Vol. 34 (2014), No. 12

The newsletter of the

Minnesota Herpetological Society

December Meeting Notice The General Meeting will be December 5th, 2014 Holiday Banquet The Holiday Banquet will be December 6th, 2014 December Speaker Brandon Greaves—Honduran Frogs and Komodo Dragons January Meeting Notice The January General Meeting will be held January 9th, 2015

December 2014

Volume 34

Number 12

BOARD OF DIRECTORS President Chris Smith 612.275.9737 President@mnherpsoc.org Vice President Peter Tornquist 952.797.6515 VicePresident@MnHerpSoc.org

C/O Bell Museum of Natural History 10 Church Street Southeast Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55455-0104

Recording Secretary Heather Clayton 612.886.7175 RecSecretary@MnHerpSoc.org

And, you can still leave us a Voice Mail: 612.326.6516

Membership Secretary Micole Hendricks 651.356.1669 MemSecretary@MnHerpSoc.org Treasurer Nancy Haig 763.434.8684 Treasurer@MnHerpSoc.org Newsletter Editor Ellen Heck 612.750.1649 NewsletterEditor@MnHerpSoc.org Members at Large Kelli Bornholdt 612.710.5919 MemberAtLarge3@MnHerpSoc.org Rebecca Markowitz 409.750.0235 MemberAtLarge4@MnHerpSoc.org Terry Odegaard 612.840.7674 MemberAtLarge1@MnHerpSoc.org Misi Stine 952.217.1267 MemberAtLarge2@MnHerpSoc.org

COMMITTEES Adoption Sarah Richard 612.781.9544 Adoptions@MnHerpSoc.org Education Jan Larson 507.263.4391 Jan.SkunkHollow@Juno.com Fostering Nancy Haig 763.434.8684 NancHaig@CitiLink.com WebMaster Kimber Anderson WebMaster@MnHerpSoc.org Cover by Jeff LeClere Cartoons by Fran Frisch

Stay informed! Join us on our forums!

The purpose of the Minnesota Herpetological Society is to: • Further the education of the membership and the general public in care and captive propagation of reptiles and amphibians; • Educate the members and the general public in the ecological role of reptiles and amphibians; • Promote the study and conservation of reptiles and amphibians.

The Minnesota Herpetological Society is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. Membership is open to all individuals with an interest in amphibians and reptiles. The Minnesota Herpetological Society Newsletter is published monthly to provide its members with information concerning the society’s activities and a media for exchanging information, opinions and resources.

General Meetings are held at Borlaug Hall, Room 335 on the St. Paul Campus of the University of Minnesota, on the first Friday of each month (unless there is a holiday conflict). The meeting starts at 7:00pm and lasts about three hours. Please check the MHS Voice mail for changes in schedules or cancellations.

Submissions to the Newsletter Ads or Notices must be submitted no later than the night of the General Meeting to be included in the next issue. Longer articles will be printed as time and space allows and should be in electronic file format if possible.

See inside back cover for ad rates. Submissions may be sent to: The Minnesota Herpetological Society -or- newslettereditor@mnherpsoc.org Attn: Newsletter Editor C/O Bell Museum of Natural History 10 Church St SE Minneapolis, MN 55455-0104

SNAKE BITE EMERGENCY HENNEPIN REGIONAL POISON CENTER 800-222-1222

© Copyright 2014, Minnesota Herpetological Society. Except where noted, contents may be reproduced for non-profit, non-commercial use only. All material must be reproduced without change. Proper credit will be given including the author/photographer and the Minnesota Herpetological Society Newsletter citing: volume, number and date.

General Meeting — Brandon Greaves December 5th, 7:00pm; 6:30pm Social Hour Social hour begins at 6:30pm. This is a time for people to minge and catch up before the meeting starts.

