31 posts · 13,666 views
When I created this blog I had two primary goals. The first of which was to encourage an appreciation for wildlife that tend to have a bad reputation, primarily amphibians and reptiles. The second goal was to make my research accessible to a general audience. Over time, a third goal manifested itself. Many are generally unfamiliar with the natural history of reptiles; as a result there are a plethora of e-mail forwards containing outlandish stories and photos of these animals. All too often, these e-mails are circulated and accepted as fact. For animals that are already maligned, scary and fabricated stories only serve to perpetuate the myth they are dangerous and malevolent. Perhaps this is no more true than in the case of the giant dead rattlesnakes, wherein a dead rattlesnake is shoved towards the camera and a bogus story is made up about how various townsfolk were saved in the nick of time by the marauding monster. I use this blog to discuss these e-mail forwards, which I'm often able to debunk based solely on the biology of the organism in question.
David Steen
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- May 15, 2012
- 09:44 PM
- 15 views
Spring Bioblitz 2012: The Hunt for Plethodon ainsworthi
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
The following
article is a guest post by Brian Folt. Brian is a Ph.D. student at Auburn University, where he studies the community
ecology of amphibians and reptiles. He grew up in the Midwest and received a B.S. from Ohio University in 2011. Brian conducted field work in Costa Rica
for his undergraduate thesis and is interested in future tropical ecology work.
Brian is an avid hiker and a... Read more »
Lazell, J. (1998) New Salamander of the Genus Plethodon from Mississippi. Copeia, 1998(4), 967. DOI: 10.2307/1447343
Graham, S., Steen, D., Nelson, K., Durso, A., & Maerz, J. (2010) An Overlooked Hotspot? Rapid Biodiversity Assessment Reveals a Region of Exceptional Herpetofaunal Richness in the Southeastern United States. Southeastern Naturalist, 9(1), 19-34. DOI: 10.1656/058.009.0102
- April 8, 2012
- 06:08 PM
- 137 views
Snake Escape
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
The following article is a guest post by Michael P. Wines. Michael is a
graduate student at Auburn University studying the Eastern Indigo Snake, Drymarchon couperi and the Red Hills Salamander,
Phaeognathus hubrichti. He was a zookeeper at the Memphis Zoo
for several years after graduating from the University of Memphis. When not being made a fool by study organisms ... Read more »
Breininger, D., Mazerolle, M., Bolt, M., Legare, M., Drese, J., & Hines, J. (2012) Habitat fragmentation effects on annual survival of the federally protected eastern indigo snake. Animal Conservation. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-1795.2012.00524.x
- April 6, 2012
- 10:45 AM
- 168 views
Friday Roundup - Hellbenders in Georgia, Frogs in New York City, and Rattlesnakes Nowhere to be Found
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
Hellbenders re-discovered in northwestern Georgia. A few years ago, I wrote about an unsuccessful trip to northern Alabama to look for Hellbenders, Cryptobranchus alleghaniensis. For a population of these large salamanders to survive over long periods of time, they need clean and undisturbed streams with lots of large rocks. Because of pollution, agriculture, and siltation, there are few of these... Read more »
S. P. Graham, & et al. (2011) Conservation Status of Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleghaniensis) in Alabama, USA. Herpetological Conservation and Biology, 6(2), 242-249. info:/
- April 2, 2012
- 05:04 PM
- 162 views
Natural History of Neck-banded Snakes
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
The following article is a guest post by Andrew Durso. I would like to feature more guest posts here in the future; please contact me if you're interested in contributing. Want to see more posts from Andrew or other potential future guest bloggers? Encourage them by letting them know what you think in the Comments.
Andrew Durso currently lives in Logan, Utah, and is a Ph.D. student at Utah State... Read more »
SAVAGE, J., & SLOWINSKI, J.B. (1996) Evolution of coloration, urotomy and coral snake mimicry in the snake genusScaphiodontophis(Serpentes: Colubridae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 57(2), 129-194. DOI: 10.1006/bijl.1996.0010
SAVITZKY, A. (1981) Hinged Teeth in Snakes: An Adaptation for Swallowing Hard-Bodied Prey. Science, 212(4492), 346-349. DOI: 10.1126/science.212.4492.346
- March 14, 2012
- 05:25 PM
- 247 views
Readers Write In: What is Eating this Dead Snake?
