Search found 205 matches

by Sam Sweet
April 12th, 2017, 7:59 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Treefrog eggs help
Replies: 0
Views: 3439

Treefrog eggs help

A new postdoc here at UCSB is studying the effects of Bd in tadpoles, and so is in need of about 20 clutches worth of freshly-laid Pseudacris regilla eggs. Treefrogs are really done with it at low elevations here, so I agreed to post a request for help on her behalf. If you have a place where they a...
by Sam Sweet
November 19th, 2016, 2:22 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Salamanders.
Replies: 8
Views: 6381

Re: Salamanders.

Really nice collection of photos, makes me miss the Ozarks a lot. Your Desmognathus larvae are Eurycea bislineata.
by Sam Sweet
November 1st, 2016, 4:14 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Arroyo Toad ID Confirmation.
Replies: 11
Views: 6544

Re: Arroyo Toad ID Confirmation.

Trout don't seem to affect arroyo toads much, although trout fishermen do. Long ago (pre-listing) I sat and flipped tadpoles to foraging trout, and the fish ignored them. Sunfish in the daytime and bullheads by night, and sculpins any time all enjoy toad tadpoles, but trout seem to be in the clear. ...
by Sam Sweet
October 29th, 2016, 12:19 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Arroyo Toad ID Confirmation.
Replies: 11
Views: 6544

Re: Arroyo Toad ID Conformation.

Definitely an arroyo toad. New locality, just shows what's still out there for those willing to go look.
by Sam Sweet
September 18th, 2016, 10:03 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: When is habitat restoration for herps a good thing?
Replies: 42
Views: 28333

Re: When is habitat restoration for herps a good thing?

A while back I posted an account of habitat enhancement by moving emergent vegetation into a pond that had abundant California red-legged frog tadpoles but barren shorelines http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=23631 . We've kept watch on the place, and netted the pond yesterd...
by Sam Sweet
August 9th, 2016, 1:50 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Why You Dont Collect
Replies: 279
Views: 1425197

Re: Why You Dont Collect

Funny, I don't know of any work based on "collecting" of any kind that has an impact factor equal to a tiny fraction of 1% of a paper claiming to explain cancer or reporting life on Mars. Seems like all the fraudulent scientists Ernie knows should be in fields other than herpetology.
by Sam Sweet
August 8th, 2016, 11:15 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: When is habitat restoration for herps a good thing?
Replies: 42
Views: 28333

Re: When is habitat restoration for herps a good thing?

Here's a quick one that makes use of differences in species mating and dispersal patterns. In southern California creeks and rivers Arroyo toads breed when water temperature reaches about 15 C (so from Feb-March at low elevations, to early June at 3500 ft). Males select shallow edges of pools that a...
by Sam Sweet
August 7th, 2016, 2:03 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Why You Dont Collect
Replies: 279
Views: 1425197

Re: Why You Dont Collect

Over the years, Ernie, you've made it clear that you have no concept of research, no respect for people who do it, and no understanding of its value. YOU don't need to know DNA sequences of birds, we all accept that. What makes you such a clown fool is that you imagine that anybody else wants to liv...
by Sam Sweet
August 5th, 2016, 8:59 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: When is habitat restoration for herps a good thing?
Replies: 42
Views: 28333

Re: When is habitat restoration for herps a good thing?

I agree that restoration is a mixed bag, and that many expensive projects fail because of lack of knowledge about the biology of the affected species, or shoddy implementation. Here’s what might be a simple, recent case. In sampling for newt larvae at a retired trout hatchery late last month, we use...
by Sam Sweet
July 3rd, 2016, 11:02 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Dishonesty in government
Replies: 121
Views: 40754

Re: Dishonesty in government

Each time a thread like this comes up the same issues are raised. Here’s another way to look at it -- there are well-qualified, sensible people who go to work for these wildlife agencies, then something happens to them. Why is that? Two case histories come to mind, the python fiasco and Juanita the ...
by Sam Sweet
May 22nd, 2016, 12:40 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: SPOTTED: 2nd and 3rd Specimens of Endangered Salamander
Replies: 8
Views: 6871

Re: SPOTTED: 2nd and 3rd Specimens of Endangered Salamander

This is great news! Between habitat loss and disease, the known-to-science lifespan of several of these wacko Guatemalan-Chiapan bolitoglossines has been way too short. Here is a short story that is not too widely known. I was laboring on my dissertation in Berkeley during the first summer that Paul...
by Sam Sweet
May 4th, 2016, 9:45 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Headless Giant Salamander Question (Beware - Gory Picture)
Replies: 72
Views: 45583

