Herpetology Club: “What Reptile Am I?”

Written by Jose Rodriguez

Our final Herpetology Club meeting for the season turned out to be a lot of fun. As a way to review everything we learned throughout the year, the kids were quizzed in a game show-style manner that we called “What Reptile Am I?”

That was followed by an animal treasure hunt, in which our students were given cards that identified certain characteristics of all the reptiles and amphibians we have worked with. Everyone then went into the Reptile Room to match up the cards with the animal it was describing.

Crested Gecko hatchlings

We ended our session by allowing the kids to vote on which 3 of their favorite herps they wanted to see up close and handle. Our choices were:

1. Corn Snake
2. Crested Gecko hatchlings
3. Collared Lizard

Collared Lizard

We also had time to touch on a few important topics brought up during a Q&A session:

• We discussed the importance of proper ventilation/air circulation in an enclosure containing amphibians and the pros and cons of a screen top cover and a lid-style cover.

• We discussed the proper terminology for a turtle and tortoise’s shell (the dome of the shell is known as the carapice, while the flat underside is known as the plastron).

• We learned about the ambush-style hunting strategy Horned Frogs employ to catch dinner.

• The proper way to handle a large snake.

• The proper way to interact with a Crested Gecko, and reduce the stress caused during handling.

It was a great way to wrap things up. We all got a chance to interact with lots of cool reptiles, we took home a lot of important facts, and had a ton of fun getting to know one another and learning together.

Herpetology Club with Jose Rodriguez

Hopefully everyone has a great summer, and joins us again in September!

Jose is Fauna’s Eco-Education Coordinator and runs various programming aimed at different age levels. Email Jose for information about birthday parties, Children’s Story Time, the Herpetology Club, and more at jose@faunanyc.com

To learn more about Fauna NYC, visit our website!

Guatemala Project: Part 6 – Why Should People Care?

Series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

As many of you know, Daniel Kopulos, owner of Fauna, is currently in Guatemala  through mid-June 2013 to continue his conservation work with Scarlet Macaws, Mesoamerican River Turtles and Jaguars. While he is on this adventure, we thought it would be fun for us to relive his past excursion to Guatemala in 2012, as well as educate and answer questions we’ve received from our many supporters of this conservation project. We will present Daniel’s exciting and important story in a series of interview questions and photos. Enjoy!

Why should people care about the Guatemala Project?

The Guatemala Project, although working specifically with three species of animals, helps to preserve all the life in that region. The animals selected to be worked with are not all endangered, but are also known as landscape species. This means they have significant meaning or purpose for the region. Each of these species has been a part of the culture in the area since early civilization. They are still recognized as important and powerful species. By protecting them, the land, forest and waters are also protected because you can not have one without the other.

The Mayan Biosphere is one of the largest regions of forest and is a major contributor to air quality for the rest of us globally. Many resources have also come from this area over the decades including medicine, fuel, food and materials.

What specific work did you do for river turtles and jaguars?

For the turtles, we provided incubators and incubation chambers to increase the viable hatchings of collected eggs. We reviewed dietary and lighting information that may aid in development of young.

For the jaguars, we assisted in placing numerous camera traps that can capture video or photos in cross sectioned areas to help identify individual jaguars for a more accurate estimated count of surviving animals. They can be distinguished by their pattern of spots on their bodies. The cameras are always successful in taking photographs.

Since they are motion activated, there are often additional animal images captured. It’s always nice to see some of the elusive species such as ocelots and tapir. Having an accurate population count will assist in convincing the government that the jaguars need greater protection within Guatemala.

There are so many places and animals that need help – why are you driven to this specific cause?

This particular one chose me. However, after becoming involved with the project and the people of Guatemala, including the amazing staff at the field station, it is hard not to go back. They are so dedicated and inspiring to be around. Believe me, I get just as much, or more out of it, than what I could ever give!

Series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

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To learn more about Fauna NYC, visit our website!