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
Today I received the following e-mail from a reader in Florida:
"We had a 5 foot snake in our back yard which our yard man killed and then left it. My husband did not get the chance to discard of it and today when we went out to remove it there is something that is pulling it into the ground. It was a good size snake and it fits right into the hole. We saw the tip of the legs of the animal ... Read more »
Gifford, C. (1962) Some Observations on the General Biology of the Land Crab, Cardisoma guanhumi (Latreille), in South Florida. Biological Bulletin, 123(1), 207. DOI: 10.2307/1539516
D. J. Stevenson, D. A. Steen, & M. Wallace. (2012) Nerodia erythrogaster erythrogaster (Red-bellied Watersnake). Necrophagy by dung beetles (Scarabaeinae). Herpetological Review. info:/
- March 9, 2012
- 09:43 AM
- 244 views
Friday Roundup-Western Diamondback Shortages and Sailfish Taking the Bait
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
An Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake from Georgia
A Scarcity of Rattlesnakes in Texas? This week, a newspaper article about the Sweetwater (Texas) Rattlesnake Roundup caught my eye. Rattlesnake roundups out West are a little different from the roundups in the southeastern United States. First of all, there are more of them (there are only two left in the Southeast) and second of all, they collect... Read more »
L.A. Fitzgerald, & C.W. Painter. (2000) Rattlesnake commercialization: long-term trends, issues, and implications for conservation. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 28(1), 235-253. info:/
Brook, B., & Sodhi, N. (2006) Conservation biology: Rarity bites. Nature, 444(7119), 555-556. DOI: 10.1038/444555a
- March 2, 2012
- 12:06 PM
- 343 views
Friday Roundup-A Tribute to Leap(ing animals) Year and High Frequency Primates
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
In Honor of Leap Year: Deep Sea News presents this compilation of marine creatures leaping out of their oceanic habitats. Photographers with good timing captured these rare moments, allowing us to see animals like tuna, squid, and sharks, in a different light. The picture of the breaching Sperm Whale, Physeter macrocephalus is stunning. No, the last photograph is not real.
What's the Frequency ... Read more »
Ramsier, M., Cunningham, A., Moritz, G., Finneran, J., Williams, C., Ong, P., Gursky-Doyen, S., & Dominy, N. (2012) Primate communication in the pure ultrasound. Biology Letters. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.1149
Cronin, T., & Marshall, N. (1989) A retina with at least ten spectral types of photoreceptors in a mantis shrimp. Nature, 339(6220), 137-140. DOI: 10.1038/339137a0
- February 26, 2012
- 11:40 AM
- 262 views
Friday Roundup-Eating Roadkill and Turtle Troubles in Canada
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
A New York Snapping Turtle
Protecting Snapping Turtles in Canada. The distribution and range of a species is often heavily influenced by climate and habitat. If an area does not have suitable climate or habitat for a species, they cannot occur there. It's that simple. Polar Bears would not be comfortable in tropical jungles and you will not find Green Iguanas basking on icecaps. It gets a ... Read more »
Cedervall, T., Hansson, L., Lard, M, Frohm, B, & Linse, S. (2012) Food Chain Transport of Nanoparticles Affects Behaviour and Fat Metabolism in Fish. PLoS ONE, 7(2). info:/
de Solla SR, Bishop CA, Lickers H, & Jock K. (2001) Organochlorine pesticides, PCBs, dibenzodioxin, and furan concentrations in common snapping turtle eggs (Chelydra serpentina serpentina) in Akwesasne, Mohawk Territory, Ontario, Canada. Archives of environmental contamination and toxicology, 40(3), 410-7. PMID: 11443374
Allender MC, Dreslik M, Wylie S, Phillips C, Wylie DB, Maddox C, Delaney MA, & Kinsel MJ. (2011) Chrysosporium sp. infection in eastern massasauga rattlesnakes. Emerging infectious diseases, 17(12), 2383-4. PMID: 22172594
- February 17, 2012
- 06:32 PM
- 296 views
The Chemistry of Turtles-Guest Post
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
The following article is a guest post by Sean Sterrett. I would like to feature more guest posts here in the future; please contact me if you're interested in contributing. Want to see more posts from Sean or other potential future guest bloggers? Encourage them by letting them know what you think in the Comments.
Sean Sterrett currently lives in ... Read more »
RIPPLE, W., & BESCHTA, R. (2004) Wolves and the Ecology of Fear: Can Predation Risk Structure Ecosystems?. BioScience, 54(8), 755. DOI: 10.1641/0006-3568(2004)054[0755:WATEOF]2.0.CO;2
SCHAUS, M., VANNI, M., WISSING, T., BREMIGAN, M., GARVEY, J., & STEIN, R. (1997) Nitrogen and phosphorus excretion by detritivorous gizzard shad in a reservoir ecosystem. Limnology and Oceanography, 42(6), 1386-1397. DOI: 10.4319/lo.1997.42.6.1386
- February 17, 2012
- 11:35 AM
- 291 views
Friday Roundup-Alabama Turtles, Florida Pythons, and Mystery Meat
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
Are Alabama Turtles the Next Target? I wrote last week about how Georgia recently enacted new laws to help protect their native turtle populations. By creating limits on the number of turtles one person can catch, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources hoped to regulate the likely-unsustainable harvest. Turtle populations just do not grow fast enough to replace the many individuals that were... Read more »
Hart, K., Schofield, P., & Gregoire, D. (2012) Experimentally derived salinity tolerance of hatchling Burmese pythons (Python molurus bivittatus) from the Everglades, Florida (USA). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 56-59. DOI: 10.1016/j.jembe.2011.11.021
Dorcas ME, Willson JD, Reed RN, Snow RW, Rochford MR, Miller MA, Meshaka WE Jr, Andreadis PT, Mazzotti FJ, Romagosa CM.... (2012) Severe mammal declines coincide with proliferation of invasive Burmese pythons in Everglades National Park. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(7), 2418-22. PMID: 22308381
- February 3, 2012
- 10:35 AM
- 376 views
Friday Roundup-Rattlesnake Festivals and New Vipers Discovered
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
Making Strides in Georgia: In recent weeks, there have been many news stories coming out of Georgia that demonstrate how committed individuals and organizations have been making great strides in reptile conservation.
