new member in virginia

[bugabob]

Hi, my name is Bob and I'm a graduate student at UVA. Always been a big amphibian fan and have owned several. My amphibian claim to fame is that I got to feed a mouse to Gary Larson's (Far Side author) pacman frog once. Right now I own a paddle-tailed newt (Pachytriton) who has a ton of personality, and is so aggressive that he has a large tank all to himself now. I have some great pictures of him shedding and eating the skin, which I will post when I figure out how.
I recently moved to Virginia and am interested in trying to find and photograph a hellbender in the wild. I would appreciate any suggestions or tips on locating them.

 

[Kaysie]

Hi Bob! Welcome to the forum. Gary Larson is a comedic GENIUS! You're lucky.

Good luck on your hellbender hunt. I'm going to attempt to find my first one in March. We'll see how it goes. Just keep in mind that it's against forum rules to ask/give specific (or even sometimes general) locality data.

 

[Otterwoman]

Here's an exciting field herping account on finding hellbenders....
http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=51425
It might give you a few ideas, and show an example of a great thread.

Welcome!

 

[freves]

Glad that you joined Bob. I live in Radford (about an hour and 45 minutes SW of Charlottsville) and have been unsuccessfully searching for hellbenders for the last three years. I know of several areas where they once occurred in great numbers however, like in other parts of their range, this is no longer the case. I'm still looking however.
Chip

 

[Otterwoman]

Hey Bob, What department are you in?

 

[John]

Just keep in mind that it's against forum rules to ask/give specific (or even sometimes general) locality data.

Kaysie's right but it is not against our rules to contact people privately to ask for localities. However we do advise that the person asked for their info should make sure they know the questioner or get a reference from someone else on the site who might know them, in order to know the truth of the questioner's motives.

 

[bugabob]

Thanks for the advice about asking for collecting info. I was mostly just curious if anyone had seen one in these parts recently. I'd heard, as freves says, that they used to be fairly abundant in some areas near me but are getting more difficult to find.
I'm in the Statistics department here at UVA. I hope to use my degree to work in conservation, possibly for the EPA or another government organization.

 

[Otterwoman]

My boyfriend wanted to know. He got his PhD in the Environmental Science dep't. there. He said, "Statistics? No wonder you wanted to go out and get some fresh air."