Brandon Greaves is the Lead Keeper of the Herpetology Dept. at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium. He has been a herp keeper here for eight years, splitting his time between the Amphibian Conservation Area, and the reptile collection in the Desert Dome. They currently have around 140 species of herps under their care. Greaves grew up in a military family and lived in Europe for four years of his childhood, and accredits his passion for herps to incredible reptile collections at European zoos, and great parents that instilled a love of nature. He spent summers in the Ozarks in Southern Missouri, further fuelling his passion for the outdoors and herps.

HARCC: Honduras Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Center, is a project he is currently working on in Northern Honduras. The zoo, along with Jonathan Kolby, a herpetologist and amphibian conservationist, are building an amphibian conservation center in Honduras. They are targeting three species of tree frog found in Cusuco national Park, two of which are endemic to the park and all are endangered.

Expedition Komodo: In early 2014 Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo was invited to participate in Komodo Dragon fieldwork.

Greaves traveled to Komodo National Park in Indonesia to assist Komodo Survival Program researchers, Achmad Ariefiandy and Deni Purwandana in their pursuit to fully understand wild Dragons.

Paul Brown—Color Polymorphism in Eastern Garter Snakes on Isle Royale Submitted by Heather Clayton, photos by Paul Brown Paul and his team have been studying garters on Isle Royale for a few years now. Interest in doing a study on the color morphs found there sprouted from confusion over which species of snakes live there. A survey was conducted to attempt to determine which species and/or subspecies actually occur there. Some of the traits used to make these distinctions are scale counts on various parts of the body and whether the scales are keeled or not. In looking for garter snakes this far north, there are few risks to safety from local wildlife, although one should be aware there is the possibility of a negative physical response if someone were to be bitten by a colubrid. The team determined that there are only Garter Snakes on the island, but there are many color and pattern variations.

how long the snakes had been there, and where the snakes came from, if it was Minnesota/Wisconsin or Canada.

The methods used for collecting the snakes are simple, just hand capture. The team wanted to use the capture method because it would likely illicit the same sort of response the snake may have if grabbed by a predator. This would add to behavioral data on each snake.

In addition to the response, the snake's location and environmental conditions were recorded, as well as facial profile photographs and tail clippings.

These last measures collected data as well as helped ensure they do not take data on the same snake twice.

The snakes were caught at sites on primarily the eastern end of the island, with some on the west, and the team also took information on snakes from Canadian islands for comparison. The data was collected on Paul's team wanted to look at the genetic basis for color the same snakes year after year and showed little variation polymorphisms and if there are behaviors linked with those in snake size; most were adults about two feet long. The variations. They wanted to learn the amount of genetic larger animals tended to be females, and there were more drift between populations and their dispersal history, taxonfemales than males (at about 1 to 1.5) collected. omy, and the role of island bio-geography, and behavioral variations among populations. They wanted to learn when (continued next page) December 2014

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This may in part be due to collection methods, as these gravid live-bearing females tend to bask more than males and would therefore be more visible. The team found that the snakes did not breed every year, and that they tended to stick to a home area. These home ranges have many suitable places to hibernate compared to mainland habitat, so they would find small clusters of garters instead of many in a large hibernaculum.

In regards to the color polymorphism, they found 8 color phases in the garters on Isle Royale. Often the reasons for colors and patterns is camouflage to escape predation, or in order to carry out predation, or to make an animal a more attractive mate. One theory on why some of these snakes have more red is that it helps them hide in forest floor leaves, especially in the fall. For reptiles, darker skin in cold climates means better thermoregulation and competition, so black or dark colors may be more prevalent in some snakes. For example, they found a snake 2 kilometers off shore, where the water temperature was 61 degrees and a body temperature of 84. They believe the snake can do this because its black body took in heat while the belly was cooled from the below by the water. Paul and the team used the levels of black, red, or normal color, and the amount of pattern variation in flecking or checkering.

The results showed that 60% of the snakes had some color variation, 50% show red coloration, 10% are black, and a very few are blue. These color percentages are pretty consistent from year to year.

