Ambystoma maculatum in the Southern Appalachianss

[jaster]

Hello all. This semester I am doing a student research project with these guys (if it ever stops snowing). Our ideas for an experiment are still hazy and I wanted to run them by you for some insight. So far, we have thrown out some ideas, but I would like to test adult density as it pertains to distance from roads. It may not be a good test because A. maculatum will breed in roadside ditches and I have not been out to our study site to pick out locales. Another idea was recording male body size for those we find in courtship and those not. And still, how accurate would a population estimate be for these guys? Which method of estimation would be sound? It would only account for the breeding population, but if I could do that, I would like to record number of DOR individuals, see if a significant proportion of adults are killed. I will be getting IACUC permission and all that jazz. Any other ideas would be great. Maybe some other factors of our montane environment would provide something interesting and testable...


Thank you.

 

[Kaysie]

The hardest part is going to be finding them. They're REALLY hard to find when it's not breeding season, and they've already bred and gone back to their burrows now. The eggs in N. Alabama are developing nicely. Be a few more weeks before they hatch though.

You could do egg surveys. These provide a reasonable estimate of whether or not a pond is healthy.

Are you dead set on A. maculatum? I would suggest something more common and easily found, like Notopthalmus viridescens.

 

[Gregarious]

Kaysie, I'm confused by you're post. We were in Virginia last year about the first week march and found just the beinging of the maculatum migration. It is currently the second week of Feb. and you are saying the eggs are laid? I could agree if you were talk'in of alabama but is North Carolina that much different then Virginia? Maybe it's an elevation issue. Please help me to understand to what it is you refer.
A study of population or eggs would be facinating and possibly educational. So many in the caudata world are secretive and a lack of information is rather the norm then the exception. I hope that you find a heathy population and can get some good data from it. Cold and rainy nights ahead, ho ra.

 

[Greatwtehunter]

I can all but guarantee that the A. maculatum in his area have NOT bred yet. In a few weeks, after all of the snow has melted, will be your best chance at finding spotteds that are either in breeding condition and those that aren't. I've noticed here and in a few other locales that the males were always the first to start showing up under cover around the local breeding ponds. If you were going to study something male specific then this would be the time to do it since they would out number the females.

 

[jaster]

Yes, there is no way they have come out around here yet... I do know males will appear first, but once the main aggregation starts is when I would like to record something. I think the mating/ not mating study will provide a better experiment (just because I can do better stats with it). The person who's property I will be on has kept records of when they start crawling, and the last few years it has been in late February, and with this nasty winter, I would say it is postponed a week or two so no worries there. I just want to make sure I am not relying on too many assumptions in my ideas or experiments. The windows are open for a few weeks.

 

[Kaysie]

Sorry. I totally forgot you were up in the mountains. (Sidenote: I'll be up your way in April in Banner Elk for a weekend-long course I'm taking. Let me know if you want to go herping!)

If I were you, I'd get permission to do some trapping (either drift-fence/pitfall traps or minnow traps). Set your traps soon, before migration starts, and mark the animals you catch with toe-clips. Toeclips are much easier to do than elastimer tagging. Then let them go about their business. You can then use these in a recapture study (even road mortality).

PM me or email me (newtgirl at gmail dot com) if you want to discuss it more. I love designing projects!

 

[jaster]

Well, they made an appearance over the weekend but seemed to have stopped... I've been told once the migration starts there is no stopping. Maybe the breeding event was cut short this year. There were only one or two in the pools Sunday and yesterday and evidence of breeding (old spermatophores)...

Hopefully more rain will bring more. We didn't encounter as many as I saw last year either. Hm.

 

[Kaysie]

This year has been strange. The weather is weird all over the country. I would still keep an eye out after the rains. Our migration was kind of stretched out over some time, rather than the usual 'big push'. We found males in our traps for over a month. Finally stopped catching them around mid-to-late February.