March 13th SLHS General Meeting. Jonathan Micancin PhD will speak on "Tiny Frogs in the Dark: a study of communication and conservation in syntopic cricket frogs in the Atlantic Coastal Plain."

Who doesn't love the Cricket Frog? With its distinctive call and diminutive size it is certainly worth our attention. Come hear Dr. Micancin's talk on these wonderful creatures. He will cover how they communicate along with other aspects of their natural history and what is being done to conserve them.
Meeting will be held Sunday March 13th at the Kirkwood Community Center, 111 South Geyer. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with presentation to start at 7:00.

Due to the weather, THE FEBRUARY 14TH SLHS GENERAL MEETING AND TALK HAS BEEN CANCELLED!

We are working on rescheduling Ed Bielik's talk on New World Rat Snakes for later this year. Please check back for details.

February 14th, General Meeting. Ed Bielik will be speaking on New World Rat Snakes.

Ed will be giving an informative talk on these fascinating snakes and their natural history and habits. New World rat snakes include the well known rat and corn snakes indigenous to the United States along with the western fox snake pictured above. Ed is encouraging anyone who keeps these snakes to bring one to the meeting this Sunday. It is always fun to see live snakes!

For anyone interested in reading how Old World rat snakes dispersed to the New World here is a link to an interesting article on the subject.
 http://www.reticulatedpython.info/me/papers/how%20old%20word%20ratsnakes%20disperseds%20into%20the%20new%20world.pdf

See you Sunday and Happy Valentine's Day!

Resonant frequencies cause patterns in sand on a Cymatics plate that reflect a tortoise shell's natural patterning.

January 10th, General Meeting.

We are excited to have Leslie Brinkman as our guest speaker this month. Leslie is a MSc in Biology at Missouri State University and she will be presenting her work studying the history of the Bolitoglossine Salamanders of Central America. Part of her work includes the conservation of this species too. Learning more about the animal in its natural habitat can give us an understanding on how best to protect it. Please join us this Sunday, January 10th, at the Kirkwood Community Center, 111 South Geyer Rd. This month's meeting will be held in room
201 a/b on the 2nd floor. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with the meeting starting at 7. It is a bit chilly out but that is how the salamanders like it! Hope to see you there.

 

Hellbender Conservation Efforts in Indiana and Missouri

The St. Louis Zoo has been working on breeding Hellbenders for several years now with the first successful breeding in 2011. Since then the zoo has been enjoying much success breeding these unique amphibians. Our state is the only state to have both Hellbender subspecies. The animals reproducing at the zoo are from three different rivers in Missouri so their offspring can eventually be released into their specific water systems. For more information on the zoo's breeding efforts click on this link. http://www.stlzoo.org/conservation/wildcare-institute/hellbendersinmissouri/

Our zoo is not the only institution working on Hellbender conservation. Since 2013 officials from Indiana's Columbian Park Zoo (located in Lafayette) along with scientists from Purdue University have been working on breeding Hellbenders in hopes of releasing them back into the Blue River. This river is the only place Hellbenders occur in Indiana. After successfully breeding about 200 of these giant salamanders the next step is to make this waterway habitable once again. For more reading on the project follow this link. http://wbaa.org/post/purdue-hellbender-researchers-focusing-endangered-salamanders-habitat

The Hellbender is very specific in its environmental needs. As is the same old story,  they have declined drastically throughout their range because we humans have altered their rivers to the point where they are no longer suitable habitat. It is heartening to see efforts from these two zoos to try and restore the rivers and reintroduce these amazing creatures so we may see healthy populations thriving once again. If they succeed, they will not only save this species... it will benefit us all.

Holiday Party at the Zoo!

Sunday, December 13th we will be having our annual Holiday Party at the St. Louis Zoo's Herpetarium. 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. This event is one of the highlights of the year for the club. Members get to enjoy our zoo's wonderful collection of reptiles and amphibians after hours in a relaxed visit. You must be a member in good standing to attend but you can renew or join at the door. Members may bring guests. Please BRING A DISH OR SNACK TO SHARE. The SLHS will provide water and coffee. We will hold a short meeting where we will vote for the 2016 board members and then dine at 6:30.

There will also be a PHOTO CONTEST with three age groups (up to 11 yrs old, 12 to 18, and 19 and up). No frames or mats on the photos and please write your name and age on the back in pencil. 8 x 10 preferred and all photos will be kept by the SLHS for future use in the newsletter and blog. With photo credits, of course! 1st prize in each age group is a one year membership renewal and 2nd prize will be a SLHS t-shirt of your choice.

FREE PARKING will be available in the south parking lot near the vertical ZOO sign. See you there!