for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.

A Closer Look into the Relationship between Amphibians and Their Habitats

Conserve Wildlife Foundation is excited to celebrate Amphibian Awareness Month during March 2015! Follow us on social media and be sure to check your email (sign up for our list) for weekly stories on the amphibians of the Garden State and our work to protect them. 

By: Kelly Triece, Wildlife Biologist

Amphibians are unique group in the animal kingdom, they have porous skin! This permeable skin allows water and air to pass directly pass into their body without filtering through their stomach.

 
While their permeable skin and soft eggs give amphibians an advantage to take in more oxygen, it also makes them more susceptible to pollutants. Amphibians therefore can serve as “canaries in the coal mine” for water quality. Biologists throughout the world are concerned about the health of amphibians because their health can be linked to the health of the environment they live in.

 

Water pollutants, such as, road salts, pesticides, metals and other sources of runoff from agriculture and cities can have negative effects on overall health and reproduction of these critters. Water quality degradation has been linked to physical malformations in amphibians and may also reduce their ability to fight off pathogens, leading to reduced reproduction and mortality. These issues linked with water quality and amphibians may also have a larger implication of the health of the ecosystem, including human health.

 
Therefore, it is important that populations of amphibians and other wildlife are carefully monitored and protected. In order to protect our water quality in and around our homes it is important to limit sidewalk salts, garden fertilizers and pesticides as much as possible. Make sure to follow label instructions and application rates. Amphibians are also beneficial as they eat insects, including agricultural pests and serve as food to other wildlife. They have also been an important role in research and medicine. Each day, consider taking small steps in your own house to help the amphibians that call the Garden State home.

 

Learn more:

• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Amphibian Conservation Work

 

Kelly Triece is a Wildlife Biologist for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.

 

 

Road Closures Help Amphibians Migrate to Vernal Pools to Breed

Conserve Wildlife Foundation is excited to celebrate Amphibian Awareness Month during March 2015! Follow us on social media and be sure to check your email (sign up for our list) for weekly stories on the amphibians of the Garden State and our work to protect them. 

By: Lindsay McNamara, Communications Coordinator

 

On the night of March 14, Conserve Wildlife Foundation Communications Coordinator Lindsay McNamara attended the first closure of Beekman Road this season. Beekman Road, in East Brunswick, New Jersey, is closed to traffic about two or three nights for six to twelve hours each spring by Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission (Friends of EBEC). Friends of EBEC organizes these road closures to maintain local biodiversity.

 

In the woods on either side of Beekman Road, vernal pool habitat exists. Vernal pools are temporary woodland ponds that fill with water during the winter and spring and dry out in the summer. These vernal pools are extremely important for a number of amphibians in the area. Spotted salamanders, wood frogs, green frogs, spring peepers, Fowlers toads and chorus frogs all rely on the vernal pools for breeding.

 

Some amphibians, like spotted salamanders and wood frogs are entirely dependent on the vernal pools for breeding. They leave their winter hibernation spots in upland forests and migrate (often in large groups) to the vernal pools. Research suggests that these species follow the same migratory paths each year, often traveling distances of as much as 1,000 feet from their hibernation spots.

 

At the vernal pool, mating occurs, eggs are deposited by the females, and the adults leave the habitat and venture to the surrounding woods. The adults spend their summer in these wooded areas before slowly retreating back to their winter hibernation areas, and the natural cycle begins again.

 

Unfortunately, the migrating amphibians need to cross Beekman Road to get from their hibernating spots to their vernal pool breeding grounds. Road kills during this journey significantly reduce salamander and frog populations and can lead to local extinctions at breeding ponds.

 

Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission has worked together with a number of partners to close Beekman Road to traffic during nights when amphibian migration is extremely likely. These road closures help protect migrating salamanders and frogs as they move across Beekman Road to their breeding vernal pools.

 

Friends of EBEC consider a number of variables before they decided to close the road. A wide range of factors trigger salamander migration including the amount and timing of rainfall, the date, the temperature of the air, the temperature of the ground, the availability of open water on the vernal pools, the depth the salamanders are migrating, soil moisture and many others. Interestingly, studies have shown that males typically migrate first and arrive at the vernal pools before the females. It seems females need a higher average air temperature to stimulate their movement than the males.

 

Volunteers are encouraged to come on these rainy nights to help the amphibians cross the road. Bring your friends, your family and don’t forget a flashlight, to the next road closure of the season! Updates are posted on the Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission’s blog.

