Lab #12

Date: 4/20/16

Location: Lumber River Park "The Wire"

Lab Activity: Collecting fish with nets in the Lumber River

Habitat: Freshwater River

Temperature: 78 F

Wind: Not Recorded

Humidity: 100% (It's a river)

Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens) 

    The Yellow Perch is able to reach lengths of up to 15 inches and can be recognized by the thick vertical stripe pattern that goes across their body in addition yellowish color.

    Yellow Perch can be found in all sorts of freshwater habitats such as rivers, lakes and ponds. 

    This species starts out eating zooplankton and algae, as they grow older their diet shifts to other fish, insects and just about any creature that will fit in its mouth.

Ducky Shiner (Notropis cummingsae)

    The Dusky Shiner is a member of the family Cyprinidae, the carp family, they are easily recognized by their relative short length along with the dark colored stripe which runs horizontally down the length of its body.

    The Dusky prefers to live in slow moving backwaters with plenty of detritus and vegetation. 

    When I tried looking up information on this species, I struggled to find much of anything; according to one source that I managed to find not much is known about this fish.

Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides)

    You can find largemouth bass nearly anywhere in the eastern half of the United States and you can recognize them by their horizontal stripe, their spiny dorsal fin and of course their relatively large mouths. 

    The Largemouth also has large eyes and this is because they are visual predators and are often one of the top predator in their habitat. When they are young they eat primarily zooplankton but as they age their diet shifts to larger invertebrates and other species of fish.

Lab #11

Date: 4/13/16

Location: Lumber River Conservancy

Lab Activity: Checking Turtle Traps and more Radio Tracking

Habitat: Freshwater Pond

Temperature: 69.5 F

Wind: 1.7 mph

Humidity: 45.5%

    Hooped turtle traps were set up and baited the day before and left out all night. There were several traps but only one them had turtles.

    We also tracked another Eastern Box Turtle, please refer to the entry to Lab #9 for more information on how that is done.

Box Turtle #050 

Y-3864818

X-0650505

   No measurements were taken.

    Another Box Turtle was found dead that had been captured previously. By looking at its notches we were able to determine that its three letter code was "MNO".

    Because many zoologists use capture and recapture techniques in order to determine population sizes of animals they need a way to determine if the turtle in their trap is an individual that they have seen before or if it is new. In the case of the Lumber River Conservancy they mark the turtles by putting notches in its shell, where each notch represents a number. The notches that are on the anterior end of the carapace represent whole number while the posteriorly located notches represent decimals. 

 #050 a particularly colorful male

 MNO not so colorful (Gender unknown to me)

 Hooped Turtle Trap

    

Yellow-bellied Slider (Trachemys scripta)

    We caught two of this species in same trap one was a normal colored smaller male while the other was a melanistic rather aggressive and larger male.

   

 The melanistic individual, note that the yellowish markings are still present but are darker in coloration.

    The smaller out of the the two turtles was one that had been recaptured and we determined that his code was 0.17 and the melanistic turtle had notches placed on him and was given the code 6.90.

Yellow-bellied 0.17

Plastron: 134.3 mm
Carapace: 151.6 mm
Weight: 542 grams

Yellow-bellied 6.90
Pastron: 155.6 mm
Carapace: 170.5 mm
Weight: 740 grams

    The Yellow-bellied tends to live to no longer than 30 years of age. When these turtles first hatch they are mostly carnivorous but as they age their diet shifts to favoring plant material, although they are omnivorous throughout their lives and will spend most of their time in the water only coming out to back in the sun's heat.

Lab #10

Date: 4/6/16

Location: Lumber River Conservancy

Lab Activity: Searched under coverboards and checked pitfall traps

Habitat: Pine/Hardwood Forest

Temperature: 68 F

Wind: 3.2 mph

Humidity: 33.7%

Southern Black Racer (Coluber constrictor)

    We found this snake underneath one of the metal coverups, which is exactly what you expect because snakes favor the metal covers because they are warmer and drier underneath.

    Like the name suggests the Black Racer is very fast as far as snakes go and they need to be because when they grow up to be adults they prey on animals such as nesting birds, squirrels and even rabbits.

    The Black Racer are nonvenomous but you should still be careful if ever handling one of these snakes because they have several teeth and will draw blood if they bite you. Also these snakes are typically very aggressive and may try to wiggle themselves out your hands so grip them tightly behind the head and the near the end of the tail.

Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus)

    You will know that you have picked up an Eastern Fence Lizard by the loose feeling on skin resulting from the arrangement of the lizard's scales which will also appear to be spikey. You will know that you have a male by the bright blue/green colorations on the throat and flanks on the underside of the lizard.

    Although sometimes the females can have slight colorations on their underside as well. The colored females are less desired by the males, but these females are often more aggressive and will sometimes be the one to initiate mating. The advantage for a male to mate with one of these colored females is that they typically have more "handsome" male offspring.

    These lizards can live a semi-arboreal life style living in wooded areas although they can also be found in grasslands. 

Eastern Five Lined Skink (Plestiodon fasciatus)

    Able to reach lengths of 20 centimeters, the Five Lined Skink is the second largest skink in North Carolina. They are named after the five yellow/cream colored lines which run down their body. The juveniles are more easily identified by their tail which is blue in color in order to force the attention of a predator on to that spot. If a Five Line feels threatened it will drop its tail which will remain twitching to keep the predator distracted while it runs away.

