Aren’t eastern painted turtles beautiful???

A couple of turtle photos for #wildturtleweek

Meet one of the South’s most important landlords: the Gopher Tortoise. These humble reptiles dig deep burrows that support over 350 other species — from frogs to snakes to insects. But as longleaf pine habitat disappears, so does the tortoise… and everything that depends on it.

Started field work for my MS and I’ve been having a blast!

Happy New Year everyone! Here’s a Dusky Pygmy Rattlesnake (Sistrurus miliarius barbouri) found in South GA.

No locality posting this week, as I will be traveling. Here's a Mishana Poison Frog (Ranitomeya amazonica) from NE Peru. They are small as frogs go, and this adult comfortably on my thumbnail :) #herps #frogs #NaturePhotography

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas with this pretty red and green scene! Red Salamander (Pseudotriton ruber) from northern Georgia this fall #herps

Seems like there’s a theme this week, another gorgeous diamondback found on a rather successful survey. This gorgeous individual seemed unbothered by our presence and was left alone after some brief photos. #herps

Another eastern diamondback rattlesnake found by one of our volunteers! #herps

It’s #frogfriday so bringing back my absolute favourite facts about corroboree frogs… and it’s that they wiggle their toes to attract their food! 🤤🦗🐸

🐸Green and black poison dart frog (Dendrobates auratus). At 4.2cm (1.7") females are slightly larger than males. Found in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia. Males fight for territories during mating season. Considered Least Concern by the IUCN. 📷 by Ivan Rojas on Pexels.

I posted this on John Scalzi's feed earlier so I should post it here as well. My last book, "The Field Herping Guide: Finding Amphibians and Reptiles in the Wild" was published in 2019 (you can skip the Bazillionaire middle man and order directly from the press) ugapress.org/book/9780820... #books

We are looking for a PhD student to work on "Faunal diversity dynamics of the Seychelles using environmental DNA". Your primary supervisors would be David Gower (NHM, London) and Julia Day (UCL). For more details of the project and funding see trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/fau... 🐍🧪🐸🔬

Imma make this Pitcher Plant day - Flask Pitchers (Nepenthes ampullaria) from SW Borneo. Other pitcher plants are carnivores, eating the remains of insects trapped inside, but N. ampullaria is a detritivore - its open top collects falling leaf litter & other organics. 🌿🌱#NaturePhotography 1/2 🧵

Ornate chorus frogs (Pseudacris ornata) are some of the prettiest anurans in the southeastern United States. They come in gray, green, and reddish- brown color phases and gather to breed during the winter months.

A juvenile Toad-head Turtle (Mesoclemmys nasuta) from NE Peru back in January. These are pleurodires, or side-neck turtles - their head tucks to either side under the shell. A different group from cryptodires, which pull their head and neck straight back under the shell. #herps #NaturePhotography 🌿

A beautiful desert skink (Liopholis inornata) from far north South Australia. #WildOz

It’s always a good day when you get to see the king of all rattlesnakes, the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus).

No snakes on our surveys today, but we flipped this little corn snake under some tin on the way home!

On today’s survey, what I thought for a second was a charred stick turned out to be a beautiful Eastern hognose snake!!

An adult Yellow-spotted Night Lizard (Lepidophyma flavimaculatum) from NW Costa Rica. Interesting lizards in many ways - for one thing they are live-bearers rather than egg-layers, and some populations are female-only (parthenogenic), including those in Costa Rica. #herps #NaturePhotography 🌿