wes_von_papineäu
Our Roving Correspondent
CITIZENS JOURNAL (Atlanta, Texas) 12 April 08 Unusual catch in Douglassville
An ordinary day of fishing changed for Curtis Steger when he reeled in an odd looking creature that he could not quickly identify out of his and his wife Jane’s pond on State Highway 8 South in Douglassville.
The creature had a long, slender body and two feet located next to its head. Its body was shaped like that of a salamander, which according to Cass County regulatory wildlife biologist Penny Pettit is because it is in that same species.
Pettit said the amphibian is called a lesser siren and this species lives from the coasts of North Carolina and Florida west to Texas and even north to Michigan. The lesser sirens are fully aquatic and don’t move out of the small ponds where they make their homes.
Steger not only caught one of the lesser sirens, but two, both around 18 inches in length. Lesser sirens are very secretive, nocturnal creatures that feed mostly on aquatic invertebrates, tadpoles, worms, snails, and aquatic plants.
Pettit said one cool thing about the lesser siren is the way their protect themseles from drying out during a drought. The lesser siren secretes a substance from their skin and mix it with mud to make a cocoon-like casing around their bodies and with that they can stay buried in dry mud for months until rain returns. There are two subspecies of lesser sirens, Eastern Lesser Siren and Western Lesser Siren, but Pettit said Steger’s lesser siren is most likely that of the western subspecies.
http://atlantacitizensjournal.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=194&Itemid=2
An ordinary day of fishing changed for Curtis Steger when he reeled in an odd looking creature that he could not quickly identify out of his and his wife Jane’s pond on State Highway 8 South in Douglassville.
The creature had a long, slender body and two feet located next to its head. Its body was shaped like that of a salamander, which according to Cass County regulatory wildlife biologist Penny Pettit is because it is in that same species.
Pettit said the amphibian is called a lesser siren and this species lives from the coasts of North Carolina and Florida west to Texas and even north to Michigan. The lesser sirens are fully aquatic and don’t move out of the small ponds where they make their homes.
Steger not only caught one of the lesser sirens, but two, both around 18 inches in length. Lesser sirens are very secretive, nocturnal creatures that feed mostly on aquatic invertebrates, tadpoles, worms, snails, and aquatic plants.
Pettit said one cool thing about the lesser siren is the way their protect themseles from drying out during a drought. The lesser siren secretes a substance from their skin and mix it with mud to make a cocoon-like casing around their bodies and with that they can stay buried in dry mud for months until rain returns. There are two subspecies of lesser sirens, Eastern Lesser Siren and Western Lesser Siren, but Pettit said Steger’s lesser siren is most likely that of the western subspecies.
http://atlantacitizensjournal.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=194&Itemid=2