If its herpetological diversity is any indication — and it is — Schuylkill County’s environment is pretty healthy.
The county has nearly half of the known existing reptile and amphibian species in the state, according to Marlin D. Corn, state coordinator for PARS, the Pennsylvania Amphibians and Reptile Survey. County residents have an opportunity to contribute to the study of these animals, also known as “herps,” by taking part in PARS. All it takes is the click of a camera on a specimen and an upload to PARS.
“Most counties don’t have a diversity that high,” Corn, also a member of the Mid-Atlantic Center for Herpetology and Conservation, said. “It shows there’s a nice variety of habitats in Schuylkill County.”
Getting appropriate data is important. In general, herpetological diversity can be used as a barometer of ecological health — the greater the diversity of species in an area, the better the ecological health of that area, Corn said. This is particularly true of certain species that are more sensitive to environmental disturbances than others, especially those that depend on aquatic habitats. Some species of amphibians require seasonal pools for breeding. If the pools are filled in for development, these animals disappear.
“Currently, we have documented nearly 40 species of amphibians and reptiles in Schuylkill County. Considering there are currently 84 species known in Pennsylvania, this is a very nice diversity,” Corn said.
Ten of those species are considered species of special concern, which means those species cannot be legally taken out of the environment, he said. There are also at least four species that depend on vernal pools for breeding.
In Schuylkill County, there are several species that are prevalent.
“We have gotten a large number of records for spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum), which is one of the salamander species which depends upon vernal pools for breeding. Other species we have gotten large numbers of records for are species that generally are very common throughout the state. These include eastern American toad, eastern red-backed salamander, red-spotted newt, northern two-lined salamander, northern dusky salamander, northern ring-necked snake, green frog and spring peeper,” Corn said.
PARS is a joint citizen science atlas project between MACHAC and the state Fish and Boat Commission, with additional funding from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Wild Resource Conservation Fund.
Coordinator’s interest
Christopher Bortz, Jonestown, is one of those volunteers documenting the state’s herps. He’s been serving as Schuylkill County PARS coordinator for more than two years.
“I do not have any degree or training in herpetology. My oldest daughter, Cassie, picked up a ring-neck snake when she was 2 1/2 and didn’t want to let it go. By the time Cassie was 3 and my youngest, Ella, was 2, they were picking up garter snakes right and left on our walks in the woods. So, they eventually talked us into getting a snake as a pet, which has now turned into six snakes,” Bortz said.
Because of his daughter’s interest in nature, the family started going to nature-related activities around them.
“The biggest influence for me was befriending Dave McNaughton, who is a wildlife biologist. He has always been generous of his knowledge and time about the outdoors and reptiles and amphibians in particular. He was always very willing to teach and exceptionally gracious about always including my girls in these activities,” Bortz said.
After McNaughton saw Bortz’s family’s interest in reptiles, he got them to join Lancaster Herpetological Society, which is a group related specifically to reptiles. After Bortz showed McNaughton that his family was finding herps when they would go out, McNaughton suggested Bortz put his findings into PARS, and suggested that Bortz volunteer to be the coordinator for Schuylkill County.
The wet weather we’ve had this spring has been a great time in which to locate reptiles and amphibians, according to Bortz.
Most people don’t realize that if you know where to look, you can find things year round, he said.
“The easiest time to see things is in the spring on warm rainy nights, when they come out to go to their breeding pools. But, any time between March and November can be good, a lot depends on what you are trying to see and what locales or habitats you are visiting as far as what you might or might not encounter,” he said.
The project is in its fourth year of the 10-year survey; it began January 1, 2013, Bortz said.
Close encounter
During Bortz’s excursions looking for herps, he’s had some interesting finds.
“In PA, hognose snakes are a snake that as a friend of mine has said, you don’t go looking for them, they just sort of happen upon you when you least expect it. So one rainy late afternoon in early June, my girls and I go out looking to see what we can find. Snakes are not typically something we expect to see when go out in the rain, but we do see them from time to time.