I have written previously about rattlesnake roundups in the southeastern United States (as have others). These events encourage people to catch rattlesnakes over the course of the ... Read more »
D. B. Means. (2009) EFFECTS OF RATTLESNAKE ROUNDUPS ON THE EASTERN DIAMONDBACK RATTLESNAKE (CROTALUS ADAMANTEUS). Herpetological Conservation and Biology, 132-141. info:/
Brown, D., Farallo, V., Dixon, J., Baccus, J., Simpson, T., & Forstner, M. (2011) Freshwater turtle conservation in Texas: harvest effects and efficacy of the current management regime. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 75(3), 486-494. DOI: 10.1002/jwmg.73
- January 21, 2012
- 11:16 AM
- 419 views
Trapping Turtles in Costa Rica: Week in Review
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
A respectable haul
With my first week of trapping turtles in Costa Rica coming to a close, I think it’s an appropriate time to take stock of the results.
I set my traps on Monday and left them there all day and night before checking them on Tuesday morning. Although I had high hopes for five traps all full of turtles, the reality was a little less rewarding. Nothing. In... Read more »
Morales-Verdeja, S., & Vogt, R. (1997) Terrestrial Movements in Relation to Aestivation and the Annual Reproductive Cycle of Kinosternon leucostomum. Copeia, 1997(1), 123. DOI: 10.2307/1447847
- January 16, 2012
- 06:04 PM
- 396 views
Trapping Tropical Turtles Today
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
Some animals, like turtles, can live for decades. But most turtle studies only last a few years (one big reason is because many studies are conducted by graduate students and, contrary to popular belief, students do in fact want to graduate quickly). So, because turtles live for decades and most studies are completed after just a couple years, that means that ... Read more »
Wasko, D., & Sasa, M. (2010) Habitat Selection of the Terciopelo (Serpentes: Viperidae: Bothrops asper) in a Lowland Rainforest in Costa Rica. Herpetologica, 66(2), 148-158. DOI: 10.1655/08-064R2.1
CONGDON, J., DUNHAM, A., & VAN LOBEN SELS, R. (1993) Delayed Sexual Maturity and Demographics of Blanding's Turtles (Emydoidea blandingii): Implications for Conservation and Management of Long-Lived Organisms. Conservation Biology, 7(4), 826-833. DOI: 10.1046/j.1523-1739.1993.740826.x
- January 13, 2012
- 02:08 PM
- 426 views
Readers Write In: Grey Ghost Rattlesnakes in Wyoming?
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
A reader recently wrote to me in the hopes of shedding some light on a rattlesnake mystery from northern Wyoming. The original e-mail is below (I have edited for length and clarity).
“I was involved in a rescue event in late August in N. Wyoming. For reasons too complex to go into here I found myself in knee-to-waist high mesquite brush in pitch-black darkness, wearing ... Read more »
HOLYCROSS, A., & FAWCETT, J. (2002) Observations on Neonatal Aggregations and Associated Behaviors in the Prairie Rattlesnake, Crotalus viridis viridis. The American Midland Naturalist, 148(1), 181-184. DOI: 10.1674/0003-0031(2002)148[0181:OONAAA]2.0.CO;2
- December 9, 2011
- 03:45 PM
- 429 views
Friday Roundup-Arctic Owls in the United States
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
1. Snowy Owls Venture South. I would venture a guess that many people in the United States would say the closest they will ever get to a Snowy Owl, Nyctea scandiaca, is a Harry Potter Movie. They might be surprised.
It has long been known that Snowy Owls from northern Canada periodically venture far south (here's one filmed in Tennessee in 2009). Last month, a Snowy Owl was photographed outside ... Read more »
P. Kerlinger, M. R. Lein, & B. J. Sevick. (1985) Distribution and population fluctuations of wintering snowy owls (Nyctea scandiaca) in North America. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 1829-1834. info:/
- December 2, 2011
- 08:32 AM
- 596 views
Friday Roundup-An Octopus Invasion and a Hellbender Conservation Breakthrough
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
1. An Octopus Takes a Stroll. Perhaps you've come across the video of the octopus laboriously pulling itself out of the water and making its way through the intertidal zone.
