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.