Other data recorded includes notes on the health of the snakes, including evidence of predation. They found scarring in 30 snakes, missing tails in 21 snakes (this can also happen in the over-wintering period), open wounds on 10 snakes, broken ribs in 2 snakes, 6 snakes with missing or damaged scales. Overall, some 35% of the snakes showed some signs of injury.

The genetic results showed that the snakes clearly came from the Lake Michigan side of Isle Royale, not the Canadian side, and are all Eastern Garter Snakes. The team used mitochondrial DNA and found that there are two subpopulations on the island, the eastern and western. The eastern population is more diverse, with melanistic snakes (all 6% of the black snakes were found on the eastern side) but the western population has more haplotypes, so they are both diverse populations but in different ways.

Paul believes the garters came to the western side of the island and spread, but the central part of the island is poor habitat for them because it is so dry, so it created a genetic barrier over time.

The research team sent 31 snakes to the University of Tennessee for breeding trials to see what sort of coloration the babies had from each pairing. What they found is that there was a lot of variation because of how the traits move around in normal reproduction, and females can carry offspring from multiple males and often do, resulting in babies In regards to the behavior of these animals, they looked at that can look very different from each other. They found how the snakes reacted when caught, and created levels of the females generally have 1-15 young per litter at this defense behavior. They found that about 2/3 of normal location. 83 babies from the first breeding trial survived, colored snakes were fairly non-aggressive, and the same and those were raised and also bred. They looked at the for yellow-flecked snakes. The red checkered and solid red behavior of the babies, and found that they displayed the snakes were pretty calm, but with copper bellies and solid same attitude their color would predict. All snakes were black bodies were regularly very aggressive. There is the released to the island after the research. question of whether environmental conditions had any efLastly, Paul and the others collected snakes from other fect on the animals' behavior, and they found the temperaareas like Grand Portage and Tribal lands for context on ture appeared to have no effect on the snakes' reaction. behavior, and found that Isle Royale is fairly unique in their Aggressive snakes behaved the same whether warm or color variations. Mainland areas tested had much diversity cool, they just did it slower when cool. They even found a of color and pattern. snake hunting two feet under water with a body temperature of 55 degrees. (continued next page) Page 2

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They also found that the island snakes are smaller than mainland snakes in general.

They found that the snakes at Grand Portage had no aggression and little diversity, and Ontario snakes were about half and half in terms of color diversity and had slightly more aggression, but still much less than Isle Royale.

The team ultimately answered many questions, and found the Garter Snakes of Isle Royale are divided into eastern and western populations, they are ancestrally from Minnesota and Wisconsin, the black snakes are only found in the east, and 65% of the population show atypical color patterns. These snakes have behavior that tends to follow certain color variations, and two-thirds of these snakes don't breed every year.

Election Results The board members for 2015 were elected at the November meeting. Because the Holiday Banquet will be held Saturday December 6th, there will be no board meeting in December. The next board meeting will be held 6pm Saturday January 10th at a location to be determined (normally they are held in the St Paul Student Union, but the University is closed) Information will be posted when it becomes available.

President: Misi Stine Vice President: Mike Rohweder Treasurer: Rae Jacobs Rueber Membership Secretary: Lavania Beguhl Recording Secretary: Nancy Haig Newsletter Editor: Ellen Heck Members At Large: Lois Hall, Chris Smith, Emily Roberts, Kimber Anderson

December 2014

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Proposed Bylaw Change From: Section 7.02

Disbursements. The Treasurer shall be authorized to make disbursements on accounts and expenses provided for the budget for an event in an amount not to exceed $500.00, or provided for in the budget for the general office purposes in an amount not to exceed $100.00. All disbursements shall be by check. The Board shall authorize all other disbursements. Checks shall be signed by any two Directors.

To: Section 7.02.

7.025

Disbursements. The President, Vice President, and Treasurer are the only authorized Directors that can disburse funds.

Authorized Directors can make disbursements in an amount not to exceed $250. The Board shall authorize all other disbursements.

