Salamander Monitoring Newsletter - November 2018

Greetings!

Thank you for participating in the 2018 salamander monitoring program. It exceeded our expectations with all four properties where we placed salamander boards reporting observations.

We would like to have the opportunity to tell you what we've learned, what's planned for 2019, and hear about your experiences. We've organized an event for December 2nd and the details are below.

Hope to see you there!
Trials and Tribulations

Laying out salamander boards is a great way to figure out where the spring high water mark is.

At the Roehl Wetland Reserve, most of the boards closest to the wetland either disappeared without a trace or floated off to a new location.

Despite this hiccup, the remaining boards delivered!
Where are they now?
"With the advent of freezing temperatures in late autumn and winter, salamanders tunnel deeper into forest soil, sometimes to a depth of a metre, or into well-rotted logs that may never reach freezing temperatures.

Layers of snow insulate against the penetration of colder air and help protect species living at the northern edges of their geographical ranges. During the winter months, salamanders enter a period of inactivity, or torpor, to conserve valuable energy for the next spring’s breeding." - From the Ontario Nature Website
Ready For My Close-up!

Salamanders and newts can be a little tricky to photograph. While some will sit still for a while after the board is flipped, others will take off almost faster than you can realize they were ever there at all! Here are some tips to help you photograph our little amphibious friends:

  • Make sure one of you has a camera, phone or tablet and is bringing it along on your monitoring trip
  • Have your device at the ready before flipping the board
  • Co-ordinate with your partner to time the flipping so you're ready to take a picture immediately

Remember: even a bad photo is better than no photo at all, as my effort above shows. We're not National Geographic, we just want to document what we've found on our properties.
-Meagan
Newsletter Content: Meagan Coughlin & Dorthea Hangaard
Header Image: Dorthea Hangaard
Flooded-out Salamander Board: Dorthea Hangaard
Blue-spotted Salamander: Meagan Coughlin
In a world of environmental paralysis, we get things done