Reptiles and Amphibians

Reptiles and Amphibians

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Promoting Desert Tortoise Care

By
Angie Covert
– May 15, 2012Posted in: Animals and Plants, Conservation, Projects in the Field, Reptiles and Amphibians, Uncategorized

Angie (in middle) and other DTCC staff help promote desert tortoise care at the Plant Sale.

Spring is here, and the San Diego Zoo Desert Tortoise Conservation Center (DTCC) is gearing up for the 2012 season. Tortoises are emerging from hibernation, and local custodians of tortoises have lots of questions for the DTCC staff!

One of our roles is to help educate Las Vegas residents about wild and pet desert tortoises. Attending local events such as the Springs Preserve Plant Sale is one way to reach people. The plant sale sells native Mojave Desert plants, which are more water efficient for yards in Las Vegas. It’s also a great opportunity to work with a local partner and educate the public on proper plants for pet tortoise habitats. The event gives us the opportunity to talk to people one on one and answer questions. We can also hand out important information to desert tortoise custodians, such as a list of native foods and plants they can add to their backyards.

It’s very important for people to know how to properly care for their pet tortoise! This year, we had a number of interested people who wanted to know what we do for desert tortoises and how they can help. We were able to explain our efforts in recovering the wild desert tortoise and the research projects we are working on. Our goal is to relocate tortoises back into the desert; the DTCC is the only legally authorized organization allowed to do this.

We also encouraged Springs Preserve Plant Sale attendees to volunteer at the DTCC, which is a great way to learn more about what we do. We had a sign-up sheet and information about the type of volunteer work they could do to help the desert tortoise!

If you are interested in volunteering, please email us at DTCC@sandiegozoo.org.

Angie Covert is a research coordinator at the San Diego Zoo Desert Tortoise Conservation Center. Read her previous post, Desert Tortoises Get Great Care.

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The Last Ones?

By
Allan Pessier
– May 15, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Conservation, Conservation at the Zoo, Projects in the Field, Reptiles and Amphibians, Uncategorized

Panamanian golden frog

If you sat next to me on the plane traveling home from Panama this past February, you probably thought that my tote bag was full of souvenirs from a grand, tropical vacation. Instead, I was carrying the carefully preserved and packaged bodies of endangered frogs from captive survival-assurance populations. This was a trip that required months of careful planning and lots of red tape in obtaining and using the complicated permits needed to transport wildlife samples. Far from being morbid, icky, or gross, these specimens were extremely valuable for scientific efforts to save amphibian species from extinction. So why would anyone willingly travel with dead frogs?

Does Allan's yellow tote bag hold hope for amphibian species?

To explain, I should tell you that I’m a veterinarian who specializes in pathology. Therefore, my day-to-day responsibilities are focused on using laboratory techniques, including necropsies (animal autopsies), to accurately diagnose disease in animals at the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park as well as our field conservation programs. Through these activities, our Wildlife Disease Laboratories have a mission to remove disease as a roadblock to wildlife conservation. By bringing these deceased frogs to our laboratory and sleuthing out their parasites and disease problems, we hope to make useful recommendations that can help improve things like animal diets or aid veterinarians in selecting the very best treatments. Ultimately, this helps to ensure that the captive populations can be sustained and thrive until they can someday return to the wild.

Promoting the success of amphibian survival assurance populations is no trivial matter: more than one third of the world’s approximately 6,000 amphibian species are in decline because of introduced disease, loss of habitat, environmental change, and human exploitation. Although sometimes I get wrapped up in dry scientific and technical details, this group of frogs from Panama now in my bag really reminded me of why I do what I do.

Allan holds some of the carefully preserved frog specimens for study.

Among these specimens were species like the Panamanian golden frog, which soon may survive only in captive survival assurance populations, and the fringe-limbed tree frog, for which only a single individual is still known to exist. It is difficult to describe the feeling of holding what may be the last individuals of an entire species in your hand, but I can tell you that it hit hard for me, and I know that it is worse for friends and colleagues on the front lines of the amphibian decline who don’t have the luxury of retreating into the laboratory.

I am privileged to work for a unique organization that recognizes the importance of what might seem like an unusual scholarly activity. Collaborating with colleagues nationally and internationally really makes amphibian conservation happen! I also have the support of an amazing team in the Wildlife Disease Laboratories who will move mountains if they think it will help animals in need.

If you’d like to know more about the amphibian extinction crisis and what you can do to help, please visit the Amphibian Ark® online at www.amphibianark.org. Some of the most important actions for saving amphibian species, like protecting the environment and raising awareness of the plight of animals, can happen from within our homes.