“That night we were walking back a trail we have been on before that has a large floor mat from a car off to the side of the trail. We also flipped the mat over hoping to find a snake or salamander, but we had never been rewarded with anything. That night before we could even flip the mat we had a hognose snake curled up next to the mat and upon flipping the mat we had a black racer immediately dart into the brush and out of sight. I quickly went to look for the racer and was unable to find it, but just a step or two to my right I had a wood turtle sitting there hanging out.
“So in a spot I’ve been many times and seen nothing, that night had three really good finds in a five-foot radius. I should explain the neat thing about hognose snakes, when they feel threatened they will roll over on their back and play dead, with tongue hanging out and everything. In the fall, I help with a bird banding project and one late afternoon in October I got to the banding station early, so since it’s in the woods I decided to flip some rocks and logs to see if I could find anything. Well, to my surprise I flipped a young hognose snake from under a rock, which turned out to be quite the actor while playing dead. Ultimately, you never know what you are going to see when you go out hiking or looking for things, I’ve been surprised at the low temperatures outside when I’ve found snakes and the time of year I’ve found certain salamanders,” Bortz said. “That’s why you just need to get out there and see what you can see.”
Valuable contribution
In large part, the value to this data is its use in the conservation of Pennsylvania’s rare herpetological species, Corn said. In order to protect rare populations, he said, we need to know where they are. The data collected by participants can be used as a potent conservation tool for the immediate protection of, and long-term management of, areas found to harbor rare species. The data will also provide a current assessment of the status of all of Pennsylvania’s amphibian and reptile species. This assessment may reveal that certain species are in serious decline since previous atlas efforts, and initiate additional processes to determine whether a change in their legal status is warranted (i.e. a species not currently listed as Threatened or Endangered might be elevated to one of these levels. Conversely, some species may be found to be more common than previously thought). Additionally, all of the data provides a baseline to which future studies can be compared.
Data reviewed
Once sent to the website, www.paherpsurvey.org, records and all their data (including photos and audio files) go through a peer review process where a panel of experts votes on whether the species can be identified through the characters shown and in the quality shown. This peer review makes each record scientifically valid and a published specimen, Bortz said. Records can be seen to the county level on the website. They also go to Fish and Boat Commission, which ultimately hold the data and the results. Data requests typically require PFBC approval before distribution, and privacy is considered an utmost concern. The data is stored in a secure database and periodically sent to the PFBC; they are the final destination for the data, since the commission funded the project.
The panel of experts were put together by MACHAC and PARS. They consist mainly of regional administrators and academic and professional experts who analyze the photos and data collected.
Bortz said there is a verification committee made up of 18 experts.
Photos in focus
If you think you’d like to contribute photos of specimens you’ve seen to PARS, there are some tips Bortz offers.
First and most importantly, keep the welfare of the reptiles and amphibians in mind; and secondly, respect and do not disrupt their habitat while trying to seek them out for a picture, Bortz said.
Most of the records that get denied are probably showing the species named, but they lack good, in-focus characteristics, according to Bortz.
“Sometimes this is because of the original quality of the photograph, but very often the user simply needs to crop the photo to point out the creature’s location and zoom the attributes. This also protects the location since there is less information shown to refine the animal. Knowing a few characteristics about the animals certainly helps, like knowing that toad tadpoles can’t be identified to species without dissection, while wood frog tadpoles have a golden spot on their bellies that is only found on that species in Pennsylvania,” he said.
Regulations
There are some regulations that people do need to be aware of if they are specifically going out looking for reptiles and amphibians. A fishing license is needed to handle an animal; there are seasons and possession limits for some of the reptiles and amphibians; and disturbing reptile nests, including turtles’ nests, is forbidden. All that information can be found at the Fish and Boat Commission website, fishandboat.com/fishpub/summary/repamp.html.
“We try to get the word out to as many people as possible about PARS because over 80 percent of PA is privately owned, and without their help there is a lot of areas in PA that go unsurveyed,” Bortz said.
Anyone with questions can email Bortz at schuylkill@paherpsurvey.org. Send photo submissions to www.paherpsurvey.org.