The Amphibian Foundation's Frog Blog

We had another successful October field trip to Constitution Lakes (Dekalb County, GA), this time with the Master Herpetologist students. Constitution Lakes is a fantastic urban site for an autumn field survey. Future Master Herpetologists, Anthony, and myself shared pictures for this article. #DipnetSelfie We found many adult Marbled Salamanders, but not as many nests as last year. Perhaps we haven't had enough rain yet in Atlanta to trigger a full migration. Most of the Fall 2019 Master Herpetologist group — geared up and ready for amphibian surveys. Alan had the distinction of finding the first Marbled Salamander of the survey. Marbled Salamanders ( Ambystoma opacum ) are a common species throughout most of their range, but not in Atlanta, where they were undoubtedly once common. Now, our community science surveys have only detected one population of the species in metro Atlanta, and that is at Constitution Lakes. For more information on Marbled Salamanders...

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 ...

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...

Two of or biggest and most popular programs for adults have kicked off in 2019, and we have been having a great time with these opportunities. Our Critters & Cabernet program, which technically started at the Atlanta Science Festival in 2018, relaunched again this March and now continues on the first Friday of every month. C & C is a great way to learn about these fascinating animals in a relaxed environment — with wine! Our informal slogan for Critters & Cabernet is ' Reptiles and alcohol — What could go wrong ?' For April's offering we discussed Frogs , and had a wonderful time exploring and even handling some amazing species of frogs. Next month — Salamanders ! For more information, click here. During the Atlanta Science Festival, we offered an introduction to Critters and Cabernet, focusing on many different species of reptile and amphibian. Pictured here is a Corn Snake Crystal Mandica, Co-Founder of the Amphibian Foundation is also an instr...