Re: Headless Giant Salamander Question (Beware - Gory Pictur

An owl or a weasel might have done this -- both tend to chew up heads then discard most of the item. Raccoons usually eat almost all of larger salamanders (like tigers), leaving only feet. The eggs are recently-ovulated Dicamptodon eggs -- they are released into the body cavity and pretty well fill ...
by Sam Sweet
July 3rd, 2015, 4:59 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Florida Keys Hemidactylus ID
Replies: 6
Views: 4721

Re: Florida Keys Hemidactylium ID

Dang weird looking salamanders, might be Hemidactylus.
by Sam Sweet
April 11th, 2015, 7:11 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Tadpole ID Please, San Diego California
Replies: 1
Views: 1956

Re: Tadpole ID Please, San Diego California

Funny joke. I get tadpole photos to ID all the time, but they have to show the animal. Next time bend over, OK? http://goannafan.com/users/sam/Impossible%20tadpole.jpg It looks to be Pseudacris cadaverina. Tadpoles in southern California streams change their appearance as they grow, and show pretty ...
by Sam Sweet
December 6th, 2014, 9:22 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: blackbelly slenders found in San Diego County
Replies: 24
Views: 6188

Re: blackbelly slenders found in San Diego County

There is a lot that still needs to be explained about Batrachoseps south of the LA basin. The most recent treatment (Martinez-Solano et al. 2012, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution) shows a significant genetic gap between northern and southern populations now assigned to B. major, certainly a spe...
by Sam Sweet
December 6th, 2014, 9:22 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: blackbelly slenders found in San Diego County
Replies: 24
Views: 3996

Re: blackbelly slenders found in San Diego County

There is a lot that still needs to be explained about Batrachoseps south of the LA basin. The most recent treatment (Martinez-Solano et al. 2012, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution) shows a significant genetic gap between northern and southern populations now assigned to B. major, certainly a spe...
by Sam Sweet
November 8th, 2014, 7:59 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Florida Herping
Replies: 22
Views: 8882

Re: Florida Herping

Can we have some cottonmouth and coral snake photos?
by Sam Sweet
October 28th, 2014, 9:50 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Episode VI: Return of the Clarkii
Replies: 22
Views: 9665

Re: Episode VI: Return of the Clarkii

This is why I didn't want it deleted. Nice post!
by Sam Sweet
September 14th, 2014, 8:57 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Zoo destroying Alameda Whipsnake habitat for Bison exhibit
Replies: 55
Views: 26379

Re: Zoo destroying Alameda Whipsnake habitat for Bison exhib

Who could imagine a zoo being a profit-driven business? Get real, the hilltop theme park selling stuffed animals made in Chinese sweatshops is as "zoo" as zoos get. Oh, and the current species of bison never occurred in the Bay Area, but instead entered California only in the far NE corner...
by Sam Sweet
September 2nd, 2014, 10:33 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Weller's Doom
Replies: 24
Views: 15079

Re: Weller's Doom

I haven't seen anyone post a particular bit of advice about herping in the Blue Ridge, so in the interests of avoiding Wellerismo I'll mention it. The granite outcrops up there tend to be nicely rounded, and there is just enough loose material in the form of little rounded grains and a film of water...
by Sam Sweet
July 23rd, 2014, 6:48 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Pattern variant C. oreganus
Replies: 22
Views: 9709

Re: Pattern variant C. oreganus

Only the photo came to me, I did not see the snake. While there is certainly some influence of the translucent white tub it's in, the fence lizard is a pretty good indicator of how far the white balance is skewed. Based on that I'd say that the snake would still get your attention on sight.
by Sam Sweet
July 21st, 2014, 6:58 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Petition to List P. mcallii as Endangered
Replies: 21
Views: 6728

Re: Petition to List P. mcallii as Endangered

I see that the Bridge Troll has told me what I think about CBD. It's actually a little more complicated, Brian. In my view CBD has done a lot of good in the past, but it has now evolved towards pure advocacy at a cost in credibility. When you consider what they are up against with agribusiness, Big ...
by Sam Sweet
July 21st, 2014, 11:19 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: What Species of Turtle is This?
Replies: 3
Views: 2132

Re: What Species of Turtle is This?

Chinemys reevesi, moderately common in the specialty turtle trade.
by Sam Sweet
July 13th, 2014, 10:59 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Pattern variant C. oreganus
Replies: 22
Views: 9709

Re: Pattern variant C. oreganus

I am told that the snake was released.
by Sam Sweet
July 11th, 2014, 9:25 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Pattern variant C. oreganus
Replies: 22
Views: 9709

Pattern variant C. oreganus

This fella turned up in Humboldt County near Garberville. I don't recall having seen a snake with a longitudinal fade-in pattern transition like this before.

