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limestone barrens and one european settler from the early 1800 s even made reference to an agave desert in the adams county region once the european settlers killed and pushed the native americans out of this region the human set fires in the prairies and forests of this region ceased and became a thing of the past as the 1900 s approached the people living in this region allowed the forest which had been all but clearcut in the mid 1800 s to come back the remaining limestone barrens of adams county that had not been developed or otherwise destroyed began experiencing the effects of natural succession red cedars and tuliptrees which had previously been kept at bay by the fires the native americans had set for thousands of years began pushing their way into the barrens as many of these barrens became forested the false aloe found itself dying out in ohio nowadays this species is found in only a few of the protected barrens which are managed with prescribed burns sadly a recent study found that many of the remaining populations of false aloe in adams county are reproductively isolated and inbred this will only lead to a further decrease in numbers over the next century as the seeds of inbred false aloe tend not to thrive at its current state the future of the false aloe in ohio seems rather grim moving aside from the doom and gloom to something more upbeat here is a recently hatched eastern fence lizard sceloporus undulatus that alayna found hiding under a loose rock learning that ohio has lizards may come as a surprise to many but ohio is indeed home to 5 species eastern fence lizard common five lined skink broad headed skink little brown skink and the non native common wall lizard the eastern fence lizard belongs to the genus sceloporus which are collectively known as the spiny lizards the eastern fence lizard is the only spiny lizard that can be found in ohio where it inhabits the southern and southeastern portions of the state alayna tokash master s student in ecology and evolutionary biology at ohio university studies the tiny eastern fence lizard as it perches on olivia brooks s undergraduate majoring in wildlife and conservation biology at ohio university thumb eastern fence lizards begin mating as early as late april here in ohio and the first round of eggs begin hatching in june the individual we found probably hatched out in either june or july although eastern fence lizards can live 3 4 years most don t make it past their first year due to depredation or other such life ending circumstances hopefully this individual makes it past the initial first year as chances of survivorship greatly increases in year two if you want to see what a grown up eastern fence lizard looks like take a peek back at my previous eastern fence lizards post only an hour later i came across another baby lizard that was hanging out in a patch of forest between two of the pocket prairies this is a recently hatched common five lined skink plestiodon fasciatus the five lined skink is the most widespread and common lizard in ohio but isn t commonly seen due to its secretive nature five lined skinks can be incredibly skittish and they will often dart up a tree under a log or under the leaf litter upon seeing a human or other potential threat approach the five lined skink along with most other species of lizards has another line of defense in addition to great evasion skills the five lined skink is able to detach its tail in times of danger if a predator gets too close or if a predator grabs onto the skink s tail the skink is able to willingly detach its tail at one of the several breakage points along the tail when the tail becomes detached it begins to wildly thrash about which if all goes according to plan will surprise and distract the predator giving enough time for the skink to run away the five lined skink that i caught had already used this defense earlier in the summer as can be told by the healing stub of a tail amazingly five lined skinks and other tail dropping lizards are able to regrow their tail over time the catch they aren t able to regrow the bones in the tail and are only able to grow a rod of cartilage that takes the place of the bones lynx prairie is a great location for five lined skinks the five lined skink exploits edge habitats which are areas where two different types of habitats meet they prefer edge habitats in which a forest meets some sort of disturbed open habitat especially if such an area offers plenty of rock and log objects to bask on and to hide underneath there are copious amounts of edge habitat at lynx prairie offering plenty of appropriate areas for five lined skinks to inhabit one of the most unexpected finds at lynx occurred when alayna flipped a small piece of wood underneath this tiny piece of wood were two long tailed salamanders eurycea longicauda the long tailed salamander was something of a nemesis species of mine for the longest time they can be found throughout ohio except for the northwest quarter of the state they can be relatively common in near streams in moist forests but they tend to hide pretty well under rocks and logs and in crevices in the ground despite looking for them for several years the long tailed salamander evaded me until this year that is this summer i ve seen several long tailed salamanders with these being number 3 and 4 as their name implies the long tailed salamander has an abnormally long tail when compared to other plethodontid lungless salamanders in fact a long tailed salamander s tail makes up approximately 60 of its entire body length visiting lynx prairie always makes for a fantastic day however this trip decided to give me two rather unpleasant surprises somehow while in the cedar barrens i managed to pick up dozens and dozens of tick nymphs in fact i ended up pulling 87 tick nymphs off my body that day and also got 40 chigger bites as well i guess that s the price you have to pay to see neat things posted by kyle brooks at 5 45 pm 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels nature ohio photography parks adams county ohio amphibians botany lizards prairies rare plants reptiles salamanders location edge of appalachia nature preserve 4274 waggoner riffle rd west union oh 45693 usa saturday april 25 2015 the red backed salamander plethodon cinereus i ve been wanting to do a big post on a species of amphibian that is near and dear to my heart for awhile now with the semester coming to an end i ve finally gotten the chance to write it this post is all about the red backed salamander plethodon cinereus my aim is to give a general overview with some interesting detailed bits of this incredibly common species why is it so special to me p cinereus is the first species i ve ever had the chance to do real research on starting back in the fall of 2014 i began a job as an undergrad research assistant at ohio university i work in dr shawn kuchta s lab under maggie hantak one of dr kuchta s ph d students it s been an incredibly fun and incredibly educational experience so far i ll talk more about her research and what i do at the end of this post that aside let s move on to some basics be warned this is going to be a really long post the red backed salamander plethodon cinereus is a terrestrial species of plethodontid salamander as with all other salamanders in the family plethodontidae the red backed is lungless since they lack lungs respiration instead occurs across the skin and the lining