Taking Down the Fence

Today the 20th was the final day of our Herpetology project for the year. This means we had to take down the fence of the pitfall traps. The process began by pulling out each pipe. After we pulled out the pipe we laid the fence flat on the ground. Frankie had to pull the fence as far as it could go as well as making it straight so that we could then fold it. We had to make sure that when we folded it, it would stay tight because other wise it would not fit in the trash bag. The way we made sure the fence stayed tight was by holding each end and then lifting it up and folding it over the next section. Once the fence was folded we put it into trash bags.
We used three trash bags on the larger fence and two on the smaller one. Once the fence was in the bag we began to pull the buckets out of the ground. We finally filled in the holes with the dirt around the hole. Finally we carried in all the fences and buckets and shovels. We put them into the back storage room in G209 thus ending the Herpetology 2013 project.

TV Show Troubles

On Tuesday the 18th we filmed our live TV show so that it could be replayed on Hud-TV over the summer. I worked on all the technical stuff such as the green screen, sound, and lighting. We ran into multiple problems along the way. The lighting was spotty that day which caused the green screen to leave a shadow of the presenters on the program. I tried to fix the lighting as much as I could but there was still a slight shadow. We decided to that we would live with the shadow because that was not the important part of the TV-Show. The important part was informing viewers of our project and about the animals we found during the project. The show went on without any other problems and was a big success. I later learned that all I had to do to fix the lighting was turn down a certain setting which would of turned on the light. Despite the shadow the presentation went well. It was very informative and educational so that people will know more about the animals in our ecosystem in the future.

Final Presentation

On Tuedsay June 18, 2013 we concluded our Herpetology 2013 project by making a presentation using the media room; However this was not a simple task. As a group, we had to compile all the data, pictures and knowledge that we picked up over the course of this project. We then took this information and put it into a PowerPoint which touched upon all aspects of the herpetology project including its purpose, history, and parts. Once we had finished our PowerPoint we had our dress rehearsal day. After some technical difficulties in the media room, we had to return to S203 where we practiced our presentation until it moved smoothly. We fixed our PowerPoint as needed, then on Tuesday, headed down to the media room. Before we could start our presentation, Bobby, our media man had to prepare the equipment so that our PowerPoint would be shown behind us. After about 10 minutes of tinkering, and some outside help, we were finally able to do our presentation, and it went extremely well. Everyone knew they're slides, and how to transition between topics and groups. This began the conclusion of our Herpetology project as our school year winds down to its final days.

Turtle and Frog in Captivity

      On Wednesday, June 5th, we found a baby snapping turtle. We decided to keep the snapping turtle in the classroom, so we could show it to the eighth graders, who we wanted to get interested and educated in herpetology. Th first night, the snapping turtle, who was named Kraken, was kept in bucket. The next day, the turtle was looking healthy, and we tried to feed it a piece of a hot dog. The snapping turtle, who should have eaten anything we fed it, because that is what they do, did not bite. That same day, Lucas caught a large bullfrog, who was designated the name Toro. We tried to put Toro and Kracken in separate fish aquariums, which worked for Kraken. The bullfrog, however, wasted all of his energy on getting out of the fish tank, so we had to put him in a less transparent tank. We put him in a giant trash bucket with some water for him to sit in and a rock so he could get out of the water once in a while. We threw about ten crickets into the frog's tank and a small fish. We also put several fish and a few crickets into the Kracken's tank. The next day, all of the crickets and fish were eaten by the bull frog and turtle. Every day that we held the animals, we had to change the water, which smelled of dead crickets, fish and turtle and frog feces. When we left the the animals at school for the weekend, we had to leave a lot of crickets and fish in their tanks, enough to last them three days. When we came back on Monday the frog most of the crickets and fish were gone and the bullfrog looked good. The turtle, however, looked a little unhealthy. Sadly, we had to release the Kracken into the wild. We put him on the side of a pond, and he quickly swam away, never to be seen again. We kept Toro until that Wednesday to so we could show him to the eighth graders. We found ten green frogs the day before the presentation which we could also show the eighth graders. Following the presentation, we released all of the animals into the natural habitats, where they could live and reproduce. After the presentation to the eighth graders, there has been no business in the S203 animal hotel.

This is Toro, the bullfrog we found.

