Hochfest for Reptile and Amphibian Enthusiasts at Toronto Zoo – via Herp Digest

Digital  Journal, Ontario12/6/12  Hochfest for reptile and amphibian enthusiasts at Toronto Zoo (Bart B. Van Bockstaele)

Toronto Zoo is the central hub for nature conservancy in Ontario. On Saturday, 3 November, the Zoo invited people who are active in its Turtle Tally and FrogWatch programmes for a day of fellowship and information. 

Toronto Zoo is not just a minor two-hour Sunday afternoon attraction for people with young children, far from it. Toronto Zoo is a centre of practical biological knowledge and science, and the central hub for nature education and conservancy in Ontario. Its people are very active in the field, both as a part of their jobs and as volunteers. 

Adopt-A-Pond is one of the many programmes run by Toronto Zoo. It consists of several different parts, two of which are FrogWatch Ontario and Ontario Turtle Tally. 

These are essentially scientific crowdsourcing programmes designed to help with collecting data paid scientists and employees can't collect because the contents of the public purse are too small to hire more, and because one person can only do so much. 

Once a year, Toronto Zoo organises a FrogWatch and Turtle Tally Participant Appreciation Day as a thank you to the people who volunteer their time for the programmes. It is a great occasion for people who share the same interest to meet and talk about their own experiences and to share ideas. 

This year took on a more-than-usual significance for me because Julia Phillips, Adopt-A-Pond co-ordinator and organiser of the event, had asked me to give a talk as well. 

Bob Johnson, the Toronto Zoo's curator for reptiles and amphibians and very active in conservation of reptiles and amphibians, started the event and introduced Julia Philips. 

Julia Phillips presented a summary of the observations of turtles, frogs and toads that had been sent in this year. This was an unusual year for Frogwatch, because the frogs became active a lot earlier than usual, the spring peepers even as early as the first week of February. 

Crystal Robertson, Adopt-A-Pond's Stewardship and Social Marketing Coordinator, talked about what Adopt-A-Pond is doing in Ontario's lake communities, such as helping people understand why every single turtle is important and why the death of even a single turtle can deliver a significant blow to a population, the installation of nesting beaches, distributing information and more. 

Jeff Howard, an avid environmentalist and community volunteer, talked about his passion for all living things, in particular about how he worked with a local developer who was about to fill-in a wetland, in order to save as many Blanding's turtles he could. 

After this came Lyn Garrah, M.E.S. Graduate, Queen's University. She talked about the work she did for her university thesis, studying amphibian and reptile road mortality on the 1000 Islands Parkway, the goal being to gather data and possibly finding way to reduce it. 

Lyn's talk was of particular significance for me, since I also study amphibian and reptile road mortality, but in Toronto. What surprised me however, is that some of what we do is not just similar, but even identical. We both use a bicycle to do our work, for some of the same reasons (snakes can be easily missed when using a car), and even the distance we bike is almost the same: between 34 and 38 km. Her conclusions are also similar, namely that predicting and protecting amphibians and snakes is a far more complicated matter than is often assumed. 

Paul Prior, a fauna biologist with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, gave a talk titled "No Frog (or Toad) Left Behind – Pre-empting Rarity". His view on things is that conservation tends to jump in when it is already (almost) too late. He pleads for pre-emptive conservation, i.e. starting to take care of things before an animal - or a plant for that matter - has become almost extinct. 

In order to make this possible, he proposes a system in which levels of rarity are assigned to each organism. This system relies a lot on trends over relatively long periods of time, 10 to 20 years or so, and it requires careful collection of data in a grid that covers the entire region. The advantage of such a system is that it makes it possible to be proactive and act before the situation becomes desperate. 

After a 30 minute break, it was Massimo Giammarco's turn. Although this pint-sized conservationist is only 8 years old, he is the driving force behind turtle conservation efforts in his community, as he showed with his talk "Helping Students to Help Turtles". While children are often seen as unimportant and merely "endearing" or "cute", they can indeed be quite important. I witnessed that myself only a few weeks ago, when a girl managed to convince her parents to put their dog back on the leash in order to protect a snapping turtle. I had been unable to convince her parents, but she was, and she may well have saved the life of that turtle in the process. 

"Completing the Hatch: A Fighting Chance for Ontario's Turtles" was a talk by Matt Thomson who devised a simple cage-type protection to prevent predators from raiding turtle nests. It can be hard to measure the effectiveness of such a system, but he is working on it, and the design certainly looks promising. 

Bob Johnson, curator of the Toronto Zoo herptile collection, promised him some help. Bob does not waste words. Last year, I had a conversation with him that lasted mere seconds, but in that time he predicted the results of my research and he was spot on. 

With "Amphibians and Reptiles in the Urban Wilderness" came my attempt at informing and entertaining my fellow reptile and amphibian conservationists. I had made a selection among the tens of thousands of pictures I have taken over the years. 

My take on photography is somewhat different than that of many nature photographers. It is not my goal to make "beautiful" pictures. It is my goal to make pictures that document what is really there. As such, I do not carry a lot of "gear", nor do I use any tricks to attract wildlife or to make superb pictures. I take pictures of what is there when it is there. They are a record of what is true, rather than of what I would like to be true. I hoped - and hope - that people seeing these pictures will realise that Toronto is a unique city with a unique natural heritage. 

I must admit to having been a bit naughty, since I did overstep my allotted time quite a bit as I was showing the pictures I had selected. Fortunately for me, no one pulled a gun or a knife to silence me. I am very grateful for that much unexpected courtesy. 

Karine Bériault was the last speaker of the day. She is a Species at Risk Biologist with the Ministry of Natural Resources. One of her activities is trying to help the threatened wood turtle population back to healthy levels. I hope her initiatives work out, for I have never seen a wood turtle before. 

After the presentations, we were treated to a mountain of pizza, an excellent opportunity for me to fight weight loss, as well as a wonderful occasion to intermingle. 

Julia Phillips also treated the speakers to a copy of Brennan Caverhill's Blanding's turtle plastron poster and a properly camouflaged metal drinking bottle, Toronto Zoo edition. My poster is destined to replace a satellite picture of Toronto, and the bottle is ready to be used on my regular expeditions in the parks of Toronto. 

When the programme was finished, we were "released" into the zoo for an enjoyable walk in this unique collection of animals and plants implanted in what is poised to become Canada's first urban national park: the uniquely beautiful Rouge Valley, a great end to a wonderful day.