The Octopus was found in the James V. Fitzgerald Marine Reserve on the California coast. By the sound of the voices in the video, it was spotted by a family exploring the area. Katherine Harmon (in her blog, the Octopus ... Read more »
SEAN P. GRAHAM, ERIC C. SOEHREN, GEORGE R. CLINE, CHRISTINA M. SCHMIDT, WILLIAM B. SUTTON, JAMES R. RAYBURN, SIERRA H. STILES, & JAMES A. STILES. (2011) CONSERVATION STATUS OF HELLBENDERS (CRYPTOBRANCHUS ALLEGANIENSIS) IN ALABAMA, USA. Herpetological Conservation and Biology, 6(2), 242-249. info:/
Crane AL, & Mathis A. (2010) Predator-recognition training: a conservation strategy to increase postrelease survival of hellbenders in head-starting programs. Zoo biology. PMID: 20973085
- November 25, 2011
- 11:33 AM
- 462 views
Is the South Florida Rainbow Snake Really Extinct?
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
A Georgia Rainbow Snake (courtesy D. Stevenson)
A few weeks ago I wrote about how the South Florida Rainbow Snake, of which there are only a handful of known specimens (and not to be confused with the "normal" Rainbow Snake), was officially declared extinct by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).
Not so fast, say the Center for Snake Conservation and the Center for Biological ... Read more »
Scheffers BR, Yong DL, Harris JB, Giam X, & Sodhi NS. (2011) The world's rediscovered species: back from the brink?. PloS one, 6(7). PMID: 21818334
Fitzpatrick, J. (2005) Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) Persists in Continental North America. Science, 308(5727), 1460-1462. DOI: 10.1126/science.1114103
Dalton, R. (2006) Ivory-billed woodpecker extinct after all?. news@nature. DOI: 10.1038/news060313-14
- November 24, 2011
- 03:22 PM
- 555 views
This Thanksgiving, Don’t be a Hog (Nosed Snake)
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
When eating a large meal, consuming something that weighs more than you do isn’t simply a matter of whether it’s something you want to do; there are also some physical concerns. In other words, even if you wanted to eat more than your body weight in food (on some Thanksgiving pasts, I’ve certainly given it a fair shot), how can you possible fit it into your body? ... Read more »
Toledo, L., Ribeiro, R., & Haddad, C. (2007) Anurans as prey: an exploratory analysis and size relationships between predators and their prey. Journal of Zoology, 271(2), 170-177. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7998.2006.00195.x
D. A. Steen, G. G. Sorrell, N. J. Paris, K. J. Paris, D. D. Simpson, & L. L. Smith. (2010) Heterodon platirhinos (Eastern Hog-nosed Snake). Predator/prey mass ratio. Herpetological Review, 365. info:/
- November 18, 2011
- 02:43 PM
- 567 views
Recent News of Interest-Eating Animals to Extinction and Copperheads in Virginia
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
An Alabama Copperhead
1. This just in: News Flash. Snakes exist in Virginia. Better get them before they get you.
2. Those Who Do Not Learn From the Past... Biologists, and even conservation biologists, historically had some curious views regarding their study organisms, views that seem very odd today. The classic example, to me at least, is that of Sir Alfred Russell Wallace (1823-1913), a ... Read more »
ROSTLUND, E. (1960) THE GEOGRAPHIC RANGE OF THE HISTORIC BISON IN THE SOUTHEAST. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 50(4), 395-407. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8306.1960.tb00357.x
Erik Meijaard, Alan Welsh, Marc Ancrenaz, Serge Wich, Vincent Nijman, & Andrew J. Marshall. (2010) Declining Orangutan Encounter Rates from Wallace to the Present Suggest the Species Was Once More Abundant. PLoS ONE, 5(8). info:/
- November 11, 2011
- 08:51 AM
- 511 views
Friday Roundup-Hero Dogs and a Mouthful of Slime
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
Here are a couple items that caught my attention this week.
1. Rattlesnakes From Abandoned Lots Invade Neighborhood, Terrorize Residents. This sounds like it could be the premise of a reasonably entertaining horror movie. Residents of Port St. Lucie, Florida are convinced that Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnakes are thriving in their neighborhoods because there are too many vacant and abandoned ... Read more »
Vincent Zintzen, Clive D. Roberts, Marti J. Anderson, Andrew L. Stewart, Carl D. Struthers, & Euan S. Harvey. (2011) Hagfish predatory behaviour and slime defence mechanism. Scientific Reports, 1(131). info:/
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