A Digital Struggle

There comes a time in every adventures life where the must settle down and write about his finding. Lest he be forgotten to the ever eroding sands of time. This is why we have decided to write this blog. The importance of our finding is unmatched by any other research currently going on, and to let this info fall into the void of the forgotten would be a sin in it of itself. Here we record the history of the #2013 HHS Herpetology Project and its classified findings. This is the story of the blood, sweat, and tears the members put into recording the vital information obtained from this project.

We have chosen blogger as our means of recording the main events of our mission due to its easy accessibility and the number of people we can reach by making use of the internet. Just in case of a cataclysmic event and we lose the internet, we have also been keeping a more detailed log of our daily activities in a journal. There is a variety of information in there because each member took turns writing the passages, so you can see the different opinions of the each of the highly trained operatives who took part in this operation. If you are reading this and you can find that journal, you will find the greatest treasure ever to be bestowed upon mankind, other than El Dorado.






































This treasure is know as knowledge...knowledge about turtles!

Proper Amphibian Wrangling

As it has been pointed out by my fellow classmate, Franky, I am the "Resident Woodsman" of our crew. I have been nicknamed such because I am not afraid to get down and dirty and handle all the critters we catch. I have grown up and still live right next to a swamp. I spent many of my days as a child catching frogs and turtles near my house, so I suppose one could say I have experience. The most important thing to remember when handling a frog or a turtle is that you are in charge and that unless you throw it on the ground or squeeze it ridiculously hard it is going to be fine. Confidence is key in critter wrangling, as it is in life. When there is a frog on the ground the first thing you should do is cover its eyes with one hand a hold its head, pressing down a little to keep it in place. Immediately after move you hand to get a firm grasp around the body so that it cannot move, but not too tight so that it slips out of your hand or get hurt.

Grabbing the Legs

As quickly as you can get a grip on the legs by wrapping your thumb and pointer finger around the waist of the frog and then using the rest of you fingers to stretch out and grasp the legs firmly. Get a good grip, you aren't going to hurt them. This may take a few tries, they are tricky creatures. Once you have one caught, try petting its stomach with your finger, it calms most frogs down relatively well. Good luck wranglers!!

A Tamed Beast, Named Toro

Woodchuck Incident

A dead Woodchuck was found in the back fields of Hudson High School by the loading dock on the morning of Tuesday May 28, 2013 at roughly 7:30 AM. The body was discovered hidden in the grass by Mr. Antunes while he was on his morning commute to work, along with 2 sets of prints shown in the pictures

below. The prints were isolated to a small area because of a lack of dirt, but they tell the tale of a struggle. Investigators say that the woodchuck was surprised by the assailant and attempted to flee, but was quickly taken, likely by the neck and carried away. There are a few suspects presently, mainly a Coyote or a dog. Authority on the incident Mr. Cody Grimm believes that the crime was done by a large dog who got out of the house late at night during memorial day weekend. He says that because the woodchuck was not eaten, the dog was likely trying to play, and didn't realize that it had killed the woodchuck. The woodchuck has been identified, but its identity has not yet been released to protect the family of the individual. We will continue to report information as it comes in. From the herpetology news room, we thank you for tuning in.

The Serpent of the Mire

In bucket the fifth, there lurks a mysterious creature, that terrifies one AP Chemistry student, Bobby Rhodes. This creature is a serpent, a snake, to be exact, a garter snake. Garter snakes are non-poisonous snakes that are very common in New England and is the state reptile of Massachusetts. They do bite, but their main form of defense towards predators is the smell of their urine, which we learned about first hand while handling the snake we found.

The Serpent

Once we captured the serpent we took a head to tail measurement. This proved a little more difficult than we had expected because a snake does not lay in a straight line, so we had to hold the snake by its head and tail to keep it straight, while not pulling too hard as to not hurt it.

Measuring The Garter Snake

To this day, the snake we found lives under the fifth bucket of our pitfall traps and goes in and out of the bucket through the drainage hole in the bottom of the bucket.

Canoe Day

Canoe Day

On the second Tuesday in June we decided that it was time to make the epic trek for the evasive snapping turtle that has eluded our grasp, even with the aid of a radio transmitter. Our class has come within just a few yards of nabbing him for measurements, but every time we think we are close we always wound up against the Felis Catus' greatest enemy...water. Thankfully man, with its years of evolution and dense brain, has been able to solve the problem of not being able to traverse the intimidating hydrogen bonds that give water its properties. There are now several ways to float about the water without getting wet, one of which is a craft known as a canoe.

