A few notes on responsible herping

I'll be posting about trips I've been on and species I've seen on this blog, but its important to point out everything that goes into a trip that I don't neccesarily want to bore you with in postings.

For starters, you have to have proper permits/licenses. This varies from state to state and from area to area. I'm fortunate enough that most of my trips are with my advisor through a university, and he takes care of all the paperwork. If you're caught doing anything with wildlife without the proper permission, you could face big fines or worse. Remember that at least a portion of the fees you pay for licenses/permits benefits the very wildlife you're trying to see.

Also, you should know what you're seeing. That isn't to say that you should instantly identify a species when you see it, but many species have special conservation status, be it "protected," "threatened," or "endangered," and even so much as detaining their movement for a few seconds of photography might be illegal.

Most importantly, leave an area the way you found it. If you turn over rocks or debris to look for wildlife, be sure to put those structures back EXACTLY the way you found them. Shifting them a few centimeters could completely alter the temperature or moisture regime beneath and may make them unsuitable for whatever might be living there.

There's much more to consider, but those are the basics. Be safe, be responsible, and have fun!

Spring Break 2006

Spring break for my university was 2 weeks ago. I tagged along with my advisor's herpetology class on a herping trip to several spots throughout Texas. Our first stop was a private ranch in the hill country, which just might be my favorite Texas ecoregion. Although, I haven't been to the trans-pecos region yet, but I plan too soon (look for that posting this summer). In the hill country, we saw a lot of herps, including cliff chirping frogs, Texas salamanders, a night snake, a Texas indigo snake, western slimy salamanders, crevice spiny lizards, four-lined skinks, greater earless lizards and much more. Those listed (and/or pictured) are probably the most note-worthy.

Night snake

Cliff chirping frog

Texas salamander

Texas indigo snake

Western slimy salamander

Four-lined skink

Greater earless lizard

From the hill country, we traveled south...way south, into the Rio Grande valley (extreme southern Texas). We visited many places there, inluding Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), Santa Ana NWR, a couple of the Las Palomas Wildlife Management Area (WMA) units, and the Sable Palm Grove Audobon Sanctuary, to name a few. In the valley, we saw more Texas indigo snakes (5 total for the trip, I think), a Ruthven's whipsnake, a Texas horned lizard, Texas blind snake, rosebelly lizards, and many other species. While in the valley, we ventured to the coast to Boca Chica beach where we found keeled earless lizards in the sand dunes.

American alligator

Rio Grande lesser siren

Texas horned lizard

From the valley, we headed northwest a bit to a home-away-from-home, as it were, for me. We spent a couple of days on the Chaparral WMA, where I lived on-site and conducted my masters research for about 7 months over 2 summers. Here we found yet another Texas indigo snake, 8 or 9 western diamondback rattlesnakes, a glossy snake, a longnose snake, Texas banded geckos, a checkered garter snake, flathead snakes, and a bullsnake. A nice stop to round our list off.

Bullsnake

Texas banded gecko

Glossy snake

Western diamondback rattlesnake

Checkered garter snake

Longnose snake

The trip was a blast and I saw several "lifers" (species I had never seen before). I think we ended up with about 38 species total (I didn't list common ones like American bullfrog or red-eared slider). Enjoy the pictures!