NEWSLETTER CONTENTS:

Coordinator says good-bye
2003 is our LAST year!
Summer 2002 and strategy for the final year
Progress and outlook
More success
Egg and tadpole guide
Biological notes
Screening starred species records
Media Coverage
Thanks to all Atlassers

The summer of 2002 was an exceptional year for the herp atlas. At the beginning of the year, the atlas was seriously behind with the target squares 38% complete instead of 60% complete. However, by the end of the season the situation had turned around and we were slightly above target at 81% complete. That means that 40% of the atlas was completed this summer! There were three major reasons for this summer’s success: the extra effort by atlassers, a reduction of the number of required species, and time spent by the coordinator and assistant coordinator to search difficult target squares.

The atlassers we have are doing absolutely outstanding work in the targeted squares and are contributing valuable records from a huge number of non-targeted squares as well (357 squares to date), which enormously enhances our picture of herp distribution. Many atlassers made an extra effort this year to visit target squares and it has paid off in a large number of complete target squares.

Early this spring, John Gilhen and Fred Scott also rigorously reviewed the expected species in each of the targeted squares; in a handful of them the number was raised by one or two, but in the vast majority it was lowered slightly, which proportionately reduced the number of species records needed to complete those squares. Concurrent with a reduction in the number of species required, 16 supplementary squares were added to fill in coverage gaps, raising the number of targeted squares from 98 to 114. The result of these two changes was a much better distribution of coverage, and a reduction of the total number of required species records (the sum of the number of species needed in each of the 114 squares) by 5.2%, from 1,335 to 1,266.

Finally, the one-time donation of $10,000 from the McLean Foundation allowed us to hire an additional staff member, Derek Potter, to do nothing but atlas targeted squares during the 2002 season, and we had Sabrina Taylor, our coordinater, spend at least 90% of her time atlassing as well. The problem we were having was that we simply didn’t have enough atlassers and they were not geographically well-distributed, there being few or none in some parts of the province. Derek and Sabrina were able to compensate for the lack of atlassers in and near the regions that were in most critical need of attention. Altogether, 46% of this year’s records were generated by our staff, and 54% by volunteer atlassers.

Next year (the last year of data-collection) our efforts will be focused on completing the targeted squares by existing atlassers and project staff. The field work will have to begin as soon as the season is under way, because many squares can only be completed with early spring species, and if those are missed the squares cannot be finished at all. It is going to be very tight. As the squares get progressively closer to completion, the remaining species are often harder to find and search time per species record can go up substantially. So we are seeking funding support for a full-time coordinator and an assistant for 2003 and with those people and all our great atlassers out there, we should have no difficulty finishing off every targeted square.

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Progress and Outlook for the Herp Atlas 

Thanks to the efforts of herp atlassers, the big picture on herp distribution and the location of rare species in Nova Scotia is starting to become clear. We now have enough data to look at distribution, and we’d like to highlight some of the more interesting findings here. Specifically, some important gaps have been filled for the distribution of bullfrogs (see below) and new populations of ringneck snakes have been found (page 6).

Atlassers have also led us to new populations of threatened wood turtles and, potentially, ribbon snakes. This important information is shared with and used by the Department of Natural Resources and the Conservation Data Centre to help protect these species.

Several highly significant Herp Atlas records show that Bullfrogs are much more common and widespread in the northwest and southern mainland than historical records had revealed. Bullfrogs have never been confirmed on Cape Breton Island.

We will be posting a preliminary egg and tadpole guide on the web (look under Species Identification) for atlassers interested in identifying these stages of herp life. Hopefully, the website will be ready when you receive this newsletter. We expect this guide to evolve as we gather more information so keep your eyes open for changes. Additional pictures of Nova Scotia tadpoles and eggs are most welcome.

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Ringneck Snakes appear to be quite common in the Atlantic coastal mainland areas of the province but much less common in the northwest areas and Cape Breton Island. The southeastern areas of the province are characterized by granite, slate and quartzite, which may be a factor in the distribution.

