Creatures of Arkansas’ Tallgrass Prairies – via Herp Digest

by Bob Whitby | Jul 9, 2019 | Field Notes, Research Frontiers, University of Arkansas

Arkansas was once a patchwork of forests, prairies and grasslands. While forests are still abundant, the open, natural landscape of the prairies and grassland is mostly gone, developed as farmland or urban areas. Less than 1 percent remains intact.

The tallgrass prairies of Northwest Arkansas were home to a variety of reptile and amphibian species, many of which have declined with the loss of habitat and are now listed as “species of greatest conservation need” by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Animals such as the ornate box turtle, slender legless lizard, Great Plains narrowmouth frog, crawfish frog, and several types of snakes are included on the list. These are species that most people have never even heard of, let alone seen, and they are often very hard to find, even where they occur. 

Graduate biology students Chelsea Kross and Ethan Royal, along with J.D. Willson, associate professor of biology, have spent the last two summers looking for reptiles and amphibians in the remaining tallgrass prairies of Northwest Arkansas. They want to know where the creatures live and what habitats they require.

“We’ve spent over 400 hours out looking for species in big prairies and grass fields,” said Kross.

They identified 34 historic prairie sites in Benton, Washington, Crawford, Madison and Carroll counties that varied from being relatively pristine to highly degraded by agriculture and urban sprawl. They visited each a total of 6 times during the summers of 2018 and 2019. To find secretive animals they deployed ‘coverboards’ – pieces of plywood that offer shade and protection – and cataloged what crawled underneath, performed visual surveys and listened for frogs.

They found 1,542 individual animals representing 55 species, including a slender glass lizard, top of page, a prairie skink, above left, an ornate box turtle, center, and a crawfish frog. Photos provided.

All told, they found 55 species and 1,542 individual reptiles and amphibians, including finding new populations of some of the rarest wildlife species in the state. They’ll spend the next few months analyzing the data they’ve collected, using modeling techniques to estimate what lives in the area’s remaining tallgrass prairies and to determine what habitat characteristics are most important to these species. The answer will help state officials determine how to best manage the land. A $42,000 State Wildlife Grant from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, plus matching funds, made the work possible.

Over 75 turtles rescued from east Arkansas wastewater tank – via Herp Digest

by Josh Snyder | April 23, 2019 .Arkansas Democrat Gazette

(Editor of HerpDigest, Turtles found in the filters/ tanks of waste water treatment plants is common all over the U.S. Any artificial pond-for example Turtle Pond in Central Park, NYC, In Turtle Pond ,when it rains, the excess water flows into an over-flow drain at the far western end of the pond and are usually caught in the filters at the end of drainage pipes into the tanks.. They are mostly red eared sliders that are now near 80-90% of the turtles in the park. What happens to them afterwards I don’t know. Go to https://bit.ly/2V2rVEP for video of rescue and closer view of turtles. One snapper, rest definitely red-eared sliders.

Workers release the rescued turtles into the waters of the Mississippi River. (Courtesy West Memphis Animal Shelter)

Almost 80 turtles were rescued by animal control from a wastewater treatment filter over the course of two days in West Memphis, officials said. Employees at the plant, though, said this was a “small incident” compared to numbers they’ve experienced in the past.

The West Memphis Animal Shelter was notified by the neighboring wastewater treatment plant of the trapped turtles on Wednesday, said Wesley Burt, an animal control officer. By the end of Thursday, rescuers had pulled about 75 of the reptiles from the filter.

Turtles are a common sight in the treatment plant’s retention pond, Paul Holloway, superintendent of wastewater for the city, said. The animals find its waters a good place to live and breed, he said.

But when rains [it  gets bad], the sewage ponds are pumped to prevent overflowing, according to Burt. The pumped water flows into a concrete container about 20-feet deep before continuing on to the Mississippi River.

This is where the turtles became trapped, according to Burt.

Rescuers from the animal shelter assembled long extension poles with netting at the end and scooped the reptiles to safety, officials said. They were placed in kiddie pools, taken to the banks of the Mississippi River, and released into its waters.

“It was good to save the turtles’ lives,” Burt said. “We couldn’t just see them drown.”

