wes_von_papineäu
Our Roving Correspondent
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HOLMAN COURIER (West Salem, Wisconsin) 12 May 08 Ridgerunner Reports: Egret offers good reminder -- time to go fishing (Jim Solberg) {Excerpt}
Unamphibious amphibian
On one lucky day in April, I got a call from Mike Bogard at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center in La Crosse and from Bryan Kostuch, a friend from Sparta, both telling me that they had a mudpuppy for me to photograph. I had wanted to see an adult mudpuppy for years so that was a very happy coincidence.
Bogard was preparing to use some of the creatures for testing a pesticide that is supposed to be toxic only to lamprey eels. Kostuch had caught one while fishing in the Wisconsin River for walleyes. He told me many anglers who caught them there frequently mostly feared and hated them.
Mudpuppies are rather odd-looking amphibians. They are large permanently aquatic salamanders with four legs, a finned tail, slimy dark brown or gray blotched skin and prominent red feathery gills behind the head.
They differ from most other amphibians. The name Amphibia means that most species go through an aquatic larval stage and change into a land dwelling, air breathing adult stage.
The mudpuppy however stays in the water its whole life. They lay their eggs in a sac suspended from a rock or some other underwater cavity. The adults retain some larval characteristics, especially the prominent gills. They feed on crayfish, insects, snails and small fish and can be found throughout the state.
http://www.holmencourier.com/articles/2008/05/12/features/00ridgerunner.txt
Unamphibious amphibian
On one lucky day in April, I got a call from Mike Bogard at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center in La Crosse and from Bryan Kostuch, a friend from Sparta, both telling me that they had a mudpuppy for me to photograph. I had wanted to see an adult mudpuppy for years so that was a very happy coincidence.
Bogard was preparing to use some of the creatures for testing a pesticide that is supposed to be toxic only to lamprey eels. Kostuch had caught one while fishing in the Wisconsin River for walleyes. He told me many anglers who caught them there frequently mostly feared and hated them.
Mudpuppies are rather odd-looking amphibians. They are large permanently aquatic salamanders with four legs, a finned tail, slimy dark brown or gray blotched skin and prominent red feathery gills behind the head.
They differ from most other amphibians. The name Amphibia means that most species go through an aquatic larval stage and change into a land dwelling, air breathing adult stage.
The mudpuppy however stays in the water its whole life. They lay their eggs in a sac suspended from a rock or some other underwater cavity. The adults retain some larval characteristics, especially the prominent gills. They feed on crayfish, insects, snails and small fish and can be found throughout the state.
http://www.holmencourier.com/articles/2008/05/12/features/00ridgerunner.txt