Allan Pessier is a senior scientist for the Wildlife Disease Laboratories, San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research.

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With a Little Help from Our Friends

By
Jennifer Germano
– May 4, 2012Posted in: Animals and Plants, Conservation, Desert Tortoises, Projects in the Field, Reptiles and Amphibians, Uncategorized

Boy Scouts Orlando Arnold, Jr. and Cory Chatterton are hard at work making artificial burrows for our tortoises.

I’ve spent over 10 years working in conservation, and no matter where in the world you end up, whether it’s here in the States, down in South America, or halfway around the world in New Zealand or Australia, one thing is painfully clear: there’s a lot of important conservation work that needs to be done and there never seems to be enough resources to get us to where we want to be. Though the budget shortfalls sometimes make the work a bit more difficult, one area in which I’ve been repeatedly amazed is the great support we often receive from members of the community and enthusiastic folks who come out and donate their time and a bit of sweat helping us get our work done. Conservation and the science behind it is not a solitary endeavor. Many people go into making every project succeed, and I just wanted to take this opportunity to remind all of you who may have helped with a conservation project (with San Diego Zoo Global or otherwise) or are thinking about volunteering that your time and enthusiasm really do make a huge difference!

Volunteer Simon Madill works on some fence repair for our on-site tortoise research.

Here at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center in Las Vegas, spring is standing on our doorstep, and we’re all preparing for the start of a new field season. Our research team is getting ready to embark on some new projects here on site, one of which required us to fix up some old tortoise pens that had fallen into disrepair over the past 10 to 15 years. This was a HUGE undertaking and one that would have taken me months of digging artificial burrows and fencing ditches as well as updating and fixing the fences for over 20 100-foot-long pens. A couple of months ago I was beginning to wonder how I was ever going to get it all done and if we’d have anywhere to put our tortoises in the spring. But the world works in mysterious ways, and just in the last month we’ve had some amazing volunteers lend a hand.

Members of the Nevada Conservation Corps after two days of fixing fences in our experimental tortoise pens.

Troop 336 with the Boy Scouts of America, Las Vegas Area Council, led by Cory Chatterton, some members of the Nevada Conservation Corps, and one of our long-term volunteers, Simon Madill, came to my rescue. Nearly 40 people came out over several days, and after some long hours of swinging shovels and pick axes in the desert sun and hours of cutting and tying up fencing, we have finally finished 20 tortoise pens!

All the enthusiasm and hard work of our volunteers mean that this spring we are able to start our tortoise behavior study. I am hopeful that the things we learn will help to improve our future reintroductions of animals back into the wild.

Jennifer Germano is a postdoctoral researcher at the San Diego Zoo Desert Tortoise Conservation Center. Read her previous post, Tortoises and Their Amazing Feats.

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Do Tortoises Wear Shower Caps?

By
Larisa Gokool
– April 23, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Conservation, Conservation at the Zoo, Desert Tortoises, Reptiles and Amphibians, Uncategorized

As a San Diego Zoo Global researcher based at our Desert Tortoise Conservation Center (DTCC) in Las Vegas, one of the things that really inspires my belief that the desert tortoise has a chance of surviving the threat of extinction is the interest it garners from completely uninvolved individuals. In the far northeast region of the country (read: Massachusetts), a children’s literature author (fine, she’s my mother), who had never heard of the desert tortoise until I joined the DTCC team, became inspired to help save it. Her contribution is a poem highlighting the trials and tribulations of being a highly sought-after pet in the Las Vegas area.

The idea came about as I was explaining to her that we recommend that people who call the Pet Desert Tortoise Hotline place a tortoise to be picked up in a box in a temperature-controlled room, such as the bathroom. I would like to share her poem in this forum for tortoise fans to read because it is both highly entertaining and accurate!

Do Tortoises Wear Shower Caps?

by R. G. Gokool

I found a tortoise in my bathroom and asked,

“Do tortoises wear shower caps?”

He replied, “Not at all,

For it could slip off, and I could fall.”

“Your shell is so pale,

Would you like some polish, or some glitter on it and your nails?”

“Most certainly not, I use my shell to protect me when it’s hot,

And to hide from my enemy,

Not to stand out and say, ‘come and get me.’”

“Would you like to come with me to the parking lot?”

“No, I’ve been there before and had to withdraw into my hump,

As people tried to use me for a speed bump.”

“Are you hungry? Would you like some dog food or monkey chow?”

“No, no way, no how!

I’m a desert animal, not a mammal,

I like cactus fruit, fevertail, and native grasses.

Not food that gives me lumps and makes me gaseous.”

“Can I use you for a stepstool?”

