K
kyle
Guest
Well... I've been a "occasional caudata.org surfer" for quite some time now but never really looked in to the forums much before, really wish I had, didnt have a clue there were so many cryptobranchid enthusiasts here, and I'm delighted to find so many
!
I thought many of you would appreciate (and possibly be very jealous of) a few pictures I have from a recent encounter with a specimen at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. Not only the pictures, but the story to go along with it... and if you are so inclined, send me a PM, and I can send you a large email attachment (10 MB) with several more pictures of the Salamander.
Over the last semester of my senior year I've been working on what we call the senior project which is what every student has to pass to graduate from my highschool. The senior project consists of proving something, writing an 8-12 page paper supporting that subject, then completeing a project that correlates with your paper, and finishing up by making a presentation to members of the community.
I chose to do mine on the Cryptobranchids. I knew very little about them, but what I did know is that they were awesome creatures and that they need help. So I based my whole project on this and went to a couple of reptile shows with a full scale replica of a Japanese Giant Salamander over 4 feet long and helped raise awareness and a little bit of money as well. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot of great stuff about these animals.
Anyway, I've been working with Jessi Krebs, the curator of herps at the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo, who started working with Giant Salamanders nearly 2 years ago when the zoo aquired a Japanese Giant, from the Ft. Worth zoo, for their new Kingdoms of the night exhibit. Every month they pull the Salamander out of its tank to weigh and measure and the last time when they were scheduled to do it, Jessi had invited me to come down and help out. I figured I would just be watching, but he told me to bring a pair of swimming trunks.
When I got there he said the waters cold, you should put on this wet suit and I was ecstatic! I actually got to hop in to the gargantuos enclosure to hold, and help weigh and measure this Salamander that I had been researching on for months! It was the most amazing thing I've done and I even have a few pictures of the whole deal and I thought some of you may be interested.
Here are a couple of the pictures I have, I hope you enjoy them, and if you have any questions about my project, or Giant Salamanders in general feel free to ask, I've learned a lot, and know a few things about current status, or can find out the answer quickly if I dont know.
Enjoy the pictures! (edit.. pics too big, have to post links, still worth the click
)
http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/30295DSCN3006.JPG
http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/30295AKSalamander2.jpg
http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/30295DSCN3006.JPG
Again, happy to see so many supporters, and I hope to continue posting here and learning from what you guys know, and have already posted, I really wish I would of known about this part of the site before my project was finished. And if you're curious, my final grade for the class is a 98%, and even more of a bonus, people all over my school are really curious about these animals, and I get to answer all sorts of stupid questions, I love it
I thought many of you would appreciate (and possibly be very jealous of) a few pictures I have from a recent encounter with a specimen at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. Not only the pictures, but the story to go along with it... and if you are so inclined, send me a PM, and I can send you a large email attachment (10 MB) with several more pictures of the Salamander.
Over the last semester of my senior year I've been working on what we call the senior project which is what every student has to pass to graduate from my highschool. The senior project consists of proving something, writing an 8-12 page paper supporting that subject, then completeing a project that correlates with your paper, and finishing up by making a presentation to members of the community.
I chose to do mine on the Cryptobranchids. I knew very little about them, but what I did know is that they were awesome creatures and that they need help. So I based my whole project on this and went to a couple of reptile shows with a full scale replica of a Japanese Giant Salamander over 4 feet long and helped raise awareness and a little bit of money as well. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot of great stuff about these animals.
Anyway, I've been working with Jessi Krebs, the curator of herps at the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo, who started working with Giant Salamanders nearly 2 years ago when the zoo aquired a Japanese Giant, from the Ft. Worth zoo, for their new Kingdoms of the night exhibit. Every month they pull the Salamander out of its tank to weigh and measure and the last time when they were scheduled to do it, Jessi had invited me to come down and help out. I figured I would just be watching, but he told me to bring a pair of swimming trunks.
When I got there he said the waters cold, you should put on this wet suit and I was ecstatic! I actually got to hop in to the gargantuos enclosure to hold, and help weigh and measure this Salamander that I had been researching on for months! It was the most amazing thing I've done and I even have a few pictures of the whole deal and I thought some of you may be interested.
Here are a couple of the pictures I have, I hope you enjoy them, and if you have any questions about my project, or Giant Salamanders in general feel free to ask, I've learned a lot, and know a few things about current status, or can find out the answer quickly if I dont know.
Enjoy the pictures! (edit.. pics too big, have to post links, still worth the click
) http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/30295DSCN3006.JPG
http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/30295AKSalamander2.jpg
http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/30295DSCN3006.JPG
Again, happy to see so many supporters, and I hope to continue posting here and learning from what you guys know, and have already posted, I really wish I would of known about this part of the site before my project was finished. And if you're curious, my final grade for the class is a 98%, and even more of a bonus, people all over my school are really curious about these animals, and I get to answer all sorts of stupid questions
, I love it