REPTILES
Monitoring Species of Greatest Conservation Need by Aubrey Greene, Wildlife Diversity Biologist/Herpetologist
O ctober 2024 started off with surveys for SGCN snakes on Sandhills Game Lands, particularly Southern Hognose Snakes, as this is a period of peak activity for this species. Hatchling snakes (and the occasional adult) are on the move during this time and often have to cross roads. Their small size and slow movement make them especially vulnerable to being hit in the process, so high road mortality is a major concern for this State Threatened snake. We continue to monitor this species to ensure the popu- lation isn’t declining over time. During this quarter we also deployed acoustic recording devices (aka frogloggers) at 11 wetlands across the Sandhills to monitor winter-breeding SGCN frogs and toads like the Carolina Gopher Frog and Ornate Chorus Frog. These devices are set to record for 5 minutes every hour for 6 hours, begin- ning at sunset each night and will remain in the field until the end of April. That means we will have over 70 hours of recordings for each wetland! Fall rains often trigger salamanders to begin their trek across the landscape to their breeding wetlands, which triggers us to survey roads on rainy nights and start monitoring wetlands for egg masses. One warm rainy night in November was particularly active for amphibians (15 species documented) in Moore and Lee counties, including State Threatened Eastern Tiger Salamanders. Egg mass surveys on Sandhills Game Lands in late December even revealed Tiger Salamanders have already started laying eggs in wet- lands still full from late summer rains. However, more winter rains will be needed to ensure those wetlands stay full long enough for Tiger Salamanders and other SGCN amphibian species to have a suc- cessful breeding season.
AUBREY GREENE/NCWRC
AUBREY GREENE/NCWRC
Top: Young Southern Hognose Snake found in Sandhills Game Land. Bottom: A Tiger Salamander egg mass found in Sandhills Game Land.
31 2024 Wildlife Diversity Program Annual Report
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