Image
by Sam Sweet
June 24th, 2014, 2:56 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Vomeronasal Organ and Analogous Senses?
Replies: 7
Views: 2233

Re: Vomeronasal Organ and Analogous Senses?

I don't know a lot about vomeronasal organs, but I think your basic concepts are correct. Originally discovered by a Dutch morphologist, Jacobson, it is a region or outpocketing of the nasal cavity accessible via either the nostril or through the roof of the mouth. Chemoreceptive cells there form a ...
by Sam Sweet
June 10th, 2014, 8:07 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Western Pond Turtles Now 2 Species
Replies: 23
Views: 5034

Re: Western Pond Turtles Now 2 Species

I got in the s*** here once before on a thread titled "Taxonomy: Science or Religion" when I observed that to my knowledge taxonomy had never started wars or enslaved women, so it was by default a science, if not always a good one. Even garbage may get published if you shop it around aggre...
by Sam Sweet
April 16th, 2014, 4:20 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Why do Tiliqua have blue tongues?
Replies: 9
Views: 3912

Re: Why do Tiliqua have blue tongues?

Northern bluetongues are reasonably common in Kakadu NP east of Darwin, and there is a local story on this topic, centered on Koongarra Saddle on the road S of Gubara. A short rock pillar at roadside there is Gurrihdjadjan, Bluetongue Dreaming, with a painting of Gurrih himself. In the beginning whe...
by Sam Sweet
February 28th, 2014, 3:44 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: What I Learned About Life from Field Herping
Replies: 154
Views: 67341

Re: What I Learned About Life from Field Herping

People need a sky hero to give them hope in an incredibly f**ked-up world? How did it get that way, except by people dodging personal responsibility on millions of occasions because their sky hero had it covered? Yeah, run the 20 red lights, sheesh.
by Sam Sweet
February 25th, 2014, 11:24 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: What I Learned About Life from Field Herping
Replies: 154
Views: 67341

Re: What I Learned About Life from Field Herping

I believe that Mick Jagger (of all people) had the correct response to Gerry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyK1bZZ7E-s

20 red lights indeed.
by Sam Sweet
February 17th, 2014, 7:59 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: What I Learned About Life from Field Herping
Replies: 154
Views: 67341

Re: What I Learned About Life from Field Herping

1. The "dumb luck principle": Always take at least one complete amateur. They have nothing to match your exquisitely-tuned "herper eye" and will look in the wrong places and find the best herps. 2. The "5 minute rule": If you find something great in the first five minut...
by Sam Sweet
February 15th, 2014, 11:21 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: So how bad is this drought really?
Replies: 22
Views: 4795

Re: So how bad is this drought really?

I have to say, it's pretty bad. I went out yesterday to the Huasna area E of Arroyo Grande, and there is almost no green in the hills after maybe 2" of rain total since October. The road we took follows a small creek for about 7 miles, to headwaters, and there was one (1) wet spot at a road cro...
by Sam Sweet
February 3rd, 2014, 7:43 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Why It’s Not Raining
Replies: 29
Views: 10422

Re: Why It’s Not Raining

Don't make me embarrassed to post here.
by Sam Sweet
February 2nd, 2014, 8:02 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Frog ID Help
Replies: 44
Views: 8928

Re: Frog ID Help

You forgot to tell me how you were sending the bribe Brian.
by Sam Sweet
February 1st, 2014, 9:16 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Frog ID Help
Replies: 44
Views: 8928

Re: Frog ID Help

I'm going with hypochondriaca based on head proportions, small toepads and the eyestripe, sorta symmetrical dorsal pattern, interocular triangle and short lmbs. Ain't a hybrid, just an unusually heavily patterned 'regilla'. I think if you saw it move, Jim, you'd switch your opinion. The photo angle ...
by Sam Sweet
February 1st, 2014, 8:57 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Frog ID Help
Replies: 44
Views: 8928

Re: Frog ID Help

Looks like Rana onca.
by Sam Sweet
February 1st, 2014, 9:29 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Why It’s Not Raining
Replies: 29
Views: 10422

Re: Why It’s Not Raining

The explanation that I've seen is that the predominant surface winds shift between NW and SW off the coast of British Columbia. Winds from the SW bring warmer surface water closer to shore (positive phase), while NW winds encourage upwelling of colder subsurface water. This is relative, it's still t...
by Sam Sweet
January 29th, 2014, 6:57 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Why It’s Not Raining
Replies: 29
Views: 10422

