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.