Another day, different vernal pools

Upstate New York was blessed by the spring gods this past week with a balmy high nearly reaching the 70s breaking record high temperatures for February. Putting aside my fears and worries of the long lasting effects of climate change, I decided to climb a mountain and visit some different vernal pools for once.

Unfortunately, the pool at the top of the mountain was still iced over and no signs of life were visible. No reward besides the hour of cardio it took to get here. Onto the next.

Luckily this vernal pool is only halfway up the mountain and was free of ice and full of amphibians. Just the usual suspects though, marbled salamanders and eastern newts. The newts were out and about and looking to mate. Males develop large hindlimbs to strongly grasp females behind the neck while using their developed tail fins to assist in wafting pheromones into the females face to get her in the mood. Romantic, no?

You can catch a glimpse of this behavior below.


And a new vernal pool classic: the fairy shrimp. Freshwater cousins to sea monkeys AKA brine shrimp, these crustaceans are true to their name as their wispy, translucent bodies could be described as fairy like. I can't say for sure because I've never seen an actual fairy. I'd say "alien" is probably another fitting descriptor for these animals, between the 11 pairs of undulating legs and the egg sac on the females. Surprisingly they were much flightier than the salamanders, but I guess that's probably because the shrimp could easily end up as a quick meal for them.

Also seen were leeches and water beetles. Soon the frogs, more insects, and even more salamanders will show up with the warming temperatures. Fun fun fun!

Another day, same vernal pool

Sub-par evening glow. 

I made the mistake of going to the vernal pool a few days after a snowstorm in the cold so after trudging through the snow so all I did was take a few pictures of the pond itself. It was also too dark to get any footage or pictures of the most interesting animals in the world (the marbled salamander and eastern newt, as if I had to say!).

But today I finally woke up early enough to see the vernal pool in the morning light which also helped with capturing footage of the salamanders themselves. Just in case you were bored of marbled salamander larvae, I was lucky enough to have an eastern newt swim past my GoPro for today's montage with 100% more jazz.

Behind the scenes! A high end production for sure... 

Winter still sucks

Well it's been over a week since the last time I went outside due to a combination of cold weather and my unwillingness to go out in cold weather, but yesterday had a balmy high of 50 degrees which meant another trip to the old vernal pool. The salamanders also had the same idea and were out and about in numbers.

It's time for everyone's favorite party game: How Many Salamanders?
Scroll down for the answer!*

A few eastern newts were also swimming around and I even saw one trying to snap up a marbled salamander larvae for lunch. Unfortunately for the newt his meal got away. 

And here's some footage from the day of salamanders not doing much with some internet meme music. I left my GoPro sitting on the bottom of the pool for about 6 minutes and was happy to find that a few different salamanders  ended up swimming in front of it. I'll have to experiment with this some more, it'd be cool to capture some more interesting behaviors. 

*Answer: I counted 10. 

Winter sucks

Normally I spend winter occupied with fun activities like wallowing in depression and playing videogames all day but despite how fulfilling that might sound I decided to do something different this year. So I finally went outside to enjoy the nature that somehow persists during this dreadful season. Luckily there's one amphibian that is crazy enough to be active during the winter or else I'd really have no motivation to go outside except for maybe exercising my atrophying body. While I once hiked up and down the Grand Canyon with ease I found myself out of breath after the short walk through the woods as this was the first instance of sustained physical activity in months, unless you count going to the mall to pick up a copy of the latest Pokemon game. Anyway enough about me, let's go to the vernal pool.

The vernal pool.

Behold, the lair of the marbled salamander! At least their aquatic larvae anyway. Adults are terrestrial and rarely seen, living up to their family's common name of "mole salamanders" by spending most of their time underground. This is an interesting salamander with a unique lifestyle which has been conveniently covered by David Attenborough's Life in Cold Blood series so just watch this video if you want to know more about this wonderful creature. Actually Sir David forgot to mention how these salamanders lay their eggs in the bottoms of dry vernal pools in the fall which hatch when the pools fill later in the season. The larvae then slowly grow throughout the winter and get a significant headstart in growth compared to the other species which normally breed in the springtime. 

