Are you interested in starting a career in field herpetology? The #INHSPACELAB Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Program is looking to hire two herpetology field technicians to work on our long-term Eastern Massasauga and Blanding’s Turtle research projects in 2020.
Sara Johnson, of the Molano-Flores lab at the Illinois Natural History Survey, presented a poster and lightning talk about Illinois Tollway funded research on the Effects of Soluble Salt on the Germination of Thuja occidentalis at the Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands Symposium in Maumee Bay, Ohio last week. This conference was the first symposium hosted by Audubon Great Lakes in partnership with the Great Lakes Coastal Assembly and Great Lakes Commission. Sara is a student representative for the North Central Chapter of the Society of Wetland Scientists and acts as Treasurer for the Student Chapter of the society at UIUC.
Members of the PaCE Lab exhibited in Conservation World at the 2019 Illinois State Fair, providing information and education to over 500 visitors. In addition to displays about the research being done by the group, visitors were able to try their hand at using actual field equipment used by scientists in their daily work.
The Illinois Bat Conservation Program had a mist net deployed where visitors could untangle, identify, and measure bats, all while wearing leather gloves.
The Amphibian and Reptile Conservation group had snake tongs, hooks, calipers, and radio telemetry equipment available for visitors to try to wrangle snakes into a snake bag, measure turtles, or track a hidden turtle.
Other activities included Build-a-Bug, where people can assemble the arthropod of their dreams (or nightmares) from a variety of general and specialized appendages, Wheel of Migration, about the risks migratory birds face, and locating PIT-tagged animals.
Members and affiliates of the PaCE Lab presented 5 papers and 3 posters at the 2019 Turtle Survival Alliance conference held in Tuscson Arizona August 4th-8th.
Presentations
Baker, S. J., L Adamovicz, M. E. Merchant, and M. C. Allender. Site specific difference in health and immune function in Eastern Box Turtles (Terrapene carolina)
Dreslik, M. J., E. J. Kessler, J. P. Ross, K. A. Buhlmann, and P. P. van Dijk. Rapid demographic assessments for freshwater turtles: filling in data deficiencies.
Kessler, E. J., S. M. LaGrange, and M. J. Dreslik. Ontogeny of movement behavior in Alligator Snapping Turtles (Macrochelys temminckii): insights from a reintroduced population.
Merchant, M. E., L. Adamovicz, and S. J. Baker. Characterization of innate immunity of Eastern (Terrapene carolina) and Ornate (Terrapene ornata) Box Turtles.
Ross, J. P., D. Thompson, and M. J. Dreslik. Population viability analysis and the role of head-starting for a northern Illinois Blanding’s Turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) population.
Posters
Edmonds, D, and M. J. Dreslik. Clutch size in an Illinois Ornate Box Turtle (Terrapene ornata) population.
Kessler, E. J., S. M. LaGrange, and M. J. Dreslik. The influence of age and season on basking in Alligator Snapping Turtles (Macrochelys temminckii).
LaGrange, S. M., E. J. Kessler, and M. E. Merchant. Bite force scaling across size classes in the Alligator Snapping Turtle (Macrochelys temminckii) and Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina).
PaCE Lab Members and affiliates presented four posters at the third Biology of the Pit-Vipers conference held in Rodeo New Mexico – July 11 – 14 2019.
Baker, S. J., E. J. Kessler, E. Haynes, A. N. Schnelle, and M. C. Allender. Disentangling the effects of season and temperature on hematological values in Prairie Rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis).
Dreslik, M. J., J. A. Crawford, and S. J. Baker. Assessing abundance of a cryptic viper using N-Mixture models.
Jesper, A. C. B., and M. J. Dreslik. Timing and temperature cues of spring emergence for the Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) in Illinois.
Merchant, M., and S. Baker. Innate immune activity in the Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis).
Read the complete article at https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/11/8/124:
A new paper by INHS PACE Lab herpetologists examined the movement of the state listed Smooth Softshell Turtle, Apalone mutica, a riverine species. Spatial ecological information is necessary to guide the conservation efforts of river turtles. Turtles were radio tracked and found to move on average 142 m per day, but moved more when water was high or streams were larger. In most situations, females moved greater distances than males. This work will guide future studies of riverine species.