 

These road closures are a great way to protect local biodiversity and educate New Jersey residents about wildlife in their state. Conserve Wildlife Foundation, in partnership with the New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program, lead a number of Amphibian Crossing volunteer programs across New Jersey. Join us!

 

Learn more:

• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Amphibian Crossing Project
• Friends of EBEC: About the Salamander Migration
• Friends of EBEC: Vernal Pool Overview
• Report an Endangered or Threatened Species found in a vernal pool

 

Lindsay McNamara is the Communications Coordinator for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.

Emerging Disease Known to Affect Amphibians, Reptiles and Fish

Conserve Wildlife Foundation is excited to celebrate Amphibian Awareness Month during March 2015! Follow us on social media and be sure to check your email (sign up for our list) for weekly stories on the amphibians of the Garden State and our work to protect them. 

By: Kelly Triece, Wildlife Biologist

 

While human diseases such as Ebola and the zombie apocalypse virus have made recent headlines in the news and on our TV screens, there is a virus that is also affecting our local amphibian population. This emerging disease known as Ranavirus, has become increasingly common in the U.S., including New Jersey.

 

This virus has been known to affect amphibians, reptiles and fish. It is of great concern because it can kill nearly 100% of amphibian larvae (tadpoles) within just a few days once a population is infected. Ranavirus causes skin ulcerations and organ hemorrhaging, and is especially threatening to larvae, specifically wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus). Transmission of the disease can be spread direct contact, waterborne exposure, contaminated soil, and ingestion of infected tissues.

 

While the virus has been known to cause major die-offs all over the world, little information on the timing, extent, and frequency of the disease outbreaks is known in the Mid-Atlantic U.S.. In order to gain more information, a multi-state survey has been underway since 2013. The project is led by Scott Smith of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Conserve Wildlife Foundation staff biologists are doing a large amount of New Jersey’s field surveillance with support from the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP).

As part of this project, in 2013, breeding ponds throughout the New Jersey were sampled for prevalence of Ranavirus. Thirty larvae from each study pond were captured by dip net, physically examined, euthanized, and preserved for screening and other analyses at the labs of Montclair State University and/or the National Wildlife Health Center. Results determined that about half of these ponds tested positive for Ranavirus.

 

In 2014, Ranavirus-positive sites were re-sampled for presence of the disease. At about 25% of the sites, disease symptoms and/or dead tadpoles were found, though no mass die-offs were observed. Investigations are still ongoing to further determine the impact of Ranavirus on amphibian populations as well as potential environmental factors that may be associated with the disease.

 

Learn more:

• Amphibian Disease

 

Kelly Triece is a Wildlife Biologist for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.

Studying the New Jersey Endangered Eastern Tiger Salamander

Conserve Wildlife Foundation is excited to celebrate Amphibian Awareness Month during March 2015! Follow us on social media and be sure to check your email (sign up for our list) for weekly stories on the amphibians of the Garden State and our work to protect them. 

By: Larissa Smith, Wildlife Biologist/Volunteer Manager

This week, Conserve Wildlife Foundation, New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists and dedicated trained volunteers surveyed a known Eastern Tiger Salamander breeding vernal pool complex. Tiger Salamanders emerge from their underground burrows in the early winter to breed and lay egg masses in the pools. By March, the adults have returned to their burrows.

 

Biologists and volunteers go out to pools during the winter months to survey for egg masses to determine if the pools are being used by Tiger Salamanders. The cold winter made getting out to pools difficult due to the ice cover, so now that it is warming up we hoped to still be able to find egg masses that hadn’t yet hatched.

 

One hundred sixty egg masses were found in the largest pool, some the of eggs had already hatched but others were still intact. Tiger Salamander larvae was seen along with the larvae of the Marbled Salamander. Vernal pools are breeding grounds for many species which is why it is so important to protect them.

 

 

In New Jersey, there are only 15 known Tiger Salamander breeding pools in the southern most part of the state. Tiger Salamanders themselves are targeted by collectors for the pet trade which is why their breeding locations are kept a secret. Their habitat is declining due to habitat loss and fragmentation, development, pollution, changes in hydrology, and climate change.

 

To see what biologists are doing to protect them visit:

• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Online Field Guide: Eastern Tiger Salamander
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Blog: Protecting Eastern Tiger Salamanders in New Jersey
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Blog: Photo from the Field
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Blog: Planting for Butterflies

Larissa Smith is a Wildlife Biologist and the Volunteer Manager for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.