Hibernation in snakes

As the fall brings cool temperatures, our scaly friends the snakes will start looking for places to hibernate. Snakes do not produce body heat the way that mammals do, so as the temperature drops, they become inactive. Snakes wait-out the winter in hibernating places or hibernacula, which they may share with other snakes, including snakes from other species. Common hibernacula include deep underground dens, shale cliffs, rock piles, old foundations, old wells, and in some parts, ant mounds. Hibernacula can range in size from a few snakes to thousands.The most important feature of a hibernaculum is temperature. Snakes cannot withstand freezing, so they need to find a spot that’s safely below the frost line. Access to moisture or groundwater also appears be an important feature of denning sites.

In Nova Scotia, we don’t have good information on important hibernating sites. If you’re tempted to look for hibernacula, keep your eyes open for groups of snakes sunning together on warm fall days. These are snakes that are spending their last few days outdoors before retiring for the winter. Alternatively, you might get lucky and see several individuals emerging together in the spring. In Nova Scotia, there don’t appear to be any large and obvious hibernacula, so snakes may use many small sites instead. Let us know what you see!

In Canada, Narcisse (Manitoba) is world famous for its snake hibernacula. In the winter over 10,000 snakes may all den together at the biggest site to escape temperatures as low as -40 C. In the spring there is an astonishing mass emergence of snakes - truly one of nature’s wonders. The first to emerge are the males, who then wait for the females to come out. As each female emerges, several males will attempt to mate with her, creating a "mating ball". If you decide to go and visit, mid-May is the best time to be there.

Some snakes are at risk because their hibernacula are threatened or destroyed and they are left to weather the winter exposed and unprotected. This is especially serious in areas lacking good hibernating spots because snakes congregate to only a few sites. If these few sites are destroyed, thousands of snakes could freeze to death. Some conservation biologists are using artificial hibernacula to restore populations of endangered species. For instance, the endangered blue racer snake on Pt. Pelee is getting a boost from local landowners and conservation biologists. They are working together to create artificial hibernacula that provide safe hibernating places for this special snake.

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Some atlassers are unclear about how we evaluate records of starred species or forms, so here is a full description of the process and the criteria we use. The vast majority of starred records are accepted after going through this process, but in some the ID is changed or the record is rejected because the species is not what it was thought to be, but cannot be clearly identified as anything else either.

There are several pairs of similar unstarred/starred species that are commonly mistaken for each other by inexperienced people, notably:

The criteria for acceptance are slightly different in two of the species. In the case of triploid Blue-spotted Salamanders, all we can do is accept a record as a probable triploid, because it can only be confirmed by counting chromosomes or measuring the size of red blood cells. But if the animal’s size and nature of spotting are consistent with a triploid, then the site can be visited during another breeding season by an expert such as John Gilhen to confirm the ID. However, this will not necessarily happen within the atlas time-window. We will map both the probable and the confirmed triploids (if any) in the final atlas.

The very common striped phase of the Garter Snake is frequently mistaken for a Ribbon Snake, because of lack of experience and a well-known visual illusion caused by the snake’s motion. A moving snake always looks thinner and much more distinctly striped than a motionless one. If not identified by a person with experience of Ribbon Snakes, no record is accepted without a clear confirming photograph.

If you know you submitted records, but your name isn’t in the list of active atlassers, the most probable reason is that the records were not identified to species, which is a requirement for inclusion in the atlas. For instance, we receive many records of "tadpoles" or "egg mass" which cannot be accepted because they are unidentified. The information is not thrown out, but these records go into a separate permanent database and are potentially useful in other ways, especially if accompanied by detailed locality and habitat information.

The Herp Atlas got a lot of media coverage this year ranging from radio interviews to a television spot on the CBC’s Nature Now and an article in Canadian Geographic. This coverage helped promote the Atlas Project and recruit new volunteers.

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