UNH’s Salamander LT Monitoring Project in College Woods (a UNH natural area in Durham, NH) is part of the SPARCnet: Salamander Population & Adaptation Research Collaboration Network | more about SPARCnet here
UNH Site Coordinators:
Jennifer Purrenhage (Natural Resources)
Dave Steinberg (Biological Sciences)
UNH Collaborators:
Mike Simmons (Natural Resources)
Steve Eisenhaure (Land Use Coordinator)
We have been monitoring red-backed salamanders in College Woods, primarily using coverboard surveys, since August 2016. In December 2021, we redesigned our coverboard plots to follow the SPARCnet protocols and on April 22, 2022, we started surveys of our new SPARCnet plots.
At left: Setting up our new SPARCnet plots in December 2021 … finished 1 day before the snow arrived.
Our focus is on red-backed salamanders, but we opportunistically monitor all amphibians and reptiles encountered during salamander surveys. In addition to redbacks, we enjoy American toads, wood frogs, pickerel frogs, Eastern garter snakes, spotted salamanders, and four-toed salamanders in and around our coverboard plots.
Look at this baby spotted salamander! This is objectively one of the most adorable things in our world. And it’s actually pretty rare to run into this pretty common salamander under our coverboards so we’re grateful whenever it happens. | Photo: E. Landry, 2017
In the images below, you can see us measuring the snout-vent length and total length of red-backed salamanders (left, center) and in the center image you can see the eggs in this female salamander. In the far right image, you can count the eggs in this female (4 on each side, a total of 8 eggs). / Photos: J. Purrenhage
The video below provides a short demonstration of how we mark red-backed salamanders with elastomers for our long-term capture-mark-recapture study. / Video by Jill Fleming (USGS) and Jennifer Purrenhage (UNH)