Help us name our resident baby Leachie!

We asked Fauna customers to help us name our new Fauna Leachie baby. We received almost 100 suggestions! We’ve narrowed it to the top 5 most popular names. Choose your favorite from the list below!

Leachie Information:

We would like introduce the newest addition to the Fauna family. She is a yearling New Caledonian Giant Gecko (Rhachodactylus leachianus). R. leachianus (commonly called leachies) come from the New Caledonian Islands off the eastern coast of Australia, north of New Zealand.

This small island has a number of even smaller islands surrounding it and are each highly biologically diverse. Many of the individual islands have their own unique species or local specific characteristics. Our leachie’s heritage is from the tiny Isle of Moro, located southwest of the main island Grande Terre. Leachies are currently known as the largest living gecko in the world. This locale of leachianus is one of the larger of all the locales reaching a size of up to 13 inches.

Like other Rhachodactylus species she is nocturnal, camouflages extremely well, can climb vertical surfaces and has a prehensile tail. Leachies have very loose fitting, soft velvety skin. Once you hold one you will be mesmerized! In captivity they eat a prepared powdered Rhacodactylus gecko diet and insects on occasion. Housing can be rather simple and they typically do well at average room temperatures, not requiring additional heating. When available, leachies can make fascinating, easy to care for pets. If deciding to have a leachie of your own be prepared for a long-term pet as they are known to live up to 30 years, possibly more!

To learn more about Fauna NYC, visit our website!

Herpetology Club focuses on RODENTS

Written by Jose Rodriguez

For this month’s Herpetology Club meeting, we decided to deviate from reptiles and focus on another order of animals, the rodents.

Our students (which included a brand new member) and their parents spent the afternoon with a variety of both common and exotic rodents in the pet trade.

From the deserts of Africa, to our very own subway system, our club members were given the opportunity to meet, compare, and in many cases pet and hold different members of the rodent family from around the world.

Chinese Dwarf Hamster

Have you ever touched a hairless rat?

Or felt what the modified hairs on a spiny mouse were like?

Egyptian Spiny Mouse

Members of Fauna’s Herpetology Club learned all about rodents and their habits, biology, the evolutionary differences between rodents in different habitats, as well as their individual requirements as pets.

Other important topics covered were rodents’ roles in their particular environments and food chains, as well educating the students about the role rodents play as pest species.

Sleeping Gerbil

To end our meeting, our members put their artistic skills to use and chose 2 rodents to draw, diagram, and compare in an effort to exercise their observational skills and reinforce the lesson for the month.

Jose is Fauna’s Eco-Education Coordinator and runs various programming aimed at different age levels. Email Jose for information about birthday parties, Children’s Story Time, the Herpetology Club, and more at jose@faunanyc.com

To learn more about Fauna NYC, visit our website!

Guatemala Project: Part 5 – Dangers and Surprises

Series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

As many of you know, Daniel Kopulos, owner of Fauna, will be returning to Guatemala in May 2013 to continue his conservation work with Scarlet Macaws, Mesoamerican River Turtles and Jaguars. As he embarks on this adventure, we thought it would be fun for us to relive his past excursion in Guatemala in 2012, as well as educate and answer questions we’ve received from our many supporters of this conservation project. We will present Daniel’s exciting and important story in a series of interview questions and photos. Enjoy!

Did you feel safe? Were there dangers?

In the jungle there are always dangers. Just traveling out there in a truck is dangerous. There are mudslides, fallen trees and of course it is easy to get lost, as we did last year. Once in the protected area of the forest, there is the issue of the military presence. They are young boys with automatic weapons that have been out in the forest for months at a time.

Although it is relatively safe, you want to make sure you do not upset them, and you cannot leave any of your things around as they may go missing. Even with that, I would rather run across them than the drug runners passing through Guatemala to Mexico. They are dangerous and do not play around. We’ve never crossed them, but they are always near. They tend to set forest fires as a diversion so that the forestry department and military have to deal with the fire while they skirt around the other direction. We’ve had fires very close to the field station just last year.