A grant has allowed our class to purchase these canoes in order to aid in our research. In order to use these canoes we had to receive training in how to properly operate them. We received said training earlier in the year, so we were ready to get out there and go when it came time to track down the vicious snapper. The first task was to use the radio transmitter to establish three points of reference in order to triangulate the snappers position. Our fleet of canoes moved into formation with the head canoe containing our field analyst(Johnny) in the center. He was to be protected from the dangers of open water by the two attack ships, containing Lucas, Frankie, Cody, and Bobby.

The canoe with Frankie and Lucas was clearly superior, as was proven in a race through the tall grass. Their win won them and the class the prize that has been sought after by every 9-5 worker for over 100 years, Dunkin' Donuts. Following their great victory, the fleet moved on to the position of the snapper, but as we approached the position the admiral of the fleet(PVAC) pointed out the water was too high to be able to traverse in our specially designed Water Adapted Durably Ergonomic Reinforced Suspenders(W.A.D.E.R.S.) The turtle had escaped our grasp again...but this was just a small battle in the war and we still had our secret weapon. It was time to release our resident woodsman. Some say he only knows 2 facts about ducks, and that 4th kidney is wanted in Eastern-Europe...for espionage  He's called the Cody. Further details on operation Squatch coming as mission progresses.

Classified Image

On June 12th our class gave a presentation to an eighth grade science class about Herpetology. The presentation began with a quick snack of munchkins to draw in their attention. We then moved into our slide show and talked about all the different animals we have captured since we began the project. The kids seemed quite engaged in the project especially when we allowed them to hold the Musk Turtle and the green frogs. The kids rushed to the front of the room to get a chance to hold one of the animals we had captured in the days leading up to the presentation. After the kids had a chance to hold the animals we took them on a quick field trip outside to show them the pitfall traps. We did a quick demonstration of how they worked and  then went to see if there were any animals in the traps that day. We caught a few green frogs that day. After that the science class had to go and work on their own project and we went off in our own direction to take care off our recently caught frogs. This was the end of our presentation for the day.

How to Catch a Frog

How to Catch a Frog

1. First, you must find a frog in a pond, preferably towards the edge of a pond so that it can be easily reached by the net.
2. Second, with a net in hand you must approach the frog slowly without making much noise. Keep in mind the length of your net, and stay as far as possible while still being in range of your net. If you get too close, you will startle the frog and it will jump away.
3. Third, once you are at the correct distance, prepare the net, by turning it so that the extra netting sits above the opening, and to the side. This will be a crucial step, so make sure that the net hangs off the opening to the side.
4. Fourth, lift the net directly above the frog and swing it down as fast as you can. Be careful not to hurt the frog in this step, but if done correctly, the frog will jump to the side to avoid the net, and get stuck because of the way we prepared it in step 3. The frog will go up and to the side, into the net, and will hang of the side of the opening.
5. Five, turn the net so that it is normal again. There will be plenty of plants along with the frog, so reach in and sift through the net until you find and remove the frog.

Congratulations on catching your frog!

The Bullfrog

This is our bullfrog! Note the lack of lateral lines on its back.

On Wednesday we caught our very first bullfrog! Before this, we had really only been finding green frogs with regularity. We were able to catch it in a net, which was another first. We had not managed to catch any frogs in the nets before. Bullfrogs are easily distinguishable from green frogs due to a couple differences in coloring and characteristics. Easiest to see is the lack of black, lateral lines on the back of the frog, as can be seen in the image above. Instead, the back of the frog is a solid green. The bullfrog also has large webbing in its back feet, unlike the green frog.

This is the webbed foot of a bullfrog!

Bullfrogs also tend to be a bit larger in size than most green frogs. The head-to-tail size of the bullfrog we caught was 8.8 cm and the tibia size was 3.9 cm. The weight of the frog was 83.8 g. 

This is us measuring the head-to-tail length of the bullfrog.

Afterward, we had a little fun with the frog. We laid it down on its back and rubbed its belly, putting the frog to "sleep." 

We put the frog to "sleep."

I hope that we are able to find more bullfrogs in the future!

