Two weeks down and four more to go. We have continued with our snake, turtle, and botanical work at the station. Mario has been out with students teaching them about tree identification and running some transects along the cerro to see what the effect of elevation has on the plant community. We've captured two fer-de-lance (Bothrops asper), two cat-eyed snakes (Leptodeira septentrionalis), [read more] |
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Students from Fleming College's Ecosystem Management Program travel to Costa Rica. This year we visited the station from April 11th to April 22nd. We worked with turtles, birds, snakes, and had plenty of time to explore the area. Watch this video to see some of the sights the crew enjoyed this year. Learn more about our activities by following the blogs link.
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Amphibians are excellent indicators of ecosystem health. They are sensitive to pollutants and disturbance due to the extremely permeable nature of their skin. Furthermore, amphibians are associated with water. The quality of Ontario’s aquatic and semi-aquatic ecosystems is of concern. Amphibian monitoring is a key aspect of ecological assessment of wetlands, marshes, swamps, ponds, rivers and lakes. Furthermore, many amphibian species are an integral part of woodland ecosystems throughout the province of Ontario. For example, the biomass of red-backed salamanders in a typical mixed deciduous forest in Ontario exceeds that of the entire bird population during peak breeding season in that same forest. 
Amphibians and reptiles represent a significant proportion of Ontario's protected species. On a global scale, their status and conservation is a high priority. Their sensitivity to disturbance, specialized ecological needs, and diverse ecological roles make them excellent candidates for monitoring ecosystem health. However, the monitoring programs currently in place may be improved greatly through slight changes in protocol. 
The 2012 spring field season wrapped up on June 27th with our final visit to Queen Elizabeth II Provincial Park. The lizard in the image to the left is one of two females we encountered with a nest of eggs. These lizards actually remain with their eggs to help ensure hatching success. We've worked incredibly hard this spring to ensure that we completed surveys of all sites in both parks each week. We accomplished this by taking two days to survey Kawartha Highlands sites and two days to survey Queen Elizabeth II. After all was said and done, we visited each site seven times and logged over 600 skink field records. Our data set will provide more insight into the population size, habitat preferences, and morphological variation in this species. The vdeo below provides a look at some of the animals we enountered on our travels including a few side trips to areas outside our study sites. 
Reptiles are typically shy, inconspicuous animals that few people take notice of. As such, declining populations have gone unnoticed by the majority of people involved in conservation in Ontario. The last ten years has seen a significant shift in focus with reptiles being brought to the forefront. In 1991, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada listed only four reptile species native to Ontario. As of 2010, one species, the Timber Rattlesnake, is extirpated and 21 are listed as of special concern, protected, threatened or endangered. (COSEWIC, 2009; Endangered Species Act, 2007; Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act, 2007; Oldham, 2003) 
