The Amphibian Foundation's Frog Blog

I had a wonderful time talking about scientific illustration today. The illustration workshop was a lot of fun, and some great work was done by the audience from specimens (alcoholic and skeletal) ... We also brought in a few live critters to draw from. Kavarna is a wonderful place for scientific engagement. The Amphibian exhibition of illustrations will be open for one more week, so please stop by if you would like to see the impressive collection of illustrations, pottery and photography. Anthony and 'Blinkie' the Breaded Dragon were both hits. Illustration can be very exciting when you are working from live specimens! A great Argentine Horned Frog drawn from markers Tim drew the skull and dorsal plate of an Argentine Horned Frog, Ceratophrys ornata Alison drew from the skull of an African Bullfrog, Pyxicephalus adspersus Aaron, one of the wonderful ASF volunteers (photo by Marc Merlin) It was a very interactive event! (photo by Marc ...

Chelsea Thomas, one of our dedicated interns working with culturing our invertebrates and live food, gave an amazing talk on the benefits of insects as human food. The Atlanta Science Tavern lecture, presented to a full house at Java Vino was captivating as evidenced by the array of enthusiastic questions presented by the audience and the 'bug buffet' Chelsea provided after her talk. She really hit it out of the park with her knowledge, enthusiasm and presentation of the material.

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A male Sachatamia albomaculata , the White Spotted Glass Frog guarding its eggs I was honored to be asked to give a lecture last night at the Garden for "Dinner in the Garden' ... There were 120 people in attendance, and I wanted to cover  'Behind the Scenes' information to the audience for each of the six amphibian exhibits we have in the Fuqua Conservatory lobby. I also wanted to update the audience on the achievements of our Amphibian Conservation Program over the past year or so — the new initiatives we have begun, and the successes of the Gopher Frog Head-Starting program. Recently, I was watching a documentary with my son, Anthony entitled: The Secret Life of Predators. In one of the episodes called 'Stealth', it shows some excellent footage of a male glass frog defending its eggs from predatory wasps. As I was describing this egg guarding behavior of Glass Frogs in my talk, I thought I should include this excellent footage. I am glad I did! By the ...

An amazing photo of a female Wood Frog by my new friend, Lisa Powers. Females are generally reddish in color, particularly during their breeding season. One of the first signs of spring — or at least the ones I look for — are the Wood Frogs. Where I am from in Massachusetts, Wood Frogs brave the ice and snow to make it to their vernal ponds to breed every year. I can recall many times when I am out at night in the spring—freezing! ... and these little frogs aren't complaining (and they can't even produce their own body heat!) — they are just making their way to the breeding site. In Georgia, the Wood Frogs are out right now, calling and laying eggs in ephemeral pools (and occasionally the edges of permanent wetlands) Wood Frogs typically lay all their eggs in one place, so if you find one clutch, you have probably found them all. When laid, they are about the size and shape of a tennis ball or baseball, but quickly swell up with water and become much larger. Here is a ...

This is the third year I have had the opportunity to draw the graphic for the annual SEPARC (Southeast Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation) Conference. 2014 is the Year of the Salamander , and this year the featured critter is the Mudpuppy , Necturus maculosus. For more information, or to register for the conference, please click here . This year, I will be giving a workshop on scientifically illustrating reptiles and amphibians geared towards the not necessarily so artistic.

A friend of mine (Jay Patton) snapped this photo at the beginning of the talk. On the table in front of me is a collection of specimens (skeletal and alcoholic) that I have used for illustration including this Indigo Snake book. On July 18th, I had the privilege of discussing the biology and illustration of the Eastern Indigo Snake ( Drymarchon couperi ) . This is a book, authored by Chris Jenkins of the Orianne Society, that I have been illustrating for the past few months and will most likely be published next year. Illustrating this book has givien me the rare opportunity to become intimate with indigo snake biology, ecology and conservation and I had an incredible experience sharing this information with the Science Café here at the Garden.  For more information, click below: http://www.meetup.com/AtlantaScienceTavern/events/128587622/

Dante and I were able to attend the 35th International Herpetological Symposium in Maryland last week. Dante is a long time contributor, and this was my first time at IHS. We both gave presentations highlighting our conservation efforts at the Garden, and Dante was also the banquet keynote speaker, where he gave a visually captivating presentation highlighting a couple of decades of his work high up in tree canopies — where one needs to go if they would like to encounter frogs that never come to the ground. Tom Crutchfield and Dante after the IHS banquet It was a fantastic meeting, and I know we are both looking forward to the 36th next year in New Orleans!