Find it?

To my surprise there were also a few adult eastern newts hanging out in the pool. Unfortunately I couldn't get a picture of them, so you'll just have to trust me on this one. Will I brave the cold again to find these animals and maybe pay attention to the other winter flora and fauna? Tune in next week to find out! 

A closer look. 

The End 2

Last time, the rainforest ended with a bang on the final night hike: a snake, a lizard and a caiman, oh my! What more could a young herpetologist want in his final hours in the jungle? This time, instead of showing off its abundance of reptiles, the rainforest decided to show off its abundance of rain. I guess that's the universe telling me to study something else. Just a few measly frogs and insects before it started pouring until early morning. But that's fine, there's no use in romanticizing any arbitrary night when you've spent an entire month in the most biodiverse place in the world. 

More thrilling rainforest tales and pictures like this one later. 

Another great time in Ecuador has ended and now I'm back in the lame freezing cold northeast. After a day of this winter BS, I'm sick of it so I'm going to Puerto Rico. See you in a week. 

Gone Fishin'

I'll be in the rainforest from tomorrow until December 5th. Surprisingly enough, I won't be spending too much time on the internet despite how boring it is there. And it costs money. Mainly the former. Since I've already been there I've seen nearly every tree, insect, lizard, and frog. There are only more species of tree in a single hectare (100 meters x 100 meters) than in the entire United States and Canada combined. And only 100,000 species of insects per hectare. And this particular area has the highest concentration of amphibians in the entire world. Actually, it is the most biodiverse place on the planet. Better destroy it for some oil!

You can read more boring statistics about how incredibly diverse eastern Ecuador is or about its unfortunate impending fate. But for now you can watch this highly educational nature documentary series filmed entirely with a cheap point-and-shoot camera.

Watch in HD!

  Episode 2 is sub-par at best.

Now that I have fancy cameras, I have no excuse not to get some incredible footage. I still have to write about Galapagos, but here are all the pictures I took there. See you in a month. 

The Galapagos (videos)

I'll be blogging about the magical islands soon enough but first, here is a video from the last time I was there. This was footage from my friend's GoPro  that I edited together with some music. This inspired me to get a GoPro, although for much less extreme purposes.



And this is a video from the most recent visit to Galapagos.

The highly anticipated sequel to this short film. 
What a magical place.

More thrilling tales from the Enchanted Isles (no, seriously. That's another name for the Galapagos) coming soon.

Lizards Lizards Lizards

Why does anyone go to lovely tropical coastal Ecuador? The lizards, of course. This is probably the most popular tourist activity right behind hiking in the cloud forest by yourself in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, staying at the beach during this time of year was a very different experience.

Fortunately, the only day the sun decided to show up was during our visit to Parque Nacional Machalilla which is Spanish for "lizard heaven." The park is located in a dry forest and happens to have one of the most beautiful beaches in Ecuador within its borders. I don't know how people ever make it to the beach when you literally encounter hundreds of lizards on your way there.

Just one of many beautiful distractions. 

One of the actual reasons for going to the coast was to look at all the primordial creatures that live in tide pools. My opinion on tide pools and their residents hasn't changed since the last time I was there, but this sea slug was quite funky. 

Woah.

Despite the lack of sun for the majority of the trip, the lizards were still out and about, albeit in lesser numbers. But that didn't stop this beautiful gecko from showing up. Or me from watching this same exact individual for three days straight.

Diurnal geckos usually evolve to be pretty. 

His less-pretty nocturnal cousin below is probably quite jealous, but could probably devour him if it wanted; it's about three times larger.

If I took less artsy fartsy pictures you might be able to see the 

size difference between these two lizards.

If you're sick of lizards by now, too bad. Here's another. But this is no ordinary lizard! This is the ancestor of the most famous Galapagos animal: the lava lizards. Forget what you heard about the tortoises, marine iguanas and blue-footed boobies, these are definitely more interesting and widely-appreciated. This also serves as the perfect segue into the next horribly delayed post: The Galapagos.

She's been waiting a while for me to write something too. 