“No, you can break my shell, and that would be cruel.”

“Would you like to go for a swim?

We can go to the pool and jump right in.”

“No, I come from the desert, nice and hot.

Not from the briny deep

Where all the sea turtles sleep.”

“Would you like to meet my dog, Spot?”

“Certainly not!

“He may be cute, but not too bright,

He’ll chew my leg off in one bite!”

“Can I give you and your hatchlings to my friend?”

“If you do, you’ll find it’s illegal and you’ll pay a fine in the end.”

“Can I take you home and make you mine?”

“If you do, you’ll have to pay a $10,000 fine.”

“Can I pick you up and give you a hug?”

“No, ‘cause then I would pee,

And there are no plants for me

To get water to keep hydrated, so you see.”

“Can I put you in my fish tank indoors?”

“No, ‘cause I live outside. I didn’t come from a pet store.”

If you see a tortoise from your car,

Just admire him from afar.

Do not be sad if he doesn’t wave,

For he’s not that friendly a fellow,

He just wants to be left alone in his burrow.

Larisa Gokool is a research associate at the San Diego Zoo Desert Tortoise Conservation Center. Read her previous post, Bacteria, Viruses, and Disease, Oh My!

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Lizards of Guatemala

By
Glenn Gerber
– January 25, 2012Posted in: Animals and Plants, Conservation, Projects in the Field, Reptiles and Amphibians, Uncategorized

A large male Guatemalan beaded lizard relaxes in one of the outdoor breeding pens.

I was recently in Guatemala for the 15th annual meeting of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Iguana Specialist Group (ISG). Thank goodness for acronyms! As the name implies, the group is focused on the conservation and preservation of iguanas. These large, herbivorous lizards are found throughout much of the New World’s tropics and subtropics. Many iguana species are threatened with extinction due to hunting (apparently they taste like chicken), habitat loss associated with agriculture and development, introduced predators, road kills, and other human-associated threats.

Part of the meeting included a workshop focused on local iguana species, one of which occurs in Guatemala’s Montagua Valley. After the meeting and workshop, the group took a field trip to this valley to see these iguanas and to visit the conservation-breeding program for one of Guatemala’s other rare and endemic species, the Guatemalan beaded lizard, a close relative of the Gila monster found in the deserts of the American Southwest.

Thanks to the efforts of local conservationists, the future for both the iguanas and beaded lizards of the Montagua Valley is looking brighter.

Glenn Gerber is head of the San Diego Zoo’s Caribbean Regional Program. Read his previous post, Iguanas: Why Move?

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Tortoises and Their Amazing Feats

By
Jennifer Germano
– January 12, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Conservation, Desert Tortoises, Projects in the Field, Reptiles and Amphibians

A translocated desert tortoise carries the radio transmitter and GPS unit we use to monitor its movements.

My life as a field biologist finally seems to have slowed down as of late. With the cold weather settling in here in the Mojave Desert and the desert tortoises all hiding deep in their burrows, I finally have a chance to reflect back on my first year here working as a researcher for the San Diego Zoo’s Desert Tortoise Conservation Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. I’ve spent the past 12 years of my life studying amphibians and reptiles both around the country and throughout the world. But I must admit, chasing turtles and lizards in tropical rain forests or frogs on tiny islands in the South Pacific did not quite prepare me for working with these iconic desert creatures.

At first I thought, “Desert tortoises: how hard can it be?” After years of searching for silent frogs the size of an Oreo cookie in a dark forest at night, finding a tortoise the size of a dinner plate in a wide-open desert should be a piece of cake, right? And really, how fast can a tortoise possibly move? We’ve all grown up with the story of the tortoise and the hare…and yet even as a trained herpetologist, I was about to be amazed.

Jennifer radio-tracks translocated desert tortoises in southern Nevada.

Desert tortoises have adapted remarkably well to their arid environment. Despite, and perhaps because of, their size, they blend in with all the other rocks and rubble on the desert floor. Even with a radio transmitter glued to their shells, I’ve walked by more than a few, only to turn around to see their little faces peering at me from under their shell, hoping that I would keep on walking and mistake them for a another rock in the sunlight.

And as far as running? Well, tortoises may not be as fast as a hare, but they can definitely move. Currently, as human development takes over more and more of our pristine desert habitat, animals like the desert tortoise are often translocated or moved out of harm’s way. Unfortunately though, when you move a tortoise and drop it Bear Grylls-style into unknown territory (well, maybe not quite Man Vs. Wild style, as we do place our animals carefully in new sites and don’t make them jump out of airplanes and boats), the tortoise runs. Maybe not as fast as a cheetah or a Boston marathoner, but in true tortoise fashion they get their little legs going and race off.