Most of the saved animals were box turtles, though one was a snapping turtle, Burt said. According to officials, one of the animals drowned before it could be pulled from the hole.

Though Burt said this was the first time in the roughly four years he’s served at the shelter that they’d been notified of turtles being trapped in the pond’s filter, Holloway at the treatment plant said “this happens all the time.”

“This happened many, many times before,” he said. “Every time we bypass this happens.”

Holloway said that whenever they find turtles in the container they release them into the river. Further, he said his personnel have seen “way more than that.”

According to Holloway, he’s seen up to 400 turtles at a time during his approximately 12 years at the facility.

“This is nothing new,” he said.

However, efforts are being made to prevent this from happening again. Burt said the animal shelter are checking the spot daily to look for turtles, and that the water department intends to inform them whenever they intend to activate the pumps.

Star pupils: students inspire key study on alarming starfish decline

Virus outbreak among sea stars coincided with warm waters, researchers found after sixth graders held fundraiser for survey

Emily Holden in Washington

Wed 30 Jan 2019 19.00 GMTLast modified on Thu 31 Jan 2019 16.05 GMT

Five years ago, a sixth grade class in land-locked Arkansas heard about a mass die-off of starfish on the west coast and felt compelled to help.

The 11- and 12-year-olds elected a chairman to head their fundraiser. They cut out paper starfish – more formally known as sea stars – and put them up for “adoption” for a $1 donation. They assigned them names and personality traits, such as Cherry Bomb, who “loves hanging out on her phone”, “rocks the legging style” and “is really smart but isn’t a nerd”. They sold T-shirts that read: “Save the Starfish.”

“We don’t have an ocean anywhere close by,” their now retired teacher Vickie Bailey said. “The students knew that they would never go to the coast, they would probably never get to see this type of starfish, but they were so passionate about what was happening.”

Read on

Scientist collects 30 sawfly species not previously reported from Arkansas

May 16, 2016

Sawflies and wood wasps form a group of insects that feed mainly on plants when immature. Field work by Dr. Michael Skvarla, which was conducted during his Ph.D. research at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, USA, has uncovered 30 species of these plant-feeding wasps that were previously unknown in the state. The study is published it in the open access journal Biodiversity Data Journal.

After collecting sawflies in tent-like Malaise traps or hanging funnel traps, Dr. Michael Skvarla sent the specimens to retired sawfly expert Dr. David Smith for identification.

In total, 47 species were collected, 30 of which had not been found in Arkansas before. While many of the species are widespread in eastern North America, eight species were known only from areas hundreds of kilometers away.

"I knew that many insect groups had not yet been surveyed in Arkansas, but I was surprised that 66% of the sawfly species we found were new to the state," Skvarla says.

"In addition, over a quarter of the newly recorded species represent large range extensions of hundreds of miles; Monophadnoides conspiculatus, for instance, was previously known only from the Appalachian Mountains. This work highlights how much basic natural history is left to discover about insects."

Read more at: 

Real-life mutant ninja turtle: Reptile with TWO HEADS is found amongst huge shipment from China

Two-headed snapping turtle discovered at turtle farm in Amagon, Arkansas

Baby turtle is yet to be named, but the farm plans to find it a new home

Turtle, which arrived from China in shipment of 30,000 of the reptiles, is expected to be sold to a collector 

By JAMES RUSH FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 15:51, 27 August 2014 | UPDATED: 18:03, 27 August 2014

They do say two heads are better than one, but workers at a turtle farm in the U.S. had never before seen anything like this.

A two-headed snapping turtle has been discovered at the Northeast Ark Turtle Farm, in Amagon, Arkansas, in a shipment of 30,000 of the reptiles shipped from China.

The baby turtle is yet to be named, but representatives at the farm have confirmed they will be looking for a new home for the young reptile. 

The baby turtle was discovered at the farm last week, according to The Jonesboro Sun.

A state biologist has said turtle mutations are rare, but are becoming more common. 

Workers at the farm have previously discovered a hatchling with one neck and two heads, but that died at birth.

Read more: 

Bat killing WNS fungus confirmed in Arkansas

A fungus that leads to a deadly disease that has killed almost seven million bats in the US is continuing its spread westwards, results have shown.