Lizards in order of appearance: Ameiva septemlineata, Gonatodes caudiscutatus, Phyllodactylus reissi, and Microlophus occipitalis. A few more pictures here. 

Onwards to the coast

The cloud forest is a dark and gloomy place. With no lizards. Just clouds and forests and failure. Stupid cloudy places with no sun. Or lizards. Maybe I'm just bad at finding lizards. I quit. After another weekend spent in the cloud forest in vain, I've decided to become an entomologist that studies weevils.

This is a weevil.

With the way this world works, you can always find insects. Weevils are a kind of beetle, and beetles basically rule the world, numerically anyway. There are around 9 million species of animal on this planet and probably about 6 million species of beetle. What a great world we live in...

I guess this is pretty fantastic. 

Well, that about exhausts my knowledge of weevils. Luckily I'm off to the coast tomorrow, which was pretty much "lizard heaven" (although I did find a weevil there too)... but apparently the weather this time of year is cloudier (like the cloud forest!) which could mean no lizards... Hopefully I'll be able to find some reptiles and won't actually have to resort to studying insects. I gave a rather honest and complete overview of what that place is about the last time so feel free to refresh your memory by reading that. 

No more cloud forests for me.

CLICK FOR MORE PICTURES

La Hesperia

I just spent the past weekend in La Hesperia which is a cloud forest I conveniently never blogged about the last time I was there. "Cloud forest" is an odd term and unless you're a biologist or someone who's vacationed in Costa Rica it brings a strange visual to mind.

Artist's rendition.

A more technical name for these places would be "tropical premontane moist forests." I don't know why that name never caught on. While they aren't floating above rainforests on clouds, they are higher than rainforests in elevation along mountains. The name is not completely misleading though; cloud forests are shrouded by... (you guessed it) clouds for at least part of the day. Due to the readily available moisture this is where forests start to look really lush and tropical with plants growing on plants. 

Frogs also like wet places, but surprisingly there weren't many out and about like last time. I guess they didn't like how I violently grabbed them out of their daily routine to take a million pictures of them. Or rather, the last time I was here was during a wetter part of the year when more frogs were reproducing tiny froglets to place on your finger. But there are always insects, so you'll have to entertain yourself with these leaf cutter ants who decided to add some color in their life by bringing flower petals back to the nest. 

But the real reason people come to cloud forests is for the birds. Like actual birds. I did see toucanets, tanagers, and barbets which is English for "colorful tropical flying things," but they're hard to photograph so here is an underwhelming, but humorous bird called an ani.

Contemplating dinner. 

While birds are nice (if you're into that) the true jewel of the cloud forests are the lizards. Except, there aren't many lizards in the cloud forest. And they're hard to find. Actually, the cloud forest is a truly horrible place to go lizard hunting, something I found out last year the hard way. But it makes finding them all the more enjoyable or something like that. 

Gee, what a sappy ending.

More pictures here. 

Round 2

If you're a true fan you may remember why I started this blog in the first place: to write about the fun times I was having gallivanting all over Ecuador. It was a magical time where I got to go hunting for seals in the Galapagos and help extract oil in the Amazon all under the guise of "school" in a completely once-in-a-lifetime type of experience.

Well, in a bizarre turn of events I'm going back. To do exactly everything I did the last time. Again. I'm still in disbelief even though I'm sitting in the airport about to leave for paradise. Yes, this is very lucky for me, but even luckier for you! This means no more boring crap from the northeast and the return of the blog that originally won you over.

Next time: A blog posted with 100% genuine Ecuadorian internet!

Hopefully I'll see this rare species of mosquito again this weekend.

The End 2

Summer is over. I've taken 82 pictures in what is more or less my backyard since May. You can view these photographs in chronological order here OR you can view the slideshow below. It's so big that it barely fits on the blog space so it must be good. Might I suggest playing some groovy music behind it so you won't be bored to death. Thankfully this marks the end of the "unemployed stuck at home phase" of my life. For now. So while my writing may not improve I can promise the subject matter will be objectively more exciting. I leave you in suspense!

Hawaii 4

An Ole. 