“Chucks” and Occasional Groans of New Species Caught on Video by Former CWF Biologist

Conserve Wildlife Foundation is excited to celebrate Amphibian Awareness Month during March 2015! Follow us on social media and be sure to check your email (sign up for our list) for weekly stories on the amphibians of the Garden State and our work to protect them. 

By: Lindsay McNamara, Communications Coordinator

Remember back in late October of 2014 when word quickly spread about a new frog species in New Jersey? The Atlantic Coast leopard frog is mint-gray to light olive green with medium to dark spots. The frog has been found along the Delaware River and Bayshore, along Atlantic Ocean coastline, in the Meadowlands and on Staten Island.

 

Did you know this Jersey frog groans and makes cough-like sounds or “chucks” rather than typical croaking sounds? Listen closely while you watch the video, the sounds originally caught on film by former Conserve Wildlife Foundation biologist Brian Zarate, below to hear the Atlantic Coast leopard frog’s distinctive call:

 

 

Although other leopard frog species, like the southern leopard frog and northern leopard frog, have been recognized and found in New Jersey’s wetlands for some time, researchers only recently gained the ability to use technology such as DNA and digital bioacoustic analysis to present thorough evidence that the Atlantic Coast leopard frog was a unique species.

 

In March 2003, CWF Biologist Brian Zarate and other scientists volunteered to survey salamanders at the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Morris County, New Jersey. As the biologists gathered in the parking lot, they heard an unfamiliar sounding frog. The group captured the frog and took photos, reasoning that it wasn’t the common southern leopard frog, and that might be a northern leopard frog released into the wild.

 

Zarate, now a zoologist with the state’s Division of Fish and Wildlife, moved on to other projects, but in 2007 he checked in on the strange frogs. He heard them near the same Great Swamp parking lot. He posted a video of the frog on YouTube.

 

Four years later, the group returned to Great Swamp, and found the strange frog there and in several other places too. Through the partnership of Zarate, Jeremy Feinberg, a Rutgers doctoral candidate, and Eric Kiviat, a collaborator with Hudsonia Ltd., and the implementation of new technology, it was proven that the strange frog was indeed a different species of leopard frog, the Atlantic Coast leopard frog.

 

Starting this spring, Endangered & Nongame Species Program biologists, including Zarate, will begin a two-year project mapping the potential range of the Atlantic Coast leopard frog. Biologists and volunteers alike will comb New Jersey’s wetlands in search of evidence of the frog and collect data on its habitat preferences.

 

Looking to report a possible sighting of an Atlantic Coast Leopard Frog? Contact Brian Zarate at brian.zarate@dep.state.nj.us.

 

Learn more:

• NorthJersey.com: Researchers Hope to Learn More about “New” Species of Frog Found in the Meadowlands
• New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife: Atlantic Coast Leopard Frog
• Philly.com: In New Jersey, a Newly Discovered Species of Frog
• NorthJersey.com: New Species of Frog Found in the Meadowlands

 

Lindsay McNamara is the Communications Coordinator for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.

 

Results of the 2011 CAMP season

by Larissa Smith, Biologist & Volunteer Manager

Each spring Calling Amphibian Monitoring Project (CAMP) volunteers take time out of their busy lives to drive  the dark roads of NJ and listen for the calls of NJ’s amphibians.  Not only do these volunteers have to find the time to schedule the three surveys, each in a specific four week period, they need to meet the protocol for the surveys. This means meeting the minimum temperature requirement, which is not the easiest in March, as well as other weather protocol.  Once they find a perfect night to survey the volunteers follow a 15-mile route with 10 stops. They stop and listen for 5 minutes at each stop and record the amphibians they hear.  This can be a frustrating experience depending upon the route.  Noise from cars can make surveying difficult and some of the  routes in more developed areas record no amphibians calling on many of the stops.  Meanwhile volunteers on the less developed routes can often hear a chorus of frogs and toads that can be almost deafening.

I’d like to thank all the dedicated CAMP volunteers for finding the time to survey this season.

