The Amphibian Foundation's Frog Blog

Congratulations to the Summer 2019 class of Master Herpetologists! Here we are at Sweetwater Creek State Park for our 'reptile' field trip (we found amphibians too). (L-R: Kevin, Ryan, DJ, Cassie, Shaundon, Erin (TA), Erin, Jennifer, Jessica, Brandon, Stephen, me, Anthony, Carol, Phillip, Michaela, and Sarah) Another semester of the Master Herpetologist program just came to a close, and we certified a group of talented Master Herpetologists. This course has been an exceptional experience for me, and a lot of fun — a great way to get to know other critter enthusiasts and advocates in the area. This semester, we also we lucky enough to have esteemed guest lecturers like John Jensen from GA DNR (now retired) introducing the course, giving a background of the reptiles and amphibians of Georgia, as well as state policies and regulations, Grover Brown from the University of Southern Mississippi talking about — turtles, of course, and Dr. Chris Jenkins of the Orianne Society ...

We are pleased to announce the completion of an 8'x6'x3' rainchamber in the classroom of the Amphibian Foundation. This multi-faceted enclosure will allow us to breed rare and endangered frogs from the tropics and sub-tropics — even species from high elevations. A rainchamber is an enclosure where weather and climactic patterns can be simulated. Every parameter is controllable and can be tailored to whatever focal species is inhabiting it. The enclosure has sunrise and sunset, a fully controlled temperature down to the mid 50's, a stream setting for species that breed in riparian zones, plus rain, fog, and mist. The vast majority of the supplies and equipment were donated by Zilla , a sponsor of the Amphibian Foundation. The rainchamber was designed to accommodate many species from the tropics and subtropics and provides suitable nesting sites for just about any frog species. Whether they breed aquatically, terrestrially, on leaves over water, in bromeliads...

By   Jessie Kissinger Read the Popular Mechanics article here.

This weekend, we embarked on the Amphibian Field Trip with this summer semester's Master Herpetologist Program, and we did really well! Especially considering that a hot summer day in Atlanta is not typically the best conditions in which to find amphibians. For the Amphibian Field Trips, we go to Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve in Dekalb County, which is one of my favorite places to look for amphibians in metro Atlanta. It is also a repatriation site of ours for Spotted Salamanders ( Ambsytoma maculatum ) where the data suggests we have successfully reintroduced the species, which hadn't been seen on the preserve in 20 years. Unfortunately, we didn't find any on Saturday, but the summer is a terrible time to look for them. We did, however, conduct a 2 hour field survey of the property. Future Master Herpetologist, Barb (left) and Emma a Summer Intern at AF met before the field trip to conduct a 'stream clean-up of the creek at Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve. They r...