And finally we have the infamous anoles. While these lizards may not seem as pretty as the day geckos, they make up for their otherwise bland coloration with retractable colorful flaps of flesh under their throat. Now doesn't that sound attractive? Maybe if you were a lady lizard.

*wolf whistle*

Actually, it seems that the lady anoles probably care about this wonderful appendage just as much as you, but the color and timing is important in species recognition and differs between species of anoles. Just check out how the green anole's dewlap is totally different from the brown anole's dewlap. They're practically different species.

Although there are over 400 anoles in the world only the one in the above video is a native resident of the United States. But now a handful of species are running amok in Florida, the most common invader being the brown anole. The brown anole is so fat and mean and beats up his green cousins. They then go hide in the treetops where the brown anoles cannot reach because they are so fat and mean. This has been scientifically proven in areas where the two species overlap. 

A great view of the hyoid apparatus in action, the bone behind the ear and jaw that's responsible for the movement of the dewlap.

If you have too much free time on your hands, you may notice that the brown anole only slightly bobs his head while the green anole would fit in at a thrash metal concert. Unfortunately, I didn't get the full display of the brown anole, but it would probably look slightly different from the green anole's performance. 

The "green" anole can be quite brown. 

Well, there are many other facts about these anoles (about seven), but there isn't enough time in the day to blog about all of them. This concludes the wonderful pictorial walkthrough of the reptiles (and amphibian) I saw while in paradise. More pictures can be found here. We'll be back with more thrilling stories from the second most exciting place on earth: upstate New York. 

Aloha.

Hawaii 3

WOW! Look at that lizard!

I could spend all day watching and photographing these geckos. So I did. These geckos are so pretty! I would totally buy car insurance from one if it asked me. Originally from Madagascar and released by a University of Hawaii student years back with the purpose of filling my heart with joy and saving me a trip all the way to Madagascar, this is the gold dust day gecko.

Phelsuma laticauda which is Latin for "I should get a new hobby."

I could easily post one hundred more pictures and rant about how gorgeous these geckos are, but I'll spare you from boredom and post this equally self-indulging video instead. 

But there is still some boring science to be learned! Geckos, and lizards in general, tend to be visually oriented animals. Our star knocks down a piece of debris at the :12 second mark with its tail and immediately changes its gaze towards the falling object. Unfooled, the insurance spokesperson goes onto to examine the camera, spending most of the video staring directly at it. There is also a tongue flick at :43 seconds probably picking up my greasy fingerprints on the casing of my GoPro. So unfortunately, I didn't capture a lizard behaving completely "naturally" in its "natural environment," but it does show you that lizards aren't (completely) dimwitted cold-blooded lugs. They're creatures that are keenly aware of their environment and smart enough to realize when someone is trying to record them with a camera.

"I'm not stupid" -Lizard

Hawaii 2

Frogs

You might think Hawaii is a horrible place to live if sea turtles are the only reptile readily available, but thanks to the meddling of the human race, the islands are overrun by a handful of species of lizards and frogs. Perhaps the most exciting amphibian to see is the aptly named green and black poison dart frog.

It really is green and black!

It's so exciting that you should forget about the other less exciting slimy jumpy things. But it's true, the only other frogs on Oahu include the cane toad, which is the quintessential boring toad and the American bullfrog, arguably the standard frog. There is also the Japanese wrinkled frog, but it's not terribly exciting (unless you're a weirdo who likes to find reptiles and amphibians...) and I failed at getting a nice picture of one. If only there were some fast and easy way to search for images on the internet. Oh well. Here's another fun and exciting poison dart frog.

Green and black poison dart frog? More like "fun and exciting poison dart frog."

These were intentionally released in an attempt to control the mosquito population in the wetter areas of the island, but they shirked this responsibility and are now one of the most popular attractions for visitors to this great state, further solidifying its status as a vacation hotspot. Even though we're taught the evils of moving animals around the globe, what a cool species to introduce. Someone should give that guy a Nobel Peace Prize. 

Hawaii harbors tourists of all types, human and herpetological. 

Hawaii 1

See turtles here. 