This has been one of the focuses of my research: to figure out what affects an animal’s drive to move and how they behave following a translocation. After all, when we move animals out of harm’s way and to a safe place, we don’t want them to run home or leave the safety of our release site after translocation. Besides that, running takes an awful lot of energy, and if you are a creature adapted to the unforgiving desert environment, you want to conserve as much energy and food resources as possible.

Hillary, one of our translocated tortoises, comes down from the mountain (behind her) that took 10 days for her to climb.

Over this past year, I have spent countless hours trekking through the desert chasing after our tortoises to see where they went. One of them, Hillary (named after Sir Edmund of Mt. Everest fame), ran off right after the translocation and, living up to her name, took 10 days to climb all the way to the top of a mountain, stopping only at the base of a sheer cliff. After 10 days of climbing the mountain after her, to my great relief Hillary came back down and returned to the desert floor, settling in a wash only a few hundred yards/meters away from where we released her. Kenya, another of our amazing desert tortoises, spent the first few weeks after the translocation making daily movements of nearly a half mile (kilometer) or more. This is no small feat for a tortoise! With their tiny little legs, this would be like us walking over 10 miles (15 kilometers) a day!

Besides these amazing feats, surviving in the desert in a completely unknown area following a translocation is an accomplishment in itself. Most of our tortoises have stood up to the challenge and have made it through their first eight months at the new translocation site. While my team and I returned to our trucks at the end of each day, often sunburned and parched after hours of radio tracking, our desert tortoises have soldiered on. With hardly any rain and temperatures that soar to over 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.33 degrees Celsius), these tough little critters survive and thrive in an environment that would put most of the staunchest humans to shame. It’s not an easy task, but I hope the knowledge we gain from our research will help to make future translocations at least a little bit easier on these resilient critters. It’s a tough life out there in the desert, and they deserve all the help they can get.

Jennifer Germano is a postdoctoral researcher at the San Diego Zoo Desert Tortoise Conservation Center.

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Iguanas: Why Move?

By
Glenn Gerber
– January 11, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Conservation, Projects in the Field, Reptiles and Amphibians, Uncategorized

Turks & Caicos iguana

Late 2011 marked the first in a series of experimental iguana translocations on Big Ambergris Cay in the Caribbean’s Turks & Caicos designed to determine the conservation value of moving these large, endangered lizards out of areas slated for development to areas on the island that will not be developed. At first glance you may find it difficult to question the value of moving animals like this. Then again, why wouldn’t you move animals out of the bulldozer’s path? Well, what if the translocated animals simply return home? Or what if their survival in their new habitat is very low? Both of these outcomes are actually quite possible.

Iguanas are territorial animals with small home ranges, and they live a long time. They know their territories well and have invested a lot of time and energy establishing themselves in these areas. This means that animals moved away from their home areas may be highly motivated to return. It also means that iguanas moved to a new area may find they are not welcome by the iguanas already living in that area.

To test these ideas, we moved adult and juvenile animals of both sexes and attached radio transmitters to them to follow what they did. Five out of 12 adults moved (3 males, 2 females) successfully returned to their home areas, and all of those that didn’t return home had tried to. All of the adults moved also lost weight, an indication that they were stressed by the move.

In contrast, none of the 12 juveniles moved returned home, although some did make movements in that direction. The juveniles also lost less weight than the adults, suggesting they may be better candidates for such translocations. To determine if these conclusions are valid, we will need to repeat this experiment to increase our sample sizes. In the end, we will be able to implement a conservation management strategy that makes the best use of limited resources and has the best probability for success.

Glenn Gerber is head of the San Diego Zoo’s Caribbean Regional Program. Read his previous post, Turks Island Boas.

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Tortoise: ‘Tis the Season for Hibernation

By
Rachel Foster
– January 6, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Conservation, Projects in the Field, Reptiles and Amphibians, Uncategorized

Research associate Daniel checks tortoise hatchling pens.

As we begin the new year at the San Diego Zoo Desert Tortoise Conservation Center (DTCC), almost all the tortoises have gone down into their burrows for their winter brumation (reptilian hibernation). During the winter months, we shift our responsibilities from feeding and processing tortoises (giving health assessments to those brought in to the DTCC) to doing surveillance in our assigned areas. We walk each section of pens looking for sick or injured tortoises and for damage that needs to be repaired in the pens.

Daniel checks tortoise pens to make sure the animals are in their burrows.

