Each spring, billions of amphibians, just like millions of college students, decide that it would be a good time for frenetic, uninhibited and potentially dangerous sexual escapades. They emerge from their forest burrows/dorms and, in an effort to overwhelm potential predators and/or parents/local law enforcement, they travel en masse to predetermined locations and go wild.
Could you travel to Ft. Lauderdale and other tropical destinations to try to chaperone unappreciative young people and help them avoid unwise decisions? Sure, but you might instead consider chaperoning eager and unwary amphibians from their forest homes, across dangerous roadways and into vernal pools on rainy Spring nights– an activity guaranteed to be more successful and rewarding.
In the latest episode of the Citizen Science podcast, conservation biologist Brett Amy Thelen explains how to create an Amphibian Crossing Brigade and save thousands of frogs and salamanders from becoming roadkill, without becoming roadkill yourself.
Or, if you’d like to protect amphibians from the warmth and safety of your own home, you can just pledge to avoid driving on roads near forests and bodies of water on rainy Spring nights and, for extra credit, convince your friends, family and strangers in the supermarket checkout line to avoid driving on these roads during rainy nights as well.
Finally, you can also help amphibians (and reptiles, too) by joining Herp Mapper, a citizen science project in which you report on any amphibians and reptiles you happen to see or hear, using a handy mobile phone app. Researchers working to protect the animals use your data to monitor changes in animal populations and behavior.
Learn more and hear from the scientists themselves in our latest podcast.
Projects and websites mentioned in this episode are:
Salamander Crossing Brigades– Help amphibians in southwestern New Hampshire travel safely from their underground forest homes to the vernal pools in which they mate each Spring.
Harris Center for Conservation Education– The Harris Center for Conservation Education sponsors the Salamander Crossing Brigades effort, and also has resources on their website for others who may want to start their own amphibian crossing brigades.
Herp Mapper– Join Herp Mapper and report on the distribution of amphibians and reptiles wherever you go, to help researchers working to protect them.
What The Herp?– Can’t ID a particular amphibian or reptile? Ask What the Herp? to help! You’ll not only be getting helpful info, but you will be helping refine the program’s AI engine.
SciStarter Citizen Science Month– This is a go-to site for everything happening during Citizen Science Month. You’ll want to check it frequently throughout April, since events are being added all the time.
Audio Podcast:
https://citscipod.podbean.com/e/frogs-and-salamanders-need-your-help/
Video Podcast:
https://citscipod.podbean.com/e/frogs-and-salamanders-need-your-help-video/
PODCAST Transcript
Bob Hirshon
Welcome to Citizen Science: Stories of Science We Can Do Together. This episode, learn how you can help protect to Kermit the Frog, Sally the Salamander, and let’s say Axel the Axolotl with your super citizen science skills.
Bob
Hey, citizen science fans. It’s officially spring, when Earth awakens from its long winter slumber and then hits the snooze alarm because it’s still way too dark and cold out there. And yet, there are some critters who just can’t wait. And as soon as we get our first warm rain, frogs and salamanders will open their eyes and stretch their little rubbery legs and poke their noses out of the ground with one thing on their mind: mating. But first, they have to hop or slip-slide down to a nearby body of water. And then they have to find their one, or more, true amphibian love partner, preferably of the same species, and somehow get together despite the fact that they have little stubby limbs, it’s dark and wet and slippery, and there are snakes and wading birds out trying to eat them. And all that would be bad enough, but nowadays, before they even get to the water, they have to cross roads without getting smushed by cars driven by uncaring people who are probably listening to some dumb podcast and not even noticing that they’re committing mass frogicide. Fortunately, few amphibians have a clue of the trials that await them. And I for one will not be telling them because it would only break their spirit. But what we can do is help herpetologists chaperone them; herpetologists like Brett Amy Thelen who directs the Salamander Crossing Brigade in Southern New Hampshire. Hey, Brett, so happy you can join us.
Brett Amy Thelen
Oh, it’s my pleasure. I’m glad to be here.
Bob
This is so great. And I know that your program is local, but I sort of see it as a, an example and an inspiration for things that could go on all over the country. So maybe tell us first off what you do and how you got it so popular in your area? So yeah, where are you? What do you do? And how did it get so popular?