Rationale: This change is intended to update the bylaws to better reflect current MHS financial disbursement practices, including the use of the MHS debt card and electronic banking accounts (PayPal and Square Up).

FYI—The Minnesota Herpetological Society is governed by Bylaws and Policies. The Bylaws are the foundation of the society and require a vote by the membership. Policies can be changed by a vote of the Board. http://www.mnherpsoc.com/content/bylaws-minnesota-herpetological-society http://www.mnherpsoc.com/content/mhs-general-policies

10 Awesome Snapping Turtle Facts We know snapping turtles are completely awesome critters. It is nice that finally others are discovering this as well! http://www.buzzfeed.com/turtlefeed/10-awesome-snapping-turtle-facts-ruc

Steampunk Serpents The Southern California Herpetology Association & Rescue (SCHA&R), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, presents our 2015 fundraiser calendar: "Steampunk Serpents." http://www.lulu.com/shop/cynthia-chaplin-and-henry-chaplin/ steampunk-serpents/calendar/product-21909790.html

AmazonSmile You can now help support MHS while shopping online! Use the following link to make purchases from Amazon and MHS will receive a portion of the sale http://smile.amazon.com/ch/41-1667577

City of Minneapolis Ordinance Update MHS submitted a more herp-friendly draft ordinance to Minneapolis Animal Care and Control.

Washington County Turtle Tunnel showing promising results https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.626195960830194.1073741905.292668574182936&type=3)

And in Case You’ve Missed It...

The Discovery Channel claims that in an upcoming show called "Eaten Alive," naturalist and wildlife filmmaker Paul Rosolie will enter "the belly of an anaconda in a custom-built snake-proof suit." http://www.businessinsider.com/discoverys-eaten-alive-snake-show-is-terrible-2014-11 https://www.change.org/p/discovery-channel-stop-the-airing-of-eaten-alive-boycott-discovery-channel Page 4

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December 2014

MHS Reports and Announcements November Adoption Report

Treasurer's Report for Oct 2014 prepared By Nancy Haig

For the November Meeting we had:

Beginning Balance

$

5,363.22

7 Ball Pythons, a 7' Carpet Python,6 Bearded Dragons, a young Green Iguana, a well maintaained Red Foot Tortoise, a young 8" Sulcata Tortoise, 3 baby Red Eared Slider,9 adult Red Eared Sliders, an Eastern Painted turtle3 Common Boas, 3 Cornsnakes, 1 albino Rat snake, and a Burmese Python,

Income

Raffle Donations Hands Ons Renfest donations We had 22 new animals and 15 returning Fosters at the NoRenfest income vember meeting, only 9 were adopted. 9 Red Eared Sliders, 2 Membership Common Boas and 2 Ball Pythons were out-sourced, the rest Field Survey income were fostered out until next month. Thank you to everyone Rodent Sales that helped out with the fosters, but the adoption program only works if the animals find permanent homes so please consid- Total Income er adopting more animals next month.

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

68.00 192.07 744.35 1,375.00 300.00 400.00 958.00 4,037.42

Grants/donations Adoption The MHS is looking for someone to take over processing the Newsletter printing rodent orders for the Friday meeting pick-up. The job involves Newsletter postage storing and repackaging the frozen rodents into the members’ Program orders and delivering them to the Friday night meeting. Comes Rodent cost complete with a 50” x 34” x 22” chest freezer. For more infor- Renfest supplies mation please contact Nancy Haig treasurer@mnherpsoc.org Holiday Banquet acct debit Total Expense

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

60.00 44.00 100.00 688.75 59.04 200.00 40.00 1,191.79

Cash Increase/Decrease

$

2,845.63

Ending Balance

$

8,208.85

Expenses

Do you really like Rats?

Placement of cash holdings Checking Savings Paypal Transfer to checking Cash on hand Total Notes:

$ 8,208.85 $ 17,482.84 $ 572.81 $ $ 175.00 $ 26,439.50

Total public Renfest donations $3770.30

Thank you to everyone who volunteered out there.