At this time of year, with consistently cool weather, all the tortoises should be pretty well entrenched in their burrows. After we are comfortable that the tortoises are down for the winter, we create a wall of earth in the opening of each burrow to provide an extra layer of protection against the elements. At this point, any tortoise found outside of their burrow is cause for concern. When we find tortoises out in cool weather, we bring them in for a complete health assessment.

All sick or injured tortoises are kept in the medical center for treatment, and the tortoises that appear healthy are put back in their pen and checked more frequently to monitor any change in their condition. Typically, tortoises that are awake and out of a burrow during the cold winter months usually have a health issue causing them to come out of brumation. Doing pen surveillance is the only way we can monitor the condition of the tortoises during the winter. Since it is not healthy to disturb the tortoises in their burrows, we have to closely monitor the behavior and condition of the tortoises that are active outside their burrows.

Rachel Foster is a research associate at the San Diego Zoo Desert Tortoise Conservation Center. Read her previous post, Saving Tortoises, One Urolith at a Time.

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Turks Island Boas

By
Glenn Gerber
– January 5, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Conservation, Projects in the Field, Reptiles and Amphibians, Uncategorized

Turks Island boa

It’s difficult to believe that in an environment dominated by ocean and large sharks, the apex land predator in the Turks and Caicos Islands is a small, nonvenomous snake. A really, really big Turks Island boa is 5 feet long (1.5 meters) and weighs a whopping 1 pound or so (0.4 kilograms). Most are much, much smaller, less than three feet long in fact, and weigh only a few ounces. Nonetheless, like most snakes, humans often fear these animals, and malicious killings are part of the reason they are now rare on most islands in the Caribbean Sea. Another reason is predation by introduced cats and dogs, which the boas have no fear of or natural defenses from. Human development and the habitat loss and vehicular traffic that come with it are other reasons.

The boa pictured here is a large female from Big Ambergris Cay, a small island located on the eastern edge of the Caicos Islands. Big Ambergris has the largest remaining population of this species and one of the densest-known boa populations in the world. The island is only about 2.5 square miles (6.5 square kilometers) in area, but population estimates suggest there are over 2,000 snakes there!

Unfortunately, Big Ambergris Cay is now in the process of being developed as an exclusive private resort community. The challenge ahead will be to find a balance between the needs of humans and native wildlife, like the boas. Fortunately, both the government and the developers recognize this challenge and are working with conservationist to ensure such a balance is achieved.

Glenn Gerber is head of the San Diego Zoo’s Caribbean Regional Program. Read his previous post, Boas in the Caribbean.

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Rabbits, Rodents, and Tortoises

By
Daniel Essary
– January 2, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Conservation, Desert Tortoises, Projects in the Field, Reptiles and Amphibians, Uncategorized

A new perimeter fence for the DTCC.

Hello again to all desert tortoise enthusiasts! It’s about that time of year for desert tortoises to begin their winter hibernation. For anyone who is new to the desert tortoise Gopherus aggaszzi, this is the time of the year when temperatures start to drop and food becomes scarce. With this seasonal change, desert tortoises begin to slow their metabolism and physical performance and search for a dark, comfortable burrow to “sleep in” through the winter until temperatures warm and food becomes more available.

Finding a secure, empty burrow in the Mojave Desert can be more difficult than just finding a hole in the ground. Desert tortoises search or create their own shelters: they may dig burrows, take another animal’s burrow, or find a small cave that protects them from the cool winters of the Mojave Desert. There are many other animals here that also are looking to hibernate or find shelter from the cold; they may cohabit a burrow with the desert tortoise through the winter season. Animals that have been known to share burrows with desert tortoises are black-tailed jackrabbits and desert cottontail rabbits as well as predators like kit foxes, coyotes, and even badgers.

Recently at the San Diego Zoo Desert Tortoise Conservation Center (DTCC), a new, reinforced fence was built to help control the movement of predacious animals onto the property. Prior to the new fence, coyotes, kit foxes, and even badgers would dig below the fence line to enter the property. This situation became a problem due to attacks on the desert tortoises and the destruction of the grounds at the DTCC. Once the new fence was built, there were no more issues with predacious animals entering, killing, or harming the tortoises.

Unfortunately, the DTCC now has a much larger problem with the local fauna. Since larger, predacious animals are not entering the property, nothing is controlling the population of smaller mammals such as rabbits and antelope ground squirrels. These animals do not directly harm the tortoises at the DTCC but harm them indirectly by scavenging the tortoises’ chow, grasses, and water we put out for the tortoises. It only shows that changing an animal’s ecosystem is not always the best answer to conserving that ecosystem.

Daniel Essary is a research associate at the San Diego Zoo’s Desert Tortoise Conservation Center. Read his previous post, Desert Tortoise: Hot, Hot, Hot.

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