Officials said the disease had been confirmed in Arkansas after samples tested positive for the fungus known to cause white-nose syndrome (WNS).

To date, there is no known vaccine or antidote against the disease.

WNS was first detected in New York State in 2006 and has since spread to 22 states and five Canadian provinces.

The latest positive results came from swab samples taken from hibernating bats in two cave in Arkansas.

The testing was part of a national study, funded by the US National Science Foundation, being carried out by researchers from the University of California Santa Cruz and North Arizona University.

Continued

Large Field of Dinosaur Tracks Uncovered in Southwest Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- The discovery of a large field of dinosaur tracks in Arkansas has researchers busy using cutting-edge technology and traditional techniques to learn all that they can about the animals and environment that existed there 120 million years ago.

The track site, found in southwest Arkansas, covers an area of about two football fields and contains the fossilized tracks of several species and tracks from multiple animals of the same species, some of which have never been previously documented in Arkansas. The site will help researchers learn not only about the creatures that once roamed through the area, but also about the climate during the Early Cretaceous period 115 to 120 million years ago.

"The quality of the tracks and the length of the trackways make this an important site," said Stephen K. Boss, who led the National Science Foundation-funded project. Based on the rock in which the footprints were found, researchers have a good idea of what the climate would have been like.

Read on...

Massive fish kill blankets Arkansas River

(CNN) -- Arkansas officials are investigating the death of an estimated 100,000 fish in the state's northwest, but suspect disease was to blame, a state spokesman said Sunday.


Dead drum fish floated in the water and lined the banks of a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River near Ozark, about 125 miles northwest of Little Rock, said Keith Stephens of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. A tugboat operator discovered the fish kill Thursday night, and fisheries officials collected some of the dying animals to conduct tests.

Stephens said fish kills occur every year, but the size of the latest one is unusual, and suggested some sort of disease was to blame.

"The fish kill only affected one species of fish," he said. "If it was from a pollutant, it would have affected all of the fish, not just drum fish."

Ozark is about 125 miles west of the town of Beebe, where game wardens are trying to find out why up to 5,000 blackbirds fell from the sky just before midnight New Year's Eve.

Dead birds a mystery in Arkansas
Biologists believe the bird deaths were stress-related from either fireworks or weather and are unrelated to the fish kill near Ozark, Stephens said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/01/02/arkansas.fish.kill/index.html?eref=rss_us&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_us+%28RSS%3A+U.S.%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

5,000 blackbirds

Arkansas game officials hope testing scheduled to begin Monday will solve the mystery of why up to 5,000 blackbirds fell from the sky just before midnight New Year's Eve.

The birds -- most of which were dead -- were found within a one-mile area of Beebe, about 40 miles northeast of Little Rock, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said. The blackbirds fell over about a one-mile area, the commission said in a statement.

As of Saturday, between 4,000 and 5,000 blackbirds had been found dead, said Keith Stephens with the commission.

"Shortly after I arrived, there were still birds falling from the sky," said commission wildlife officer Robby King in the statement. He said he collected about 65 dead birds.

The commission said it flew over the area to gauge the scope of the event, and no birds were found outside of the initial one-mile area.

Karen Rowe, an ornithologist for the commission, said the incident is not that unusual and is often caused by a lightning strike or high-altitude hail.

A strong storm system moved through the state earlier in the day Friday.

Officials also speculated that fireworks shot by New Year's revelers in the area might have caused severe stress in the birds. Rowe said Sunday there was evidence that large fireworks may have played a role.

Biologists believe the deaths were stress-related from either fireworks or weather, Stephens said.

"Since it only involved a flock of blackbirds and only involved them falling out of the sky, it is unlikely they were poisoned, but a necropsy is the only way to determine if the birds died from trauma or toxin," Rowe said.

The dead birds will be sent for testing to labs at the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission and the National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin.

The necropsies will begin Monday, Stephens said, and the findings should be available sometime this week.

The city of Beebe has hired U.S. Environmental Services to begin the cleanup and dispose of the dead birds, the commission said. The firm's workers will go door-to-door and pick up birds still in yards and on rooftops.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/02/arkansas.falling.birds/index.html?hpt=C1