Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been posting here for I don't even know how long (though I don't yet consider myself a KS old-timer!) and only on rare occasions post any of my photos when they might be of assistance. I decided tonight that this should change and am kicking things off with an official "these are some of my photos" thread. I apologize, but I'm about to post quite a large number of photos and not all of them are snakes. Actually, I'm guessing only about half of the photos are snakes. I figured I might as well include some of the others so you all know that my interests are a little broader than just snakes though they are certainly my primary interest

All of these photos are of wild animals I've found in the past 365 days mostly in VT but some farther south. My girlfriend also appears in a few of the photos and I'm trying to decide if she should count as a "wild animal" or not. I guess I better not say...
Bonus points for anybody who knows what type of frog is in the last two shots or the species of either of the two bats

It's probably too late now but watch out for some of the dead amphibian shots, they are kind of gross. Any dead or injured animals in that last post were found on roads in VT. Yes, it is gross and disturbing, but I feel it is important for people to see images like that because it is the only way many will ever know how serious of a problem roads can be for wildlife. For every snake killed intentionally by an ignorant human with a shovel, dozens more are killed on the sides of roads and most of those deaths are accidents. Most road mortalities are indiscriminate -- a car kills snakes just as easily as it kills frogs, turtles, squirrels, etc. I have nearly a hundred photos of recently killed reptiles and amphibians and one day plan on making a slideshow based around those photos as part of an educational presentation on the importance of habitat connectivity and the possible positive impacts of certain types of over and underpasses designed specifically for wildlife.

It's nearly impossible for a large 6-foot plus snake to cross a busy road without getting killed. Roads also are "good" places for a snake to bask and are thus attracted to them. Roads separate breeding habitat from the foraging habitat of many amphibians and during their breeding seasons sometimes thousands are killed on small stretches of road every night. Female turtles often wander far from water to lay their eggs -- I cannot tell you how many times I've found gravid turtles dead on roads. This not only removes breeding adults from a population, but it skews the sex ratio and reduces the effective population even more than the total population. In New York a head start program has been established by incubating eggs from dead Diamond-backed Terrapins found on roads. The list goes on...

Yes,..it's very disheartening to think of(and see) all the animals that get killed on roads, as well as many other ways that are directly attributed to humans.....

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

yeah... I was almost beginning to think I had become desensitized to stuff like that until last week when I found an adult female ratnake in a freshly-cut field. It had been cut clean in half and while the rear end was thrashing around aimlessly ,the front and very much still alive end was trying desperately to escape to the tree line. As you've eluded to before, sometimes there just isn't a brick when you need one

That was actually not a pointless death though. The fields at that spot are managed by the nature conservancy and in order to keep the area open and in good snake habitat they hire a local farmer to cut the field and leave the hay (raking and bailing the hay make the actual cut look SAFE for a snake). On that day we were doing a survey to compare the snake and frog mortalities between a regular cut and a 6-inch cut and it looks as though the 6-inch cut does reduce mower kill rates. In the future these fields may be cut at 6 inches instead of the regular nearly-at-ground level.

Yeah, I guess six inches is a little better than almost ground level, but it's too bad that ratsnake and some other animals didn't get the six inch cut. It got the "slashed by 50%" one instead!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

That's a great medley of photos of some really nice animals!

Thanks for posting those!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Great shots. I'd have to say Northern Mink Frog, Rana septentrionalis, but I have no clue on the bats.
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Joe

good call with the frogs It's not a species many people in the United States often have an opportunity to see.

Okay, I have to ask: How did you get the bird shots? The raptor shots are amazing!
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0.1 Banded California kingsnake - Zorro
1.0 Betta fish - Billy
0.0.3 White Cloud Fish
1.0 RES - Chopstick
0.1 Australian Shepherd - Jet
2.1 Domestic Shorthair Mix Cats - Robert Bob & Pirate

The adult birds, including the hawk and owls, were captured using a tool called a mist net. Mist nets are a pretty standard tool used for capturing birds for the purpose of placing identifying bands on their legs. Basically the mist net is a long net about 10-feet high made out of very thin strands of string or twine. The birds can't actually see the net until it is too late for them to alter their course and they flight right into them, getting their legs, wings, or head tangled [actually, if you're not careful, it's pretty easy to get yourself all tangles up as well!]. Getting them out takes quite a bit of patience but usually no harm comes to the birds. For general bird banding most people just place the nets in places they think birds are likely to pass through but for species-specific banding you generally place speakers near the net and play the bird's breeding call to draw them in.

Here are some shots I just pulled off random places on the internet of set mist nets and a closeup of a bird caught in one. Head on, they really are difficult to see:

siiiiick
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1.1 pueblan milks
1.1 alb corn
1.1 anerythristic corn
1.1 gray rat
0.1 yellow rat
1.1 gret plains (emory) rats
1.1 texas rats
1.1 florida kingsnakes
1.1 eastern kings
1.2 alb florida kings
0.1 flame phase goini
0.1 goini
0.1 snow king