Board Meeting There will be no board meeting in the month of December due to the Holiday Banquet.

The next board meeting will be January 10th, 2015.

Anyone who is interested is invited to attend.

December 2014

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MHS 2014 Annual Field Survey Submitted by Jeff LeClere This year’s MHS Annual Field Survey took place on 13-15 June 2014 at Minneopa State Park near Mankato. It rained nearly the entire survey period. Unfortunately, it was not the kind of rain that would bring out amphibians en masse, it was the kind of rain that herpers in our area detest – a constant, cold rain! And it did keep the herps hiding – only 28 individuals of 5 species were found. Very depressing, although the tiger salamander larva ( Ambystoma tigrinum) was cool to see. On Saturday night, a few of us left the park and drove away from the bad weather to find a couple Great Plains toads (Anaxyrus cognatus). They were a welcome find, but I lost my Blake hat, which was terrible.

Despite the weather, however, there was great MHS member turnout with 29 attendees! Not a record number, but close. Even though the herping was poor, the food was great and plentiful! Of course, on Sunday, after nearly everyone left, the sun appeared and warmed everything up while drying everything off. As Jason Girard was leaving the park, a nice fox snake (Pantherophis ramspotti) crossed the road in front of his vehicle. We took pictures and at least a few members were still around to see the snake before it was released. Misi and I were able to find a couple more fox snakes on the park roads, including one near the park entrance that was partially paralyzed due to an old injury.

We also found a few plains garter snakes (Thamnophis radix) outside of the park while searching for my hat (didn’t find it). This year we just missed the good weather, but hopefully next year we will have great weather, have excellent attendance, and find lots of herps! I’d like to thank all the members who braved the weather to attend the survey, and Misi Stine, Beth, David, and Jason Girard who were “survey hosts” – they cooked excellent food, secured the campsite, and set up and tore down – thank you!

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December 2014

We are finally at the point with the newsletter we have been working towards for the past few years—doing away with the printed version and going over to electronic copies only. In some ways it is sad to see the passing of the printed media, but not only is it more cost-effective for the society (saving several thousand dollars a year in printing and postage costs) but it is better for the planet.

And on the plus side, being no longer restricted by the need to print in black and white—or use the incredibly expensive color printing option—changes can be made in the format and content. And words cannot express how excited I am by the fact the newsletter no longer needs to have an even number of pages, preferably evenly divisible by 4!

If there is something you want to see included the email is NewsletterEditor@MnHerpSoc.org. PLEASE send ideas, requests, articles, anecdotes, etc!

But to honor what has come before, the following pages contain excerpts from newsletters of yore. All are available at http://issuu.com/search?q=minnesota+herp OFFICERS Delvin Jones President Terry Odegaard Vice-President Connie Delles Secretary-Treasurer Jim Gerholdt Newsletter Editor John Oee Member-at-Large Bruce Delles Member-at-Large

The very first board.

Some of these people are still active members today—Terry, Jim, Bruce and Karl. Pretty good after 30+ years!

Karl Hermann Member-at-Large

Less than a year after it’s inception! Current membership stands at more than 300, with 70-100+ regularly attending meetings. http://issuu.com/mnherpsoc/docs/1981-12 December 2014

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Starting with the first meeting in May of 1981, drawings were submitted to be considered for the official logo. In September, the design drawn by Leslye Olson was selected by popular vote and has served as the MHS logo ever since.

Page 8

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December 2014

Most of the cartoons included in the newsletters are done by Fran Frisch. Occasionally others were also included.

December 2014

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A selection of cover photos

http://issuu.com/mnherpsoc/docs/2004-12

http://issuu.com/mnherpsoc/docs/2008-9 Page 10

http://issuu.com/mnherpsoc/docs/2013-05

http://issuu.com/mnherpsoc/docs/2010-8

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December 2014

Then there is this from the October 1981 newsletter. I am not sure if this is a valid technique or not. Just be sure to not overinflate. http://issuu.com/mnherpsoc/docs/1981-9

These are links to a few interesting-looking articles that, given space constraints, cannot be reprinted in their entirety but are worth a look.

