A professor of vertebrate zoology
Late last year, Jacob Beckstead (’16) and I got some squirrel nest boxes set up on the College of Wooster campus. These nest boxes are equipped with web cams that allow us to peak in on the squirrels activities whenever we want to. All three nest boxes are currently being used and for the College of Wooster community they can be publicly viewed at this link: Wooster Squirrel Nest Box Cams. We hope to make it available online from anywhere in the near future. Enjoy!
My student Jake Beckstead (’16) recently set up three squirrel nest boxes with web cams that are now up on three trees on the College of Wooster campus (near Kauke, Scovel and Severance Halls). It took about 3 or 4 weeks for the squirrels to get comfortable with them but all three have now been stuffed with leaves and are being used regularly. The live video (and sound) means we can peek in on them whenever we want and see what they have been up to. We’re hoping to get some females to give birth in our nest boxes, but for now they mostly do a lot of sleeping when they are not out foraging. Rest assured, we are collecting data on the secret lives of Wooster squirrels.
In the near future we hope to be able to stream the live video to the Wooster website, keep your eyes open for that!
Recently, my students and I had a paper accepted to be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Herpetology. This paper “Re-assessing the conservation status of an island endemic frog”, was based on three seasons of field work on the Caribbean island of Tobago, where we conducted surveys for an endemic species, the Bloody Bay Poison Frog (Mannophryne olmonae). This species was classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as “Critically Endangered” until our work revealed that it is actually reasonably common and widespread in suitable habitats. The conservation status of this species has now been downgraded to “Vulnerable”. Three Wooster grads contributed to this work: Travis Calkins (’12), Jess McQuigg (’13) and Aaron Novick (’12). All three are now in Ph.D. programs at Ohio State University, Miami University, and the University of Pittsburgh, respectively. Nice work folks!
Hola from La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica!
I am here with three Wooster students conducting research on glass frogs. The station is an excellent place to conduct biological research in the lowland rainforests of Central America, a region extremely rich in biological diversity. We have seen anteaters, howler monkeys, smoky jungle frogs, toucans, hummingbirds, bromeliads, palms, blue morpho butterflies and too many other species to mention. Truly a naturalist’s paradise.
Our actual quarry (glass frogs) has been somewhat elusive, but we are slowly discovering their secrets. These small frogs are nocturnal and perch on vegetation over streams and rivers. We are learning about their ecological requirements, particularly, we have been examining their abundance and diversity in primary (old growth) and secondary (re-growth) forests.
We will be hearing about the findings of this study as Taylor Bradley (’16), Stuti Sharma (’16) and Nate Weltman (’16) begin to analyze their data and write up their theses this fall. Stay tuned.
About ten years ago, I started a project with a few students to assess to conservation status of Blanchard’s cricket frog (Acris blanchardi) in the state of Ohio. The last large scale assessment of the distribution and abundance of this formerly common species was published in 1946. So, a detailed examination of its current situation was needed, especially since this species had declined precipitously in other areas.
My students and I collected field data over five summers (2004-2008) and an analysis of our findings has recently appeared in the journal Herpetological Conservation and Biology co-authored by Wooster alum Jim Witter (‘07). This work was made possible by the hard work of many other Wooster students and colleagues (Ken Fry, Danielle Lightle, Allen Skinner, Erica Kovacik, Derek Schook, Elizabeth Wojtowicz, Nate Busman, Steven Bouyack, Andrew Kordalski, Claire Paisley-Jones, Michael MacDonald, Carolyn Cahill and Gerardo Carfagno) and by funding from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the Henry Luce Foundation and the College of Wooster. The dataset involves results from a total of 1,807 listening surveys conducted in western Ohio during those five summers. Each survey took ~ 15 minutes, so that means we collectively spent about 450 hours listening for frogs! It’s really fun at first but after a few weeks, the novelty does wear off a bit. To my knowledge, this is the most extensive monitoring project ever conducted specifically for Blanchard’s cricket frog.
Our results suggest that Blanchard’s cricket frogs have declined substantially in Ohio, but presently they are relatively stable. We even found some evidence for eastward expansion (recovery). So, we are cautiously optimistic about the future of this species in Ohio. But what has happened out there since 2008? We have no idea. Future monitoring efforts will be necessary to answer this question.