Pond Life, Part 2 - Amphibians and Reptiles

Spring Peeper with inflated throat

On a spring evening you know you're near a pond when the air fills with frog romance from a chorus of Peepers.

Wood Frog

You're also likely to hear plaintive quacking sounds from Wood Frogs. Creatures that are difficult to see otherwise can be observed on a night patrol with the Cape Ann Vernal Pond Team (CAVPT).

Rick Roth and protégée

Team founder Rick Roth has inventoried wetlands and their wildlife at Halibut Point State Park. "When I was five years old I caught a Northern Brown Snake on my way home from kindergarten in Illinois. That was sixty-three years ago. I've been fascinated particularly by reptiles and amphibians ever since. Before that I was into dinosaurs, and of course I still am, but we couldn't find dinosaurs in our local fields and streams and ponds. A lot of kids would say to me, Hey, you know where to find snakes and frogs and salamanders, why don't you take me out with you and show me where you go? Sure enough, we'd find stuff, and some of 'em would be my hunting buddies forever."

Swimming salamanders

Salamander egg mass

"Massachusetts is the first state to come up with protection for vernal pools. The big deal is that because they dry up in the summer time, they have no fish. Salamanders and wood frogs can't live in a pond with fish because the fish will eat all their eggs. They thrive in vernal pools."

Eastern Red-spotted Newt, juvenile terrestrial phase

Salamanders hatch and spend their larval development in the water. Those born in vernal ponds have to accomplish this phase quickly before summer drought, and then crawl off to life in the leaf litter and rotting logs of the forest floor. The Eastern Red-spotted Newt is a salamander with a peculiar three-phased lifespan.

Eastern Red-spotted Newt under water in its adult aquatic phase

Having exchanged its gills for lungs the juvenile newt, or eft, typically spends two to three years on land, then finds a pond and transforms back into an entirely aquatic adult. But an individual newt may skip this terrestrial phase altogether. Or, if it finds a particular pond unsatisfactory because of overcrowding or too many parasites, it may transition into a fourth stage as a terrestrial adult. Ultimately it will have to return to water if it is to breed and reproduce.

Green Frog, with a ridge of skin running along the back above the shoulder

All of the pond creatures we have seen so far are classed as amphibians. They spend at least part of their life cycle in water and lay their eggs there. Their thin, delicate, often mucousy skin can exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide with water and air.

Bullfrog

In the long chain of evolution, amphibians developed as certain fish began to adapt to life on land. They are still greatly dependent on a moist environment.

A terrestrial Milk Snake at Halibut Point

The dry, scaly skin of reptiles, on the other hand, enables them to survive drought and in some cases salt water. Unlike amphibians born in the water that undergo metamorphoses to reach maturity (think tadpole), their young hatch from eggs on land as miniature adults, or directly within the mother. Both reptiles and amphibians are cold-blooded. They rely on external sources of heat to regulate their body temperature.

The Ribbon Snake has a slender body

and unmarked upper lip.

Two lookalike local snakes are adept swimmers, the Ribbon and Garter Snakes.

The Garter Snake, often stockier,

with characteristic dark vertical markings on its upper lip

A Garter Snake approaching a frog

The frog leaps to avoid capture

Blanding's and Painted Turtles

Turtles are the other reptiles besides snakes occasionally seen at Halibut Point. These species can travel considerable distances overland but spend most of their time in ponds. Unlike amphibians whose single neck vertebra limits articulation, turtles can stretch, turn, and lunge their multiple cervical vertebrae as part of the adjustment for the reconfiguration and fusing of many skeletal parts into a protective shell.

"Wildlife does a wonderful job of maintaining the earth. Water is a key to all of this. It's a hotspot of forest activity, almost anywhere you find it. Amphibians and reptiles are part of the big picture. When I say wildlife I include the plants and the trees and the ferns and the fungus and everything. If it's alive and it's not in captivity, it's wildlife in my book. It's an interwoven fabric."...Rick Roth