Continuing his tradition of long-term studies on reptile populations, PACE Lab leader Dr. Michael Dreslik and colleagues recently published a paper in Herpetologica analyzing the spatial ecology of the Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) in the Coastal Plain of Virginia. This study analyzed 17 years of radio telemetry data, with over 14,000 radio locations.
Crotalus horridus in the Coastal Plain are commonly called Canebrakes and occupy cane thickets, areas around swamps and river floodplains, forests, mountainous areas, and rural habitats. This differs from Illinois habitats which include heavily forested rock outcrops and bluffs.
This long-term study found that movement patterns observed in shorter term studies hold true:
Read the full paper in the current issue of Herpetologica.
UBAP Ornithologist Anastasia Rahlin received the Kushlan Research Award from the Waterbird Society to assist her research project entitled “Using environmental DNA sampling to determine heron and bittern occupancy in western and northern Michigan: a metagenomics approach.”
This work will improve knowledge of the ranges and population sizes of Black-crowned Night Herons, Yellow-crowned Night Herons, American Bitterns, and Least Bitterns and will inform conservation and management decisions for these rare and declining wetland birds.
It’s been a busy week of sharing science for members of the PACE lab.
The Chicago Wilderness Wildlife Committee Meeting was held at Lincoln Park Zoo on February 19th:
Tara Hohoff presented “The status of Illinois bats five years after confirmation of white-nose syndrome,” using data from her work with the Illinois Bat Conservation Program and the Urban Biotic Assessment Program monitoring for the Illinois Tollway.
Joshua Sherwood presented “Assessing the distribution and habitat of Iowa Darters (Etheostoma exile) in Illinois,” with co-authors Andrew Stites, Jeremy Tiemann, and Michael Dreslik. This work changed the way people look for the Iowa Darter.
Jason Robinson presented “Patterns of abundance and co-occurrence of bumblebees associated with the Rusty Patched bumblebee.” RPBB is a federally protected species found in northeastern Illinois that has experienced a decline in its range.
Jason Ross presented “Demographic influence of head-starting on a Blanding’s Turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) population in DuPage County, Illinois,” with co-author Michael Dreslik, discussing what amount of head-starting is needed to keep this population viable
The 2019 Wild Things Conference was held in Rosemont on February 23rd:
Tara Hohoff, representing the Illinois Bat Conservation Program, presented a poster “Year Three of the Illinois Bat Conservation Program.”
Anastasia Rahlin co-presented “Secretive Marsh Birds in the Big City.” with Audubon collaborator Stephanie Beilke on their ongoing work using playback to detect 17 focal wetland bird species in northeast Illinois and southeast Indiana. Soras were the most commonly detected species which was surprising/unexpected since Marsh Wrens and Swamp Sparrows are expected to be more common, and Little Blue Herons and Yellow-headed Blackbirds were the least detected which was pretty expected due to their declines. Future directions include creating species-specific occupancy models to better understand how our focal species respond to urbanization and presence of different wetland types at three different spatial scales.
Josh Sherwood presented “Current status of Bigeye Chub (Hybopsis amblops) in Illinois”.
Sarah Douglass presented “A preliminary analysis of mussel population dynamics in the Kishwaukee River.”
Jeremy Tiemann presented “Pulling the plug – Results of the fish and mussel salvage following the removal of the Danville Dam on the Vermilion River.”
Andy Stites presented a poster “Fecundity estimates of the Gravel Chub Erimystax x-punctatus“
The PACE Lab was well represented at this week’s Midwest Fish and Wildlife conference in Cleveland Ohio. Lab members and affiliates from the INHS Herp Lab and the INHS Mollusc Lab presented 7 talks, 1 lightning talk, and 1 poster on a variety of fauna including: Massasaugas, Banded Killifish, Asian Clams, Alligator Snapping Turtles, Bigeye Chub, and Rails.
Presentations
Rapid expansion of Banded Killifish (Fundulus diaphanous) across northern Illinois: dramatic recovery or invasive species? J.S. Tiemann, P.W. Willink, T.A. Widloe, V.J. Santucci Jr., D. Makauskas, S D. Hertel, J. T. Lamer, and J.L. Sherwood
Lightning Talks
Posters
