Mood:
mischieviousTopic: Out in the Field
I think I may have made a discovery that is unknown to science, at least I have not found any literature on this. Let me explain my discovery and tell me what you think. This was my first day of herping for 2008 and it was great to get out and streatch my legs. I went to Bryan Woods after hearing reports of other Hoosier Herpers finding many species of salamanders and frogs and had high expectations. I also went to Camp Cullom for some herping before the Central Indiana FrogWatchers meeting that evening. While I did see my first countable herp, it was unfortunatley dead. A bullfrog tadpole had washed ashore near the dam. I will explain the schene at Bryan Woods and let me if anyone has ever experienced somrthing similar.
1/9/08 1pm-2pm Temperature about 40degrees F It was partly cloudy with much rain in the last 2 days
Under a log, half round with approx diameter of 10 inches, I saw the tail and counted a few costal ridges of what I believed to be a smallmouth salamander (Ambystoma texanum). I watched for a few seconds trying to decide if I should try for a picture where it was, or grab and measure it first and then stage a shot. I decided to go for the grab. I held the log up with my leg, balanced my Furmont Stump Ripper on my other leg and slowly went in fot the capture. right as I was about to put my fingers on it, it changed right in front of my eyes. By the time I got a hold of it, it had went from the animal form of a smallmouth salamander to the plant for of a bur oak leaf that was wet and curled to the exact shape of a salamander tail. The costal grooves had changed into leaf veins.
This could very well explain why salamanders are so hard to find throughout the year. During the brreding season, they are pre-occupied to worry about their special form of evolutionary camoflauge. I am pretty sure I have also seen this in a few species of frogs, and even turtles. I have tracked a frog, been very sly getting the dip net ready and when I go for the capture, I end up with a hickory nut that apparently I was supposed to believe was floating there and not the frog I had been focusing on. I also saw a snapping turtle on the bottom of a pond that changed into a tree root, a very strangley shaped tree root, but a root none the less. If you have ever experienced this, please let me know and maybe we can collaborate on this very unusual discovery to science.