Hawaii. What negative things are there to say about Hawaii? Nothing. Hawaii was paradise. Between the beach, Spam, and streets overrun by Japanese tourists, what more could you want? Oh yeah. Reptiles. So without further ado, here is Hawaii's own green sea turtle: the Hawaiian green sea turtle.

And what's better than just one measly sea turtle? Two measly sea turtles.

"What did one sea turtle say to the other?

We're BOTH sea turtles."

And what could be better than two sea turtles? Three sea turtles, of course. But I don't have a picture with three sea turtles even though there were five of them lying on the beach together. Instead, here's this exciting shot of a sea turtle getting hit by the sea.

Ouch. 

And that's all for Hawaii's native reptiles. Every other slimy or scaly creature is an evil introduced hitch hiker, besides the rarely seen yellow-bellied sea snake which floats throughout the entire Pacific Ocean.

Aloha.

Graveyard Super Fun Time

I've come back with a terrible sunburn on my neck and a broken foot. Actually, I don't know if my foot is injured, but it kind of hurts when I walk. Regardless, I'm not into feet. I'm into lizards. They're so interesting that I'll spend all day in a graveyard in the middle of Queens observing and photographing them. Just another completely normal activity for a completely normal person.

Behold!

But these aren't your average lizards. Actually, they might as well be. They're greenish with a long tail, four legs and they're cool. But the killer is that these are lacertids! Which means they're in the family lacertidae! Which means they're originally from the Old World and have no reason being in the Americas. This is concerning because "introduced species are bad," but if you're an optimist  like me, it's really an amazing opportunity to study a species from a completely unique and distinct lineage that is normally unavailable here in the United States.

Apparently a pet shop in Long Island went out of business way back when and with great foresight let loose their stock of Italian wall lizards, Podarcis sicula. Despite New York being colder than their native Italy, the lizards did not die off in the winter, but proceeded to spread around Long Island and various parts of New York City. Someone should give that guy a medal or the key to the city or a Nobel prize. Whichever is the easiest to mail.

Another common name for these fine reptiles is "ruin lizard" because they're often found on rocky wall faces, but it seems that tombstones make a fine substitute. Also, as you may notice from the bit of Hebrew above, this was a Jewish cemetery making me even more of an oddball to see stalking through the graves with a lizard noose and DSLR. Here is a video detailing the habitat and me walking around contemplating whether or not I am disrespecting the deceased.

 

A lizard does make a quick, barely-visible appearance in this video.
Watch in 1080 and full screen for your best chance of finding it. 

These lizards were extremely abundant and it was hard not to walk a few steps without seeing or hearing one a two dash off into the vegetation or under a loose gravestone. Instead of amazing camoulfage, these lizards rely on their wariness and speed to escape from predators or lizard-crazy weirdos like me. This alertness is visible as you can see the lizard staring back at the camera in some photos.

As exciting as watching lizards run away from you can be (very) , lizards occasionally do other things too. One tried and true method to observe lizards behave naturally is to simply sit and wait for them to ignore your presence. As I sat on a conveniently placed bench nestled next to some graves, I was soon surrounded by a handful of lizards going about their business, although the lizard in the grave closest to me remained wary and only peeked his head out.

At this point in the day the lizards seemed to be bumming out in the shade, not doing much. But the stiff tension was broken when two large quarreling males brought their disputes to the ground next to my feet. The tail-less male below was being chased by another male with a complete tail. Unfortunately this was more of a chase than a fight, but it was an interesting moment of natural history. Who doesn't love those?!

If you have too much time on your hands and spent a good chunk of time staring at these pictures or reading about lizard biology, you may have noticed the difference in head size between photos. In this case, males have larger jaws relative to females presumably because they spend so much time fighting each other. Males with bigger heads have stronger bite force and defeat punier males and then proceed to take all the ladies, just like in humans. 

Not the best picture to highlight the differences, but the male is on the left. 

And as if you haven't had enough enthralling facts and pictures of lizards today, the peeling sunburnt skin on the back reminds me that lizards also shed. 

This is what my neck looks like. 

Wasn't that just wonderful and enlightening? Knowledge is power and power corrupts, so be careful. 

A female Podarcis sicula bids you adieu from her stone perch placed neatly above a dead man.