Re: Why It’s Not Raining

"Mostly" is an excellent answer. A core fact about the weather is that you can describe exactly what happened, with thousands and thousands of data points on temperature, wind speed, humidity, air pressure, cloud heights, thermal, wind, and water vapor vertical profiles, radar and satellit...
by Sam Sweet
January 27th, 2014, 5:08 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Why It’s Not Raining
Replies: 29
Views: 10422

Why It’s Not Raining

Just about everybody is sick of the lack of useful rainfall along the lower Pacific Coast this year (and last), and the projections are not very promising. Normally you make it rain by scheduling an outdoor event like a wedding or picnic, or by washing a car. I have heard that none of these things i...
by Sam Sweet
January 18th, 2014, 7:43 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Rattlesnake Armor!
Replies: 40
Views: 17033

Re: Rattlesnake Armor!

The armor of course belonged to Ned Kelly, a colorful fellow but not a herper insofar as is recorded. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Kelly "After the shootout there were five bullet marks on the helmet, three on the breast-plate, nine on the back-plate, and one on the shoulder-plate." Sh...
by Sam Sweet
January 18th, 2014, 12:35 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Rattlesnake Armor!
Replies: 40
Views: 17033

Re: Rattlesnake Armor!

Once there was this Australian guy who didn't want to get punctured and he came up with this famous solution http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ubBZK6Mrlyw/URjPL9gHtcI/AAAAAAAACbg/QNJqaKufyho/s1600/AlissaCallen-Ned%2BKellysArmour.jpg . But he was just the opposite of this fella here and didn't protect his le...
by Sam Sweet
January 7th, 2014, 11:26 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: List for California Herps
Replies: 28
Views: 7910

Re: Standardizing a List for California Herps

Scientific names use Greek roots for the genus name, Latin roots for the species name, with the Greek terms spelled in Latin characters. So I hate to correct Brian Jubbs again, but Masticophis is derived not from Latin but from the Greek mastigio , a lash or whip, and ophis , a snake. Thus, Uromasti...
by Sam Sweet
January 7th, 2014, 9:47 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: List for California Herps
Replies: 28
Views: 7910

Re: Standardizing a List for California Herps

Looks good.
by Sam Sweet
January 7th, 2014, 9:30 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Invasive species.
Replies: 55
Views: 9603

Re: Invasive species.

I recommend that everyone kill every bullfrog they can, anywhere outside of their native range. In addition to their role as predators, bullfrogs are basically immune to chytrid fungus and often have extremely heavy loads, shedding thousands of infective larvae daily and maintaining consistently hig...
by Sam Sweet
January 7th, 2014, 1:39 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Invasive species.
Replies: 55
Views: 9603

Re: Invasive species.

*((#@^ site dropped my log-in, I will retype later.

Image
by Sam Sweet
December 28th, 2013, 12:40 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Garden or Blackbelly?
Replies: 5
Views: 2057

Re: Garden or Blackbelly?

Those fellas all look to be B. major, being pretty much the same color all around, and definitely pale ventrally. Down there, B. nigriventris will have a black belly, with the underside of tail being dark gray. This diagnosis breaks down in San Diego Co., where Will and others have found black-belli...
by Sam Sweet
December 27th, 2013, 10:53 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Snake Entry #3,000 for me
Replies: 19
Views: 4608

Re: Snake Entry #3,000 for me

Great job, Brian -- congratulations and good luck finding the next 3,000!

Sam
by Sam Sweet
December 22nd, 2013, 6:51 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: 38 New Species of Slender Salamanders
Replies: 34
Views: 7691

Re: 38 New Species of Slender Salamanders

That's a common misunderstanding, Todd, and like everything else in biology it isn't absolutely true every time. Just almost always. Prior to secondary contact populations are isolated, and they will diverge because there is no gene flow. They can do that either on the basis of neutral alleles, by t...
by Sam Sweet
December 19th, 2013, 1:32 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: This Should Make Hubbs Happy...
Replies: 54
Views: 12823

Re: This Should Make Hubbs Happy...

Let's talk about California vineyards specifically for a bit, and see how benign they are. In general the habitat types they replace are grassland and open oak woodland where soils are at least 6-8 feet deep and tend towards sandy textures rather than heavy clays. These used to be grazing lands, and...
by Sam Sweet
December 19th, 2013, 10:04 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: You thought the milksnake changes were bad?
Replies: 32
Views: 8835

Re: You thought the milksnake changes were bad?

Is there anyone else who is slightly embarrassed to admit to knowing Hubbs?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cey35bBWXls