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Survey Results

Thirty-one volunteers surveyed 33 routes.  Each route is to be surveyed three times during the spring in March, April & June.  A total of 77 surveys were conducted.  All 16 species of NJ frogs and toads were detected on the surveys.  The species that was heard on the most routes was the Northern Spring Peeper which was heard on 31 routes out of 33 that were surveyed. The second most detected species was the Green Frog heard on 22 routes out of the 33 surveyed.  The least detected species was the Spade Foot Toad which was only heard on one route.

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Would you like to help next year?

• Fourteen routes are available for the 2012 season.

• For more information  on volunteering email Larissa Smith.

 

give us a brake!

By MacKenzie Hall, CWF Private Lands Biologist

Over the past two weeks in New Jersey, the hills have awakened! This is the time of year when a quiet resurgence of frogs, salamanders, and toads takes place as the ground finally thaws, releasing them from their subterranean slumbers. They’ve spent nearly half a year in hibernation, and the amphibians are anxious to begin the serious business of breeding!

The earliest amphibians to head above ground are the ones that breed in temporary springtime (vernal) pools. In north Jersey these include the spotted salamander, jefferson salamander, wood frog, and the endangered blue-spotted salamander. The females emerge full of eggs…as many as 2,000 per frog and around 200 per salamander…and a lot is riding on those eggs. They are the next generation. They are our algae- and insect-eaters. They are food for other animals like garter snakes, thrushes, and bears; members of the web of life.

Helping Frogs and Salamaders Cross the Road

In areas where roads divide the woods from the water, traffic can take a huge toll on these amphibians every year. We’re doing what we can to identify amphibian road-crossing “hot spots” and to help our small, slow, slimy friends make it safely to their destinations.

Across most of NJ, the 2010 amphibian migration began on Friday, March 12th, with the first post-snowmelt rain storm of the season. The nor’easter came in early on Friday and

pummelled us with chilly rain until Monday the 15th…while we humans were holed up in our houses, those frogs & salamanders were celebrating the weather they’d been waiting for.

At one high-density crossing site in northern Warren County, we worked in teams of 5-10 people throughout Friday night to usher amphibians across the road and record what we saw (this project has been active since 2002, when the Conserve Wildlife Foundation, NJ’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program, and NJ Audubon Society partnered to create the volunteer-based effort). Over the course of 9 hours, we tallied more than 1,800 amphibians! The procession included 405 spotted salamanders, 644 wood frogs, and 742 spring peepers, with a few other species in the mix. A total of 59 vehicles passed through during that time; by reasonable estimate as many as a quarter or more of those road-crossing amphibians might not have made it without our help.

Ten of us braved the whipping storm on Saturday, March 13th, to again chaperone amphibians across the road. We stayed for a few hours (about 7:00-10:00 pm, to cover peak traffic time) and counted nearly 400 more amphibians. The vast majority of them were spring peepers, cute little tree frogs only an inch or so long. Despite the storm – with flood warnings and 40 mph wind gusts – people were still on the roads, and 27 vehicles traveled through our corridor during the 3-hour rescue survey.

After the storm finally passed, we sun-loving people got a sweeeeeeet reprieve with 6 days of bright skies and basking-quality temperatures in the 60s & 70s F. I just didn’t even know what to do with myself, I was so excited (…shorts? flip flops? laying in the grass? happiness overload!!!). The point is, whatever snow had been left in far northern NJ, and whatever ground was still frozen in the hills, wasn’t anymore.

Volunteers Count Our slimy friends

So as the next rain storm rolled in on Monday, March 22nd, another round of amphibians were ready to move. Our “drive-around” survey volunteers in Sussex, Passaic, and northern Warren & Morris Counties all reported big amphibian migrations in their areas and collected data that will help us identify the spots that warrant protection – whether in the form of rescue surveys, road closures, or an attempt at installing amphibian culverts. At our Warren County rescue site, one hardy & heroic volunteer offered to check things out around dark, and ended up staying until 1:30 in the morning when he found that amphibians were again moving in mass (you’re awesome, George!!). He tallied around 600 more amphibians, including 154 spotted salamanders, 56 American toads, countless peepers, a handful of four-toed salamanders, and even a brown snake! All of the 67 wood frogs he saw were moving away from the wetlands – their breeding and egg-laying were complete.

Amphibians will continue to be present on the wet roads all spring and summer. You can help keep them safe by limiting your driving on rainy nights and by keeping a watchful eye when you are on the road in those “froggy” conditions.

If you know of a spot where amphibians cross the road in large numbers, or if you’d like to volunteer for our project next year, please email MacKenzie Hall.

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