 Juvenile

    The Five Lined Skink live in wooded areas and many live a semi-arboreal lifestyle, but many also prefer to be in open areas such as a field or recently burnt section of a forest where they will be looking for insects to eat.

    

Lab #9

Date: 3/30/16

Location: Lumber River Conservancy

Lab Activity: Radio Tracking Box Turtles

Habitat: Pine/Hardwood Forest

Temperature: 72.6 F

Wind: 2.4 mph

Humidity: 37.3%

    We used a technique known as radiotelemetry, which works by capturing a species and placing a radio tracking device somewhere on it, making sure that the tracker is only 5% of the individuals body weight or it will overburden the animal.

You then later come back to the site you believe your marked animals to be and use a radio tracking device. The device has a series of antenna and uses this detect the strength and direction of a radio signal. Basically you wave an antenna around and it beeps at you to tell you which way the turtle is.

    The box turtle is primarily a terrestrial species, which technically makes it a tortoise although they can spend a limited amount of time in the water. There are also some distinct features which differ between the males and females. The males typically have redder eyes than the females although females can also have red eyes so this isn't the best way to determine gender on a turtle; the best way is to turn the turtle over and look at the plastron, the males have a concave indentation in their shell for the purpose of supporting themselves when mounting a female. 

We tracked three turtles while out on this lab.

Turtle #152:

Y- 0650292

X-3863285

520 grams

147.2 mm carapace

Male

Turtle #191:

Y-3864245

X-0650494

520 grams

132 mm carapace

Female

Turtle #630

Y-3863834

X-0650585

570 grams

137.1 mm carapace

Female

Lab #8

Date: 3/23/16

Location: Lumber River Conservancy

Lab Activity: Searching for spotted turtles

Habitat: Vernal Pool

Temperature: 81.1 F

Wind: 3.5 mph

Humidity: 33%

    Myself and the rest of the Field Zoology class went out to the Lumber River Conservancy looking for spotted turtles, unfortunately we didn't find any.

Broad Headed Skink (Plestiodon laticeps)

    

    Able to reach lengths of over a foot the Broad Headed skink is the largest lizard that you are likely to find in North Carolina. They prey primarily on small insects but have been known to eat smaller vertebrates even other skinks.

    You can find these guys in pine and hardwood forests either in the trees r on the ground foraging for food or basking in the sun. The species however is primarily arboreal so if you see one and it runs away it will look for something to climb on. When we caught this female she actually tried to escape by climbing up my professor's leg.

Southern Cricket Frog (Acris gryllus)

    

    The Southern Cricket Frog, is a small frog and member of the family Hylidae which makes it a treefrog. You can find Southern Cricket Frogs in coastal plain bogs, ponds and in our case vernal pools. 

    They have a distinct linear "Y" shaped marking on their back, though often green the marking can vary in shade and color as well as pronouncement.

    Though they are called cricket frogs they mostly feed on smaller insects like mosquitoes, some crickets would actually be the same size as this frog and would prove difficult to swallow.

 

Lab #7

Date: 3/16/16

Location: Lumber River Conservancy

Lab Activity: Surveying fish with the use of fish traps

Habitat: Shallow freshwater pond

Temperature: 85 F

Wind: 12 mph

Humidity: 35%

    45 fish traps were placed in a pond and creek system at 10 AM on March 15th, 2016 and then collected the next day.

Numbers caught of each species:

Amphibians:
  Amphiuma 1
  Lesser Siren 1

 Fish:
  Red Finned Pickerel 1
  Chain Pickerel 3
  Pirate Perch 4
  Black Banded Sunfish 19
  Bluegill 9
  Blue Spotted Sunfish 30
  Lined Topminnows 22
  Mosquito Fish 11
  

Mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis)

    Commonly mistaken for minnows the Mosquitofish is a member of the family Poeciliidae, the livebearers. This means that the Mosquitofish gives birth to live young rather than laying eggs. 

    You can find them as far north as Indiana and stretching south through the Mississippi River and east in the coastal plain.

They are important for controlling the populations of many insects which have an aquatic larval stage such as mosquitos, but they will also feed on zooplankton and small insects.

Lined Topminnow (Fundulus lineolatus)

    Found natively as far north as southern Virginia and as south as Florida, the lined topminnow is a member of the family Fundulidae. Although they have been introduced as an invasive species probably by people dumping their bait buckets into these freshwater systems.

    You can tell the difference between a male and a female by looking at the lines on their sides. The males have very pronounced vertical lines while the females vertical lines are equally noticeable to the horizontal lines which both genders have.

Bluespotted Sunfish (Enneacanthus gloriosus)

    A member of the sunfish family, Centrarchidae, the Bluespotted can be found in freshwater habitats such as ponds and lakes all over the eastern United States. They have been introduced in some new regions such as the Mississippi watershed. They prefer the still or sluggish water habitats such as a pond or an oxbow.

Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)

    Named for the blue marking on its gill the Bluegill is a member of the family Centrarchidae thus making it a sunfish. You can find these guys in freshwater systems from Quebec to Mexico.

    They typically eat small invertebrates such as snails and tiny crustaceans. However they wouldn't pass up a small fish such as a minnow if the opportunity were to arise.

    

Black Banded Sunfish (Enneacanthus chaetodon)

    The Black Banded are members of the family Centrarchidae and can be found in freshwater habitats everywhere from New Jersey to central Florida. They feed on typically on aquatic larvae, but they will also feed on small aquatic insects and zooplankton.