-Johnny

Nesting Habits and Procedures of the Common Snapping Turtle

The Common Snapping Turtle tends to begin nesting around June because male snapping turtles will seek out mates upon reentering their territory after hibernation. Pregnant females will exit the body of water where they live and migrate in search of a sunny area with loose dirt or sand that will allow them to dig a deep enough hole to lay her eggs. Once the mother turtle finds a suitable spot she will remain stationary while she uses her back legs to dig a large hole in the ground. After she can no longer reach more dirt with her legs to make the hole bigger, she begins laying eggs.



 The Common Snapping Turtle can lay dozens of eggs; we found a nest with a whopping 46 eggs! The mother turtle will return to the body of water that she left at the beginning of her journey and exhibit no further maternal actions toward the eggs. The eggs themselves are white spheres, which makes differentiating them from the oval shaped painted turtle eggs a very easy task. They take around 18 weeks to hatch, but that number fluctuates depending on temperature, as does the gender of the hatchlings. Ever since the building of the school, the common snapping turtle has had to adapt to the new surroundings because the school was built on the snapper's nesting grounds. With the new school in place the snappers have had to search beyond the sunny area where they usually lay their eggs because that is now an access road for the loading dock. The snappers have wondered to areas where there is loose dirt so they can easily dig the nest for their eggs. So far we have seen that turtles have designated the area around the traps we put up, the shot-put area, and the loose dirt by the loading dock as good nesting grounds because the dirt has not been packed down by construction.

 The downfall of these new areas is that they lack the cover of vegetation that the land had before the school was built, so it is easier for predators to find the nests and eat the eggs. We have been having a problem with weasels that have been beating us to the nests and leaving behind the shells of disappointment for us to find.

The Painted Turtles

The Painted Turtles

The orange markings on a painted turtle are clearly visible on the
 legs of the turtle.

So far in our Herpetology project, we have found more painted turtles - three - than any other kind of turtle. Painted turtles are easily identifiable by the orange markings on their skin and shell, and their full protective bottom shell. Some turtles have only a partial bottom shell, but the painted turtle has a full one.

The full bottom shell of a painted turtle is clearly shown above.

Another, rather unfortunate, characteristic of painted turtles is that they have a tendency to release urine when they are scared (i.e., when we pick them up).
So far, we have found all of our painted turtles around our pitfall trap system. They can sometimes be hard to spot due to their tendency to blend in with their surroundings.

This is where we found out first painted turtle! It's in the center of the image.

This first turtle had a carapace length of 13 cm and a carapace width of 9.8 cm. We tried to weigh it, but it was too large for our scale! Our second painted turtle, found a few days later, had a carapace length of 15.3 cm. and a carapace width of 13.2 cm. Its mass was 392.8 grams.

Here's our second painted turtle trying to bite us!

Finally, the third painted turtle had a shell length of 13.6 cm., a width of 11 cm., and a mass of 377.4 grams. In addition to weighing and measuring the turtles, we also mark their shells so that we can identify them if we catch them again. We just file a couple of the little ridges that the turtle has on its shell.

A turtle is having its shell marked with a triangular file.

We've caught so many turtles, I hope we catch a snapping turtle next!

-Johnny

A Warm Blooded Encounter

Dig-Dug The Mole

Dig-Dug Searches for a place to burrow...

... Unsuccessfully.

On May, 23 we found this little critter, a mole! Much different from our usual pitfall trap catch, it was a warm blooded mammal known as a mole. This little guy can barely see and relies mostly on his tremendous sense of smell, ability to feel tiny vibrations, and sense of a downward direction to find its way through the earth. Somehow it ended up in our pitfall trap with no way to escape down as it normally would. When we released it onto the ground it crawled around all over the place searching for a good place to burrow.

After watching it try to find a spot to burrow for a few minutes we remembered a nearby patch of soft earth that it would easily be able to burrow into and brought it over to it.

So we gave him a hand!

And away he went!

 It quickly burrowed into the hillside of loose dirt and thankfully it has avoided the traps since then and we have not seen it since that day. I hope that it is still well and alive in the ground around our pitfall traps, but not caught in them.

  

Musk Turtle

On Tuesday, May 21, 2013 we found a musk turtle. This turtle was located on the black pitfall trap fence between the last and second to last bucket. This was a hot, sunny morning and it had rained the day before. This turtle was relatively small and round. It weighed 149.22 grams; its carapace width was 6.8 centimeters, and its carapace length was 9.5 centimeters. It was black and did not have any colorful markings. Because it was a musk turtle, it released a bad scent when we scared it. The bottom of the turtle, called a plastron had white marks. We marked the turtle for future identification by using a file to put marks into its external scutes, which are the areas at the edge of the turtle's shell separated by lines. Each scute is labeled as a,b,c, etc going clockwise around the turtle, starting from the front. We put marks in scutes G, and H.  After identifying and marking the turtle, we put it back on the fence where we found it, and set out to find other turtles.