Brett
Yeah, so I’m the science director for the Harris Center for Conservation Education. We are a regional Land Trust and environmental education organization, we work in southwest New Hampshire. And as part of my work with the Harris Center, I coordinate our extremely popular community science program, the Salamander Crossing Brigades. I’ve been coordinating this project since 2007. And this is a project in which we train volunteers to go out during the amphibian migration, which happens on the first warm rainy nights of spring. And we head out to places where amphibians are crossing roads. And we move the animals across the road faster than they can move themselves to help prevent roadkill. And then we also collect some data about these road crossings. When they occur, where they occur, that sort of thing.
Bob
And how do you guys keep from becoming roadkill?
Brett
That is the most important part of our volunteer trainings, I’m so glad you asked. Because that is, in some ways, the the primary reason that we have volunteer trainings each year, so safety is a huge part of our message. Part of that is, is wearing the right stuff. So I tell people to not even consider going out on these nights unless they’re wearing a reflective vest. And they’ve got at least one source of bright light. So a headlamp or flashlight or both. We also train folks to just be highly alert to traffic to step off the road as soon as you hear a car coming, or one coming into view. And also to be mindful if you are doing this as a family that this is not particularly well suited to young, bringing young children out. So it’s really more for elementary school aged kids and up. And then we also encourage folks to maintain a one to one adult to child ratio at all times. And so the primary responsibility of that adult is the child in their care because it can be– it’s a really magical and exciting experience to be, especially for the first time, to see a spotted salamander for the first time, to be out when there are maybe hundreds of animals out and about on the road. And so as you can imagine, it can be pretty hard to wrangle a whole group of excited kids, if you’re just one adult with them. So that’s a big part of our safety message too is really, you know, making it a family affair, bringing out friends, neighbors and kind of doing this together as a group. Yeah. So I’m glad you asked that question because it’s the thing I worry the most about in the in the spring with volunteers.
Bob
Yeah, especially for spreading the word and other people are going out and doing it. That’s the first thing they need to be aware of.
Brett
100%
Bob
Yeah, yeah. And now you get whole towns excited to do this: Do they think you’re crazy at first? “We’re gonna go herd salamanders, c’mon!”
Brett
Yeah, you know, I think the first few years. Now in our area, I think a lot of people have heard of this. And so we don’t sound quite as crazy as we once did. But yeah, it’s– in some of our local towns it has become a real source of pride. People are really proud of our community for coming together and do this, doing this. In Keene, New Hampshire, we actually work with the city now to close two of our crossing sites to vehicles based on the data collected by our volunteers. And then closing the road also makes makes it possible for families and elders and other folks to come out who might not otherwise have felt safe coming out to see the migration. So it’s become a source of pride around here, and many people know about it. I think this year, we will, we will likely train our 2000th volunteer since we started keeping records. And in any any given year, we may have a few 100 folks who go out in our region. And we always welcome people to join our trainings from further afield and take what they’ve learned back to their own communities. So it has to be a local effort because the amphibian migration is so weather dependent. And so it happens at different times in different places. Even in our own region, it is very common, that one town at lower elevations might have amphibian migrations earlier in the season than towns at higher elevations which which hold on to their snow longer. And so it has to kind of be local efforts, watching your local weather and figuring out when to go out and do this. But there are people all over the northeast, for sure. And even further afield than that, that are that are starting to pull together these grassroots efforts. So we also even keep a list on our website of other crossing brigade programs. I’m sure SciStarter has that on your website as well. But we want to help connect volunteers with the places that are closest to them. Because as you can imagine, the goal on these nights is to drive as little as possible, or not at all.
Bob
Yeah, that’s right: “I saved seven salamanders and I killed 32 on the way here.”