Guidelines for Venomous Herps by Brint Spencer http://issuu.com/mnherpsoc/docs/1987-6

This Was One Christmas to Remember by Joe Dogget http://issuu.com/mnherpsoc/docs/2002-11_12

Young Investi-�gator� Discovers Ancient Sensing System on Snouts of Corcodilians by Katrina MacLeod and Catherine Carr http://issuu.com/mnherpsoc/docs/2002-8 December 2014

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Online Classifieds In addition to ads in the newsletter, MHS provides online classifieds via the forums. A valid login (provided to current members) is required to both post and read ads. http://www.mnherpsoc.org/forums/members/classifieds Page 12

Volume 34 Number 12

December 2014

Minnesota Herpetological Society Membership Application New

Name

Renewal

Address

Membership #

City, State, Zip Phone

Type Check #

Email

List in MHS Directory? Yes No Contact information only? Yes No

Herp related interests

Active Memberships: Sustaining ($60/year)

Contributing ($40/year) Basic ($20/year)

Corresponding Memberships: Commercial ($25/year, 2 business card ads/year) Required check info. Drivers Lic #

State

DOB

Please enclose the proper payment with your application. Make checks payable to MINNESOTA HERPETOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Membership is for 12 months from the date of approval. A receipt will be sent only upon request.

Mail To: Minnesota Herpetological Society, C/O BELL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, 10 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455 Please allow 6-8 weeks for processing.

Rodents!

Order your MHS Rodents today!

Ordering by phone? See the new phone number below.

Mice

Weight

Price

Pinkies

2-3 grams

$7/dz

Fuzzies

5-7 grams

$7/dz

Hoppers

8-11 grams

$8/dz

Adult

25-30 grams

$10/dz

Jumbo Adult

45+ grams

$14/dz

Rats

Weight

Price

Small Adult

50-60 grams

$18/dz

Med. Adults

125-150 grams

$22/ 10 rats

Large Adult

200-240 grams

$17/ 6 rats

may be resubmitted.

Jumbo

250-350 grams

$16/ 5 rats

Submissions: All advertisements should be submitted to the MHS Membership Secretary at the general

For pickup at monthly meetings only. Orders may be placed via: 1. At the meeting for the following month 2. Online at www.MnHerpSoc.org

Orders MUST be placed 10 days in advance of the meeting to guarantee availability. We no longer keep an inventory of rodents on hand, so if you attempt to place an order after the deadline, there is no way to fill it.

Advertising Policies MHS Ad Policy: The MHS assumes NO RESPONSIBILITY regarding the health or legality of any animal, or the quality or legality of any product or service advertised in the MHS Newsletter. Any ad may be rejected at the discretion of the Newsletter Editor. Due to space limitations, unpaid and complimentary advertisements are subject to occasional omission.

Classified Ads: All active members are allowed a classified ad, run free of charge as space permits. Ads may be run three (3) consecutive months, after which time they

meeting or mailed to: Minnesota Herpetological Society, C/O Bell Museum of Natural History. 10 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455. Deadline is the night of the General Meeting for inclusion in the next newsletter. Make checks payable to: Minnesota Herpetological Society.

Advertising Costs Size Cost Business Card Sized $5/month or $55/year* 1/4 Page $10/month or $110/year* 1/2 Page $20/month or $220/year* Full Page $40/month or $440/year*

MINNESOTA HERPETOLOGICAL SOCIETY C/O BELL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 10 CHURCH STREET SE MINNNEAPOLIS, MN 55455-0104

Next Meeting: Friday December 5th - 7:00 pm Room 335 Borlaug Hall, U of M St. Paul Campus Save the dates!

Saturday December 6th—Holiday Banquet Friday January 9th—General meeting MHS Voice Mail: 612.326.6516

MHS Web Page: www.MnHerpSoc.org

This newsletter is printed on recycled paper