This is the bottom of the turtle.

Here, we are measuring the carapace length of the turtle.

Toads, Green Frogs, & Turtles

On Tuesday, May 21st, seven of the eight students, myself included, went outside to check the pitfall traps we had made the previous week. We found our first frog in almost a week in the first trap! We were very pleased that we would finally have an animal to measure and observe. After checking all the traps, we had one Green Frog and two American Toads. We took various measurements of the animals such as their width and weight. We then released the animals as close as we could to where we found them. We then turned our attention  to a large Green Frog in the pond near the pitfall traps. Cody used the longest net to try to catch the frog, but his first attempt was unsuccessful. The frog resurfaced, but our second attempt was also a failure. That is when I heard a rustling sound to my right, and it turned out to be a small Musk Turtle trying to climb up the trash bag wall. We then proceeded to take measurements of the turtle and released it back where we found it. We then began walking to the shot-put circle, but only after ten seconds of walking we encountered a larger Painted Turtle. We originally thought the turtle was dead due to the large amount of mosquitoes around it. After it began moving its head, we picked it up and brought it to the field to take measurements. 

Can you find the Tree Frog?

"A tree frog is any frog that spends a major portion of its lifespan in trees, known as an arboreal state. Several lineages of frogs among the Neobatrachia have given rise to tree frogs, even though they are not closely related to each other" -Wikipedia
Fun Facts about a Red-Eyed Tree Frog: 

• Their diet is carnivorous.
• They live about 5 years.
• When startled, it flashes its brightly colored body parts.
• They sleep during the day stuck to the bottom of leaves with their eyes closed and brightly colored body parts covered.

Fun Facts and red-eyed tree frog from: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/amphibians/red-eyed-tree-frog/
Hidden tree frog pic from: http://www.wrappinaboutreptiles.com/fun_facts_page.htm

Tracking Turtles

     On Wednesday May 15, 2013 we went outside with a radio transmitter to try to find turtles that had been previously tagged. We walked along the Assabet River behind Hudson High School with a radio, trying to find a snapping turtle. At first we were unsuccessful in finding a turtle. We walked for about an hour, constantly adjusting the radio waves' frequency to detect the tag on the turtle. There were some deceptive birds that chirped to make us think that the radio was beeping but it never actually did. However, when we got to a street bridge that crosses the river, we had some luck. We scanned the river and adjusted the frequency one last time when we heard the quiet beeping of the radio. We knew that there was a turtle in the area so we set out to find it. The beeping was loudest and most frequent when the radio was pointed at a patch of grass in the river, right in front of the bridge, so we determined the turtle was in that area. Unfortunately, we could not access the turtle because we could not actually go into the river. However, it was a successful endeavor because now we know that the radio transmitter works and that the batteries in the turtle's tag are still alive. We also know a general location of where at least one turtle spends some time, so we know where we can look for turtles in the future.

Building the Traps

Building the Traps

Herpetology Project 2013

So far in our project, we have only accomplished the most important step: building the traps that catch the frogs and other animals that we can then analyze. The pitfall traps are designed to catch the amphibians humanely and without injuring them. The basic concept is to build a fence, partly buried in the ground, with pits spaced 10 meters apart. The frogs are unable to go under the fence, and when they walk down the fence looking for a way across, they fall in the pits, which are deep enough to prevent the frogs from jumping out.

This is the fence we built! A pit can be seen in the center of the picture.

To build a fence like this one, the first step is to dig the pits, spaced 10 meters apart. The pits should be about 2 1/2 - 3 feet deep. Next, dig a trench that connects all of the pits. The base of the fence, which can be constructed from basically any material(our fence was constructed of plastic tarps and PVC pipe), is buried in this trench. Hammer the fence poles into the ground to keep it upright, and your pitfall trap system is complete! We have already met success with the traps, catching both and American toad and a green frog.

This is the green frog we caught!

I wonder what else we will catch?

-Johnny

DAY 1 - New Blog

Welcome to our blog for this year's herpetology project. Can't wait to see all of the great blog posts.