of the mouth for these salamanders to breathe correctly they must remain moist so gas can be exchanged freely across the cells in the skin as a result desiccation drying out is a constant threat to this salamander in order to remain moist they must inhabit areas that meet a certain threshold for moisture these salamanders can be found in deciduous forests mainly under rocks and logs where moisture is retained when it is wet enough they will travel throughout the leaf litter on the forest floor in search of food during the summer months when the heat dries out the top layers of the forest floor p cinereus will move into the ground using old worm burrows or possibly making burrows itself p cinereus is an incredibly abundant species in the forests of the northeast part of the us and it can be found in nearly every county here in ohio in fact p cinereus is thought to be the most abundant vertebrate species in the northeast quarter of the us they can reach densities of 2 8 individuals per square meter in good habitats making this species more abundant than birds and mammals combined in addition there is some compelling evidence that the 2 8 individuals per square meter number is actually an underestimate it might be double that number see semlitsch et al 2014 it is important to note that the bulk of a given population of red backed salamanders lives below the surface so trying to accurately estimate a population is difficult when you can only find those individuals who are on the surface see taub 1961 when maggie and i travel to a good location in northern ohio we can normally find at least one individual under every rock or log you flip it s amazing to think that all those individuals we readily find under cover objects represent only a fraction of the individuals actually living in that location the two common morphs of the red backed salamander with the red stripe morph on the right and the lead morph on the left one of the really interesting characteristics about this salamander is its color polymorphism polymorphism is where there are two or more clearly different phenotypes an individual s set of physical traits in a species generally speaking p cinereus exhibits three color morphs first is the red stripe morph pictured above on the right this is by far the most common morph the second most common morph is the lead or lead backed morph pictured above on the left the third morph is the erythristic morph which is very rare the erythristic morph is essentially all red with a creamy white stomach in addition to these three morphs there are several other rare color anomalies iridistic albino leucistic amelanistic and melanistic you can read more about the different color phenotypes in j d moore s paper here as stated previously the red stripe morph is by far the most common especially in ohio there are however many polymorphic populations northern ohio has a relatively high density of polymorphic populations where one can find both the lead and red stripe morph and occasionally the erythristic morph all living together in the same location the ratios between the morphs vary according to each site interestingly there are a few all lead populations in ohio such as the population on south bass island this is not a common occurrence by any means there is an extreme amount of color variation not only between color morphs but also within the morphs and anomalies at some locations we visit the red stripe morphs have a very bright and well defined red stripe at other locations the red stripe is very mottled and dull with high amounts of black across the body on the other side of the coin the leads at some locations are a very dull and subdued black while other locations have very iridescent and beautiful leads like the one pictured above unlike many salamander species p cinereus does not have an aquatic larval stage the entire life cycle is terrestrial and that means we run into many juvenile individuals when in the field and the juveniles are cute extremely cute pictured above is a small yes small adult red stripe individual next to a juvenile lead individual many of the juveniles we find could easily fit on a penny most but not all salamanders lay eggs and this includes the red backed salamander when we measure the salamanders we are able to see the eggs of any pregnant females these eggs can be very pronounced as the photo above shows if you count carefully you can see a total of 8 eggs the white blobby things in the abdomen in the individual above as mentioned earlier while many salamanders have an aquatic larval stage the red backed is completely terrestrial the eggs are laid in a protected area mainly in rotten logs there is a larval stage but this stage happens completely in the egg upon hatching the juveniles are fully developed and essentially a smaller version of the adult how do you tell the sex of a red backed salamander there are a few differences between the two sexes but the easiest way is to look at their heads females have a very round snout males on the other hand have a very broad square like snout which you can see above another feature to look for is the presence of cirri cirri singular cirrus are a fleshy downward extension of the upper lip cirri function as chemoreceptors and the males use these for a multitude of reasons most commonly to sense out a potential mate s pheromones you can see the cirri on the male above they are the two tiny mustache like extensions hanging down on either side of the snout as always you can click on a photo to view a larger version of it one of the incredibly interesting characteristics of salamanders is their ability to regenerate whole limbs and parts of major organs it s a tough world out there and salamanders can lose parts of their body due to predators but also due to fights with larger salamanders red backed salamanders are known for being fiercely territorial and they will defend their territories against many different intruders like the northern ravine salamander spotted salamanders or centipedes occasionally resulting in the loss of limbs the tail is the part that is most often lost like in the individual above when it comes to tails salamanders are like lizards when in a situation with a predator the red backed salamander will wave its tail in an attempt to get the predator to go after that part instead of elsewhere as soon as the predator latches onto the tail the tail pops off giving the salamander time to escape the tail wiggles violently for a short bit to confuse the predator even further in order to hopefully allow a safe escape for the salamander salamanders can regrow legs in only 7 10 weeks but tails take a little long due to their size and how much actually comes off the individual above who was found in the fall probably has a fully regrown tail by now while the red backed salamander is a prey item for many other animals it is still a ferocious predator itself i m currently in the middle of a dietary study that aims to find out if there is a difference in the type of food the red stripe and lead morphs eat the red backed salamander eats a large variety of arthropods although i did find a weird one who ate a mushroom the photos above give you an idea of some of their usual prey items on the far right is their favorite type of food mites there s an incredible diversity of mite species on the forest flood and the salamanders will eat many of them in the center are springtails anot...
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