Hello,

[Roderick Sprague]

I live in Moscow Idaho USA, the second largest Moscow in the world. I have been facinatinated by Caudata since I was a child in the 60s and found out about them in the book Reptiles and Amphibians Golden Guide. A few years later, I found an Ambystoma mavortium melanostictum (blotched tiger salamander) on the school grounds. After that, much of my childhood was spent with up to four of them at a time. Sadly, the local population has been reduced, so they are much harder to find. The same is not true for our local Ambystoma macrodactylum krausei (Northern long-toed salamander) that I have had as pets for much of my life as a child. Part of my childhood spring ritual included looking for A. m. krausei eggs to rear. I had limited luck until Dad showed me an article in Nature Magazine where it was found roadside salamander eggs were sensitive to higher pH caused by road dust getting into the water. With some litmus paper and later pH test kits from pet stores, I was much more successful. I buried a 250 gallon pond form in my yard. A few years later, my church (the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse) wanted to rear A. m. krausei eggs for the Sunday school. I hadn't reared amphibian eggs for years ( the following is simply to put me in context, not indoctrinate. We believe that religion is deeply personal (we even have Atheists in our congregations) and science should also inform religion, so we are diverse, but on the same page morally, so it was an opportunity to show the children how ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny and the importance of protecting nature). When the Sunday school was done with them, I put the A. m. krausei larvae and adults in my pond. They have been breeding in there for over twenty years now. Right now, I hear calling Pseudacris regilla (Pacific treefrogs) in the 250 gallon pond form right now. They found the pond a few years ago. Recently, I checked the pond and found the it clear of amphibian diseases, so I feed I can safely share some of the amphibians with others. I have also been reverting my yard to native vegetation. I have been attracting a remarkable number of invertebrates including diverse pollinators to my yard. The invertebrate numbers seem to cause my amphibians to get remarkably large. I am also interested in culturing invertebrates, including natives.