Brett
Yeah, exactly. And so I always like to share with people too, that even if rainy– I imagine that most of the listeners of this podcast are are gung ho for going out in all weather conditions they want to show see and interact with animals. And this is an amazing way to do that. It really is a magical world out there. And it’s one that very few of us get to experience because most of the time when it’s 43 degrees and raining we are indoors at home staying warm and dry. And so at some of these salamanders and frogs really only, particularly the spotted salamanders, only come above ground on these few nights a year. The rest of the time, they’re living underground. And so it’s an incredible opportunity to see these animals and to help them but also 45 degree rain is not for everyone and nighttime activity is not for everyone. And so I also remind people that you can help amphibians simply by not driving anywhere on rainy nights in the spring and summer because there will be hundreds or 1000s of amphibians on roads near water bodies on every warm rainy night in the spring and summer. Throughout, certainly throughout the Eastern US.
Bob
And you call 43 degrees a warm night?
Brett
Yeah, exactly.
Bob
That’s New Hampshire, I guess…
Brett
Yeah, we joke about that. It’s warm to a wood frog who has spent all winter frozen solid underground and can actually survive that and kind of hop back to life when when they thaw out. It is certainly, after a few hours out and that you want to bundle up. It is not warm for humans but it is warm to a wood frog or a spring peeper or a spotted salamander.
Bob
Yeah, so what sorts of creatures do you get? I guess you get frogs and salamanders, and do they all kind of come out the same night? Or is there a spring peeper night and then a spotted salamander night and then a frog night?
Brett
That’s a great question. So our kind of big three species in our region are wood frogs, spotted salamanders and spring peepers. We also have Jefferson complex salamanders at some sites. Those are a less common species. And then the warmer it gets and the further we get into the season, the more amphibian diversity is out and about on these nights. So as we get into later in April and May, we might see American toads and gray tree frogs and red back salamanders and two-line salamanders. There’s a whole suite of species that come out later. And they’re not necessarily migrating in the same way that wood frogs and spotted salamanders are migrating to breeding wetlands. Some of them are and some of them aren’t. But in the early spring we get the first migration nights of the year are usually wood frogs, and spring peepers; they are our most cold tolerant. They both overwinter by freezing solid in burrows underneath the forest floor. And so they can kind of spring to life most quickly. And then a little bit later, as it warms up, we start to get the spotted salamanders, which are incredible. They always kind of make people’s jaw drop, because they’re large, they’re eight to 10 inches, they have bright yellow polka dots. And so they’re they’re bigger than most people imagine. They’re brighter than most people imagine. And so they’re out earlier in the season as well, but they cannot survive freezing. And so therefore they have to overwinter deeper under the forest floor, it takes them a little longer to get the message that spring is here. And then, and then kind of the floodgates let loose a little later in the season when it’s really warm. And we get a whole bunch of other species too.
Bob
And what advice do you have for, because I see that we probably need hundreds or 1000s of these because they’re so local. What advice do you have for people who want to start up their own salamander brigade?
Brett
Yeah, we do need local efforts. And I think it’s really helpful to connect with an organization like the Harris Center, your local nature center, or environmental education center, simply because they’re already connected with people who care about nature, and might be able to help organize and get the word out. But you don’t need that; you can also just start with your neighbors and start with the crossing in your community. And so we offer tips on how to find crossings. Basically, it’s a, they’re places typically with water on one side of the road, vernal pools or wetlands, and a forested hillside on the other. That’s typically what we’re looking for. And so I always ask people, think about your town; think about places like that in your town and go check them out on rainy nights and see what’s happening out there. Start by going out there with your reflective vest and flashlights and headlamps. And we have a ton of information at Harris Center.org on our Salamander Crossing Brigades page. And I encourage people to go and use it and take it to your own communities. It doesn’t need to be something that, you you know, you don’t need to live in southwest New Hampshire to at least look at the information we provide and take it with you. So we’ve got data forms, volunteer handbooks, tips for, other tips for starting your own crossing brigade. And we we want that information to be used by whoever is interested in it. So please visit us and and take what you can and bring it home.
Bob
Great. Well, thanks so much.
Brett
Oh, it’s been my pleasure. Thank you so much for spreading the word about spring amphibians. They are a delight.
Bob
All right. Bye. Bye. Thank you.
Brett
Bye.
