Home Page for Rick Lehtinen

In November 2022, I had an amazing experience on top of El Tucuche (the second highest mountain on the island of Trinidad). I was lucky to be the first person to hear the Golden Tree Frog vocalize. This endangered species is restricted to only four mountaintops in the world and was thought for many years to be voiceless. Turns out, it is not voiceless, you just have to be persistent and get a little lucky to hear it call! See our recent publication that describes these vocalizations for the first time. Thanks to Renoir Auguste (University of the West Indies) and Dan Borowsky (’23) for helping make this happen.

Another new paper from Lake Barrett’s (’23) Independent Study thesis was just published in Mammalia. Nice work all!

Lake Barrett (’23) was instrumental in getting this paper across the finish line. It also marks my first publication with long-time friend and colleague Dean Fraga!

Over the holiday break, I got moved into a nice new office with not one but TWO windows! It’s not Hogwarts but I’ll take it.

Yesterday (9/27/2023) on a class field trip, my students and I found a baby milk snake (Lampropeltis triangulum) in the woods at Wooster Memorial Park (WMP). In ~15 years of working on amphibian and reptiles at this site, this is the first milk snake I have found. It is the seventh snake species documented from WMP (the others being eastern garter snakes, ribbon snakes, black rat snakes, northern water snakes, Dekay’s brown snakes and ringneck snakes). Hope to see more in the future!