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VA Press: Searching For Salamanders

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Posted by: W von Papineäu at Wed Aug 8 06:39:52 2007  [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by W von Papineäu ]  
   

DAILY NEWS RECORD (Harrisonburg, Virginia) 31 July 07 Searching For Salamanders (Hannah Northey)
Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Shenandoah National Park, a mystery lies in the shadows of stony cliffs and sinkholes.
That mystery is a 3- to 4-inch-long salamander that hasn’t been found anywhere else in the world — the Shenandoah salamander.
Officials don’t know how many of the salamanders live in the 300-square-mile park, said Gordon Olson, a supervisory biologist with the Shenandoah National Park.
But park officials hope that will soon change.
Jennifer Sevin, a biologist with the Smithsonian Institution, will study the salamanders at the Shenandoah National Park for the next three years to determine their population numbers and come up with a long-term management plan.
She said the health of the salamanders is a reflection of the health of the park’s entire ecosystem, and that amphibians are crucial to our everyday life.
"Amphibians are so important," she said. "They’ve given us antibiotics, painkillers, HIV medication — they’re important to our society."
Sevin said the Shenandoah salamander is one of many amphibians across the globe experiencing such a dramatic decline in their numbers that they face possible extinction.
"Shenandoah salamanders are so sensitive to environmental problems that what happens to their population is a signal for what happens to the world," she said. "They’re canaries in the mine."
Salamanders, resembling lizards, are lungless creatures with slender bodies, short legs and long tails. They have moist skin that they breathe through, making only habitats near water or with swampy conditions suitable.
The Shenandoah salamander was listed as federally endangered in 1989 because of its restricted range, limitations on expansion and potential threats within defined population areas, according to the National Park Service.
Historically, this salamander species has been found at elevations above 3,000 feet on Hawksbill, Stony Man and the Pinnacle mountains.
Although they’re protected within the limits of the park, the salamanders still face many threats, according to the Park Service.
Forest defoliation from infestation of nonnative insects and disease can alter the salamanders’ habitat, because it changes forest vegetation and soil organisms that the salamanders eat. Salamanders eat mites, flies, small beetles, springtails and other invertebrates in the soil.
Hiking, camping and trail maintenance also affect the salamander, according to the Park Service.
But, park officials say, a lack of information about the species may be the biggest concern.
A recovery plan for the salamander prepared by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1994 called for long-term monitoring of the amphibians. But, Sevin said, the monitoring has never been carried out.
Olson, who said there are no estimates of how many Shenandoah salamanders there are, said the national park has wanted to conduct research for at least five years.
"We’ve been hoping and requesting funding for this kind of work for a number of years," he said.
Sevin, who also is working on her thesis at George Mason University, has received funding for her research from the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Park Service.
In May, Sevin began observing the salamanders at 16 sites on Hawksbill and Stony Man mountains. She’ll continue checking the sites through next fall so she can determine the best way to find the salamanders.
Sevin said the salamanders often only come out when it’s raining and dark, which is probably why so little is known about them, she said.
"It’s quite amazing when you go out on a rainy night and see them on the ground," she said. "It’s a different world."
In the fall and spring of 2008, Sevin will study population densities by injecting colored plastic marker material into the limbs of the salamanders she captures, she said.
Later, she’ll be able to shine a black light on the animals and the marked salamanders will glow. She will then compare how many are marked and unmarked to better understand how densely populated the park is.
Sevin will also study to what extent the Shenandoah salamanders have been breeding with red-backed salamanders, a more common but closely related salamander.
She will clip the salamanders’ tails this fall to obtain DNA samples, which will show whether the two species have been interbreeding. The salamanders’ tails will grow back, Sevin said.
The lab work will be done over the winter, she said.
"It’s exciting to work on something so rare and different," Sevin said.
Searching For Salamanders


   

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