Bob
Now if you don’t have an amphibian crossing brigade near you, you might try contacting your nearest nature center, environmental organization, or the Department of Natural Resources for your county and see if you can convince them to start one, if amphibian roadkill is a problem in your area. If not, there are other ways you can help scientists help amphibians. For example, Herp Mapper is a citizen science project where you use your mobile phone to report sightings of amphibians as well, as well as reptiles to support an enormous atlas used by herpetologists all over the world. Chris Smith is Director of Public Affairs for Herp Mapper. Hey, Chris, thanks for taking the time to join us.
Chris Smith
Yeah, thanks for having me, Bob.
Bob
Yeah, so Herp Mapper. Well, first off definitions, because I always thought herpetology and herps was reptiles, but you guys do reptiles and amphibians?
Chris
Correct. Yeah. So herpetology actually covers both amphibians and reptiles and so so yeah, we do. We do both, you know, frogs, toads, salamanders, and then snakes, lizards, turtles and crocodilians, and there’s a few other kind of obscure groups that folks probably aren’t familiar with. But, yeah, all amphibians and reptiles.
Bob
And this is the time of year. I was gonna say, you know, right now, you know, the first rains and things at least for amphibians, it’s a very active time, right?
Chris
Yeah, just depends on where you’re located in the world. I’m actually housed here in Minnesota, so it’s pretty cold and snowy, still no activity, but certainly a little further to the south. People are hearing frogs call and salamanders are starting to move. And yes, spring is sprung across a lot of places.
Bob
Yeah. And so. So now it’s probably a good time for us to get people signed up for Herp Mapper. So they can track that. And so so what do you want people to do? What, what’s the purpose of Herp Mapper?
Chris
Yeah, so the purpose really is to collect observational data from across the world. So it’s a global project. And then we get that information and we get it into the hands of conservation and research organizations. And so, you know, amphibians and reptiles face many conservation challenges. And so we try to, you know, bring data collected from a variety of different folks, and put it into a single data repository, and then share it back out with, again, the folks on the ground doing research and conservation to benefit the species.
Bob
Okay, and what do we do to get involved? How do we how do we help?
Chris
It’s as simple as downloading an app or, you know, saving the website in your browser. You just, kind of the the most basic level, you have to take a photo of the individual animal that you’re observing. We want a location and a date. And that’s kind of at the bare minimum, all you need. Certainly, there are a few more data fields that folks can collect as well. If you use the mobile app, it will collect the location for you right automatically right on your device. You can take your photo, or take an audio recording of a frog call, for example, right in the app. But if you’re not wanting to use a mobile device, you can certainly, you know, go out into the field, use your normal camera, or normal audio recording device, come back, sit down at your computer, and log your observations kind of after the fact on your computer as well. So we’re pretty flexible on how we allow folks to contribute observations.
Bob
And you just collect everything any any herp there is? Or do you have different, you know, target species and things with special projects or anything like that?
Chris
Yeah, I mean, we do have some special projects. So turtles being one of the, you see my sign in the background here, we do have quite a few researchers using turtle road-related data. But generally speaking, the Herp Mapper project accepts data for all amphibians and reptiles, whether they’re common species, rare species, or anything in between. We have folks using data to do kind of large scale phenological studies. So the studies of you know, when species are active, and they may be interested in common species in some of those studies. And then we certainly have lots of folks using some rare species data to really inform conservation management of populations, things of that nature. And so really, it’s all welcome. There’s value in common species data, there’s value in value in rare species data and everything in between.
Bob
And how much expertise do people need? I mean, if, if you only know, yeah, it’s a turtle or a tortoise, or that’s a snake or frog? I mean, is that? Can people like that contribute?
Chris
Absolutely, yeah, you can actually submit observations without any species ID at all. Our system isn’t really set up in a way that gives users a lot of direct feedback on IDs later. So if you’re hoping to get like an email that says, you know, what you actually saw was this, our system really isn’t set up to kind of serve that purpose. But yeah, you can, if you can, if you see a little salamander crossing your path somewhere, you don’t know what it is, that’s perfectly fine, you can still take the photo, take the location, the date, and upload that observation with no ID at all. If you, if you know maybe what the genus name is, but you don’t know the exact species, you can upload it, like at that level. And then if for the users who maybe are more familiar with some of their local amphibians, reptiles, and you know exactly what you’re looking at, you know, you can certainly upload it with the full species identification. We do on the back end, have some data, kind of vetting or data approval process. So if you enter stuff that as unknown, it will eventually get identified and then properly sorted, and then it can be shared. But it’s just not an instant feedback process.
