Cricket frog

Count on for frogs, toads

The Michigan DNR and Michigan Wildlife Council are counting the state’s frogs and toads because of concern over threats to their species. We hear from an MSU Museum herpetologist and a DNR wildlife biologist.

Photo Friday: Bois Blanc Island bullfrog

 

This close-up photo is of a bullfrog in a marsh on the southwest end of Bois Blanc Island (known as Bo-Lo to locals), located in Lake Huron between Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas. It was taken by  Terry Heatlie, a habitat restoration specialist working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. We’re always open to viewer submissions for our Photo Friday series, so feel free to message us on Facebook or Twitter, or send an email to greatlakesecho@gmail.com.  

The 2011 winning Ohio Wildlife Legacy Stamp. Image: Ohio Department of Natural Resources

Spot. Snap. Stamp.

If you live in Ohio and see a salamander scattering past, don’t scream and swat it. Shoot it, instead. With a camera, that is. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Third Annual Wildlife Legacy Stamp photo contest is underway. Focusing on a different animal each year, this contest hopes to promote the diversity of Ohio’s wildlife.

For Great Lakes mudpuppies in decline, new Canadian research is a bright spot

A bizarre salamander and the endangered, clam-like mussel that relies on it got good news recently from Canadian scientists. Federal researchers found an apparently stable population of mudpuppies in Ontario’s Sydenham River. The research is published in the June issue of the Journal of Great Lakes Research. Mudpuppies are native to the Great Lakes and have beady eyes, slimy skin and feathery gills sticking out of their necks. “I find them very interesting animals, but I can see why the general public wouldn’t rate them up there with bluebirds,” said Jim Harding, herpetology specialist at the Michigan State University Museum.

Counting frogs: Keeping track of species keeps habitats healthy

(IL) Chicago Tribune – Crouched in fields of prairie grass under moonlit skies, Matt Hokanson leads workshops three times in the spring to teach new monitors how to count the population of frogs by the number of calls they hear. There are 13 native species of frogs in Illinois, Hokanson said, but four to five are limited to specific habitats such as sandy areas. The rest can be found in wetlands where habitats are located by aerial photographs taken by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Audubon Society Chicago Region. More