Species of the Month

This week we're taking a break from understanding energy sources and trying to understand a species. When you think about lizards, you probably imagine them basking under the hot desert sun or on a tropical island. If that's the case, then June's Species of the Month will surprise you by showing up in some unexpected locations. Say hello to the eastern fence lizard.

Eastern fence lizard (University of Georgia)

Scientific name: Sceloporus undulatus

Kingdom: Animalia (animals)

Class: Reptilia (reptiles)

Order: Squamata (scaled reptiles)

Range: New York south to Florida, west to the Rockies

Habitat: Grasslands and forest edges

Lifespan: Unknown, thought to be four years average

Diet: Insects, some plant matter

Predators: Birds, snakes, other larger lizards, domestic dogs and cats

Conservation Status: No special protection

Other Information: The eastern fence lizard is a widespread reptile. They live under rocks and logs
where they have protection overnight. Cold-blooded, they bask in sunlight during the day to raise their
body temperatures. Normally, they bask close to where they call home. They are little guys. Adults
only grow as long as 19 centimeters. Color varies, but they are usually gray or brown. Males have a
blue patch on the throat and belly. A male will display the throat patch to attract a mate or warn other
males away from his territory. He will also do head bobs and push ups if threatened.
Fence lizard eggs grow after hatching. Mating season begins in April, with hatching taking place from
June to September. The eggs doubles in size between laying and hatching, and babies are half the size
of adults when they emerge. There is no parental care.

Male lizard showing blue throat and belly (University of California, Berkeley)

This week's information is courtesy of the Animal Diversity Web at University of Michigan. Next week
we return to our energy series with a look at wind power.

Road Trip Adventure- Behind the Scenes

Last week I shared pictures, video, and information about the horseshoe crab. This week we take a behind the scenes look at the adventure. While the trip to Delaware wasn’t as tedious as a National Geographic photo shoot (they might spend three months to get that one shot you see in the magazine), it wasn’t the figurative walk on the beach that it literally appeared to be.

Welcome to the second smallest state!
(Delaware Business Times)

The biggest question mark I had to deal with was weather. The forecast was for thunderstorms. Fortunately my daughter and I dodged those. I wasn’t about to head to the beach during a thunderstorm. Your happiness, gentle reader, is not worth my life. It was cloudy that night, and I wasn’t sure if it was the moon itself or just the tides associated with the moon that draws the crabs to the beach. Apparently, it’s the tides and not moonlight. 

Rain was our closest companion during the weekend. I was hoping to get daylight shots at noon’s high tide the Saturday we were there. However, threatening clouds were on the horizon and with more thunderstorms in the forecast I decided to bag it. We managed to get another trip to the beach at low tide, where a few stragglers were going back out to sea. There were also a few dead crabs below the wrack line, some birds, and a shopping bag full of garbage. Saturday night rain kept me awake and at some point during the night the tent decided it was too wet to hold the water back any longer.

And they were right (Pintrest)

Camping in the rain can be a miserable experience, but our second closest companion, at least while we were in camp, was the mosquitoes. They helped me set up the tent by encouraging me to do it faster. They even managed to get inside. They got in the car. They visited me in the bathroom. They were undaunted by the rain. I learned how foolish I was to believe that they lost their taste for me over the years. East Coast mosquitoes will surely beat West Coast mosquitoes in a street fight any day.

Business was booming at the 24 hour buffet
(End Times News)

With rain, you are sure to have humidity. My hair is too short to get frizzy, but that wouldn’t bother me. The bother was driving into camp, to the beach, and back to camp without being able to see anything. Nothing I did could stop the humidity from fogging up the windshield. If it wasn’t the foggy windshield on Friday night it was the actually foggy fog. How humid was it? I had a box of graham crackers (we had raw smores because of the rain) stored in my cooler (no ice) and the cardboard still managed to get soggy, despite the outside (and inside) of the cooler staying out of the rain. I’ve never seen humidity like it.

All this complaining is to remind you that fieldwork has its discomforts. Even though all I did this time was observation, we do this in all conditions. Always keeping safety in mind, research and fieldwork go on despite nasty weather. Obviously, sometimes conditions make it impossible to get the job done. I can’t count frog eggs in the rain because the surface ripples make it impossible to see any eggs below. I won’t be pulling invasive weeds when there’s a foot of snow on the ground. Sometimes conditions interfere with natural processes we’re trying to observe. Insects won’t be around much on a windy day. A cool, cloudy day will keep reptiles away. So we wait. And that’s why your National Geographic picture is three months in the making.

Salamanders and Newts

As promised, our species comparison series returns to the world of herps. A few weeks ago we looked at turtles, tortoises, and terrapins, which are all reptiles. This week we’ll explore the differences between salamanders and newts, which are both amphibians.

Before going into the differences between salamanders and newts, let’s have a look at the differences between reptiles and amphibians. Both are cold blooded and can spend time on land or in water. Reptiles, however, spend more time on land generally. They breathe exclusively with lungs (some turtles are the exception, because nature hates following a hard rule). Amphibians spend more time in the water, generally, and can breathe air on the surface or below water, using their smooth, moist skin to exchange gases in many cases. Reptiles have dry, scaly skin that doesn’t breathe. Reptiles lay soft eggs on land, while amphibians prefer to lay their eggs in the water, usually in a gelatinous mass.

Rough-skinned newt

 Just as tortoises and terrapins are turtles but not all turtles are tortoises or terrapins, all newts are salamanders but not all salamanders are newts. Newts are a type of salamanders that prefer to spend most of their time living on land. Some lay eggs in the water, some on land. Some go through stages of development from larva to adult, some are just miniature versions of adults. Some salamanders have lungs, some have gills, some have both, and some have neither. There is much variety in the salamander’s order, so spotting the differences between salamanders and newts is difficult. A general rule is to look at the skin. Frog-like skin, which is smooth and wet, is a salamander. Toad-like skin, dry and warty, is a newt.

Northwestern salamander (USFWS)

A third critter thrown into the mix, also a member of the salamander order, is the siren. It looks and behaves like the salamander and newt, but instead of having four legs it only has two. Sirens have flat tails that they use for swimming, moving it from side to side like a fish does.

Greater siren (University of Georgia)

Are you confused by all this? Don’t worry about. I’m learning right along with you. Fortunately for you, all these technical terms and differences are merely to satisfy your curiosity; for me it’s a career choice. We’ll wrap up this series next week and leave the natural world for the labs and halls of scholarly debate. This week’s information comes from the SanDiego Zoo.