Bob
Okay. And just is it a good idea to use, maybe people could use this and iNaturalist, and then maybe, I mean, could that possibly be useful since they have folks that will identify things for you?
Chris
Yeah, I mean, so we do have some automated software that you can use, it’s actually a different website, but we run it is called What the Herp.com. And so you can actually run a photo through this system and it’ll spit out in terms of percentages of, like the probability of a species ID. You know, certainly folks if you’re involved in iNaturalist, using iNaturalist, can use iNaturalist to help with species IDs as well. One thing that Herp Mapper does a little bit different than iNaturalist, and this is one of those kind of pros and cons, depending on one’s perspective, is that we do not provide point location data publicly. And that’s because a lot of our amphibians and reptiles are subject to things like poaching and habitat degradation by people going out and wanting to visit them and see them firsthand. And so we tend to kind of err on the side of protecting specific locations, and only provide those data to the researchers and the conservation agencies directly. And so that’s just one difference. And and so folks may notice that if they kind of compare us with iNaturalist.
Bob
Yeah, no, I mean, it sounds like, especially with animals like these that people do collect, that, that it’s good not to, I mean, maybe these are the sorts of species you don’t want to share on iNaturalist for that very reason. Because someone will come and scoop it up to sell it.
Chris
Yeah, it’s certainly a risk that folks should think about and choose a platform that makes the most sense to their values.
Bob
You know, I know some people are afraid of herps of all sorts, and some have particular fears of either snakes or frogs or something. Do you have any message for people who are who are a little squeamish about about herps?
Chris
Sure, I mean, I think is often the case, we tend to fear what we don’t understand, right. And so community science efforts like Herp Mapper, or iNaturalist or so on and so forth are a great way to kind of start learning about these critters, whether they’re encountered in your backyard at home or on at the local park. And once you start learning a little bit more about them, you start identifying them, you start learning kind of what roles they may play in the ecosystem. And in my experience, I find that once folks kind of take that first baby step, they that a lot of folks do overcome some of those fears or apprehensions that they may have with snakes, especially. Snakes get a bad rap, but they’re really fascinating creatures. They serve valuable ecosystem functions. And really pretty, pretty neat things once you learn about them.
Bob
Great. All right. Well, thanks so much, Chris. Thanks for for sharing with us.
Chris
Thanks for having me.
Bob
Well, if you like amphibians, or would like to learn to like amphibians, this is the most wonderful time of the year. And we’ve got links in the info section of this podcast so you can find and sign up for all of the coolest amphibian citizen science projects. And you may already know that April is Citizen Science Month. There is so much happening that it’s hard to keep up, which is why you should keep your eyes and brain and browser locked on SciStarter.org backslash citizensciencemonth, all written out. We’ve got dozens and dozens of featured projects, live events and activities. We’ve partnered with Iris Flatow, and our friends at Science Friday to produce weekly evening events every Thursday at 8pm Eastern Time. And we have our own SciStarter live events every Tuesday at 2pm Eastern Time. And those go on throughout the year, because here at SciStarter every month is Citizen Science Month. So check out SciStarter.org backslash citizen science month, you’ll see all of these great activities and projects and at least some of them are probably perfect for you, wherever you are, and whatever you like. That’s all we’ve got for you this time. Go out, get wet, have fun. I’m Bob Hirshon. See you next time. This podcast is brought to you each month by SciStarter, where you will find 1000s of citizen science projects, events and tools. It’s all at SciStarter.org. That’s SC I S T A R T E R dot O R G. SciStarter’s founder is Darlene Cavalier. And thanks so much to you, the listener and the citizen scientist for getting involved and making a difference. If you have any ideas you want to share with us or any things you just want to hear on this podcast or you just want to say hi, get in touch with us at info at SciStarter.org. Once again, our email address is info at SciStarter
