Herp Update: Annual Fundraiser Continues, New Maps Online, Herp Activity – January 2, 2025

Our Annual Fundraiser Continues

Herpers, we have raised over $16,000 of our annual $20,000 goal in our annual fundraiser. So far, 85 people have donated amounts ranging from $10 to $2,500. If you donated already, thanks. If not, please consider a donation. Any amount is greatly appreciated. Your donation helps with a wide variety of our efforts, but over the coming winter it will help us keep four young conservation herpetologists cleaning up and evaluating our data.

Donations can be made in a few ways:

• Through our GoFundMe site (they take 2.9 percent of the payment plus 30 cents per transaction. They will ask for a tip, but that is optional).
• Via the PayPal button on our website (they take 2.9 percent of the payment plus 30 cents per transaction).
• By sending a check made out to James S. Andrews to: The Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas, 642 Smead Road, Salisbury, VT 05769 (no overhead is lost).
• By sending a check made out to Vermont Family Forests to: The Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas, 642 Smead Road, Salisbury, VT 05769.* Vermont Family Forests is our fiscal sponsor and they are a registered 501c3 non-profit (they take 15% for overhead costs).

*If your fund requires that a check must be sent directly to Vermont Family Forests (P.O. Box 254, 14 School Street, Suite 202A, Bristol, VT 05443), please notify them that your donation is for the Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas and please also contact us directly about your donation.

**Checks should not be made out to the Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas. We can’t cash them that way.

Our Updated Distribution Maps are Now Online

We are pleased to have most of our updated maps now up on our website.  We have only one more map to update (and a few to correct).  The maps you see on our website are not updated immediately as new reports are entered into our database.  Roughly every six years, we export our data to Kiley Briggs of the Orianne Society to produce updated maps.  They have provided this service for free for over a decade.  We really appreciate their help.

We post the new maps on our website and use them in a printed update of our atlas. Our previous set of maps reflected data entered through the end of 2017.  Our new maps reflect all data collected and entered through 2023.  The data from 2024 are not yet reflected on the maps.

It is exciting for us to see the distribution patterns emerge as our maps improve.  For common and widespread habitat-generalist species, we strive to fill in data from the last few towns where we assume the species is present, but lack the proof.  Most species are limited by the the availability of their specific habitat needs (e.g. mountain streams, floodplains, low pH, degree days).  One species (Boreal Chorus Frog) has entirely disappeared from its previous range in northwestern Vermont.  We have picked out a few species below to highlight our mapping progress over the last 30 years.

Jefferson Salamander and its Related Hybrids

The two maps below show what we knew back in 1995 and what we know now about the distribution of Jefferson Salamanders and the related hybrid females that breed with them.  This is a pH-sensitive species, a southern species at the northern extreme of its range, and a species that requires isolated fish-free breeding pools that are adjacent to deciduous (usually rocky) woods with acid-buffering bedrock and/or soils.  Notice how it is missing from the higher elevations of the Green Mountains.

Spring Salamander

The two maps below show what we knew back in 1995 and what we know now about the distribution of Spring Salamanders.  This is a species that breeds in clean, cool, well-oxygenated, headwater mountain streams.  Notice how it is entirely missing from Grand Isle County, the Lake Champlain Basin and other lowland towns.

Eastern Milksnake

The two maps below show what we knew back in 1995 and what we know now about the distribution of Eastern Milksnakes.  This is a species that appears to be limited by the number of degree-days available for the development of its eggs.  Its distribution is an almost exact match to the limits of plant hardiness zone 4 B.  The high-elevation mountain towns in south central Vermont and the Northeast Kingdom appear to be missing a variety of other species as well.

American Toad

The two maps below show what we knew back in 1995 and what we know now about the distribution of American Toads.  This is a habitat generalist species that appears to be quite tolerant of rural and low-density development.  Consequently it  has been documented from every Vermont town, city, gore, and grant.  However, we need an updated report and photo from Ludlow.  Our Ludlow American Toad reports are now more than 25 years old (considered historic).

Mudpuppy

The two maps below show what we knew back in 1995 and what we know now about the distribution of Mudpuppies.  This species requires permanent water bodies with cover objects under which it can hide and lay its eggs.  The species was first discovered (in the world) in the Winooski River.  Our reports now show it is found in the lower stretches of many of the tributaries of Lake Champlain up to the first waterfall or dam and in some sections of Lake Champlain itself.  Recent genetic studies by Dr. Bill Kilpatrick of UVM confirmed our suspicions that the Mudpuppies in the Connecticut River were introduced from a population somewhere in the midwestern US.  The Lake Champlain Mudpuppies are native.  This is a species we are watching carefully as a result of its sensitivity to chemicals used to kill Sea Lamprey (TFM).  Hundreds of Mudpuppies have been killed in treated rivers.

Recent Herp Activity

The unseasonably warm weather and rains of December 29th and 30th generated a few reports of amphibians.  Tom Doubleday sent us a report and photo of an Eastern Red-backed Salamander under a cover object in Colchester.  Pam Darrow reported a Spotted Salamander on the move in Shrewsbury, and Brian Carter and Leah Farrell reported Green Frogs active in their small pond in Salisbury.  Brian and Leah checked our Morgan Road crossing here in Salisbury, but did not find any amphibians moving across the road on either night.

The photo of the Eastern Red-backed Salamander below was taken by Tom Doubleday.  He found it under a cover object in Colchester on the 30th.