Category: Mammals

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Note published on mammal predation on frogs

A ring-tailed vontsira (Galidia elegans) feeding on the frog Aglyptodactylus madagascariensis. Photo by Lonny Pace

Soon to be minted Dr. Edmonds had a paper published recently on an observation he made in Madagascar during his research to conserve endangered frogs.

Edmonds and co-author Lonny Pace documented a pair of ring-tailed vontsira engaging in predation and surplus killing of Aglyptodactylus frogs during an explosive breeding event at Montagne d’Ambre National Park.

Following a cyclone, Edmonds and Pace encountered a water filled depression with several hundred A. madagascariensis as well as two ring-tailed vontsira feeding on the frogs.

Read the full paper and see the video

Edmonds, Devin A. and Lonny Pace. 2025. Predation on a Breeding Aggregation of Madagascar Jumping Frogs (Aglyptodactylus madagascariensis) by Ring-Tailed Vontsira (Galidia elegans). Biotropica: doi.org/10.1111/btp.70059

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Five year, $6 million contract awarded to UBAP team

The Urban Biotic Assessment Program was awarded $6,226,400 to continue providing technical assistance to the Illinois Tollway Environmental team.

This is the third intergovernmental agreement between the INHS and the Illinois Tollway and will allow the continuation of this mutually beneficial partnership that began in 2005.

The partnership has grown from monitoring Blanding’s Turtles in the Des Plaines River Valley to a multi-disciplinary program. While the key function is to provide the ecological knowledge necessary to comply with state and federal regulations, both organizations share a goal of studying the natural resources of the region to protect them into the future.

Research projects in this new agreement include biotic surveys of each of the Tollway corridors, continuation of longterm monitoring of the Kishwaukee River mussel population, using eDNA to detect cryptic species, Rusty Patched Bumble Bee surveys, and identifying bat roost trees.

Download our report of activities from 2015-2020

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PaCE Lab at the Illinois State Fair

Smokey Bear using snake tongs

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.

Smokey Bear using snake tongs
Gray Treefrog picked the right tent to visit
Wheel of Migration
Build a Bug
Vin Vasive wrangling a snake with a hook
Build-a-Bug