Reptile, amphibian walk Friday at Kasota Prairie - Mankato Free Press

-

KASOTA — The hunt will be on Friday morning for snakes, lizards, turtles, frogs, toads, salamanders, or maybe a northern prairie skink.

The Department of Natural Resources Scientific Natural Areas staff will take people on a two-hour hike through the Kasota Prairie on a reptile and amphibian walk.

It is the first walk of its kind at Kasota Prairie.

Kasota Prairie SNA is home to small areas of wetland, rock outcrop and woodland in addition to its namesake prairie.

“Kasota Prairie has more to offer than wildflowers,” said DNR SNA specialist Brad Bolduan. “Its surface bedrock also contributes to a diverse population of reptiles there.”

He said the western part of the prairie is more prone to produce sightings. "There's more exposed rocks with crevices there that reptiles like."

To up their odds of sightings, they put down pieces of plywood in different areas, which reptiles and amphibians like to take cover under.

Bolduan said he's seen fox snakes, garter snakes and brown snakes on the prairie. He said other rare critters have been recorded at Kasota Prairie, but that he hasn't found them. That's why he's bringing in Jeff LeClere, an amphibians and reptiles expert, to help lead the walk.

The DNR zoologist has spent years conducting surveys of all amphibian and reptile species statewide.

“This is a good opportunity for people to learn about the wildlife in the area,” Bolduan said. 

There are several threatened or "of special concern" reptiles and amphibians in Minnesota including timber rattlesnakes, Blanding's turtle, spotted salamander, plains hog-nosed snake and common five-lined skink.

Funding for the event comes from the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.

 



http://bit.ly/2KsSiyg

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All In The Family: Maine Mother & Son Charged in Massive Drug Bust

-
Image
corso dog :: Article Creator Woman Hospitalized After Attack By 2 Dogs At Same Edmonton Home Where Boy Died: Lawyer UPDATE: On April 15, 2024, the City of Edmonton provided an update on the fatal attack. It said that prior to the deadly incident on April 1, "the city had no lawful basis to remove the dogs from the home." The city added that "all prior complaints about the dogs involved in this incident were investigated thoroughly and appropriate action was taken in accordance with the applicable legislation." The city also said a review found that its staff "acted appropriately in accordance with our standard practices and in compliance with the relevant legal constraints given the nature of past complaints and reports." A woman was hospitalized after being attacked in February by two large Cane Corso dogs at the same home where an 11-year-old boy was killed last week, the woman's lawyer told Global News. "I...
Read more

Rare Frogs And Illegal Drugs - Palisades Hudson Financial Group

-
Image
Colombian conservationist Ivan Lozano has hit on a brilliantly promising strategy to protect his country’s rare and endangered amphibians. His plan: Flood the market with them. Lozano is not hunting rare frogs in Colombia’s Andean forests. He is raising them himself and selling them at prices designed to undercut poachers and smugglers. If he can raise the frogs cheaply enough, and in large enough numbers, he might manage to drive down the market price to the point that poachers no longer find it worthwhile to harvest and smuggle the creatures onto the black markets. Lozano told The Associated Press that his company also encourages collectors to breed their own frogs. Picture yourself as a poacher. If the government toughens the legal penalties and steps up enforcement, you will shrug your shoulders; legal risks are a basic cost of doing business. Since the demand for your product already exists among foreign collectors and other buyers, tougher enforcement merely reduces supply a...
Read more

Burn scars, winter storms threaten rare and endangered species in San Gabriel Mountains - The Bakersfield Californian

-
Image
LOS ANGELES — Up until a few weeks ago, the West Fork of the San Gabriel River was one of the most abundant wildlife habitats in Los Angeles County, a secluded and rugged area defined by its steep peaks, lush canyons and mixture of rare and endangered species. Recently however, a team of federal biologists and forest rangers was aghast when it visited the stream following the Bobcat fire, which has burned more than 115,000 acres in the heart of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. Terrain that once resembled a High Sierra granite gorge now looked like ground zero after a nuclear explosion, and the usually clean mountain air was sharp with the stench of smoke. Particularly unsettling were the bare and ashen slopes that were now primed to dissolve under pounding winter storms. A heavy mudslide, experts said, could reverse decades of conservation efforts by inundating the last outposts for such federally protected species as the Santa Ana sucker fish and Southern California m...
Read more