What surprised you the most or challenged a pre-conceived idea?

The most challenging thing for me was to understand the way things work. One of the animals we work to protect is the jaguar. Farmers kill them. Others kill them because there is an unspoken bounty on their heads that equals about the same in US dollars as the cost of a Venti coffee at Starbucks. It was hard to conceive how – for so little – someone would kill such a majestic creature – that a jaguar is valued as little as the cost of a cup of coffee.

After spending some time with the people who live in the surrounding areas to the forest, you begin to understand and accept the situation. They are financially poor – not in a way an American can typically understand. That small amount of money means so much to them. As far as the farmers are concerned, the jaguars kill their cattle. One head of cattle can support a family for a very long time. Once you see all of this, it makes sense. This doesn’t mean that it is okay, but just that you can begin to understand. What you learn is that education is what is needed.

Not all of the cattle that are killed are killed by the jaguar. Most of the ones that are killed were weaker or sickly cattle to start with. When the people are taught how to distinguish a jaguar kill vs other predators, then a huge stride has been made in conservation. Providing the cattle farmer with inexpensive veterinary assistance or husbandry assistance, helps to keep his heard strong and less vulnerable to predators; another great stride in conservation. All of this takes time and manpower. As we know from our own government policy, it can take a long time for people to accept change, even if the facts are evident.

Series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

To learn more about Fauna NYC, visit our website!

PS 9’s science fair & the Blue Tongue Skink

Written by Jose Rodriguez

P.S. 9’s science fair was an outdoor event where students presented their projects/displays alongside professionals in different scientific fields. Other booths were set up where students would be exposed to subjects such as neuroscience, beekeeping, physics, and many other branches of science.

I shared my booth with a young student who owned a pet lizard, a Leopard Gecko. Together we presented our reptiles, he with his pet gecko and I with my “co-worker” for the day, an Australian Blue Tongue Skink.

Students of P.S. 9 came in droves, and were allowed to pet, hold, and ask questions about Fauna’s resident Blue Tongue Skink.

Blue Tongue Skinks are large, omnivorous desert reptiles that possess reduced legs, a blue tongue, and actually make excellent pets. Despite their size, Blue Tongues are long lived, have fairly straight-forward requirements, and with consistent and gentle handling have a very laid-back and calm demeanor.

Jose is Fauna’s Eco-Education Coordinator and runs various programming aimed at different age levels. Email Jose for information about birthday parties, Children’s Story Time, the Herpetology Club, and more at jose@faunanyc.com

To learn more about Fauna NYC, visit our website!

Guatemala Project: Part 4 – Work details, skills, and hardships

Series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

As many of you know, Daniel Kopulos, owner of Fauna, will be returning to Guatemala in May 2013 to continue his conservation work with Scarlet Macaws, Mesoamerican River Turtles and Jaguars. As he embarks on this adventure, we thought it would be fun for us to relive his past excursion in Guatemala in 2012, as well as educate and answer questions we’ve received from our many supporters of this conservation project. We will present Daniel’s exciting and important story in a series of interview questions and photos. Enjoy!

What types of work do you do at the project station? Explain in more detail what each of these work items entail.

One type of work we do is nest site preparation. The ground area directly around the nesting sites are cleared of debris and nearby trees. This helps prevent predators from having easy access to the nest sites. Some of the nests have been taken over by Africanized bees and those sites have to be treated long before the breeding season. The bees have been known to kill chicks in the nest as they try to take over the nest cavity.

Chicks at the station are usually there for medical treatment or for hand rearing if there were more than two chicks in the nest. When there are three chicks in a nest it is well documented that the youngest one or two will perish from lack of food as the size difference can be great in only a matter of two days age difference. These chicks will be fostered with other parents back in a natural nest once they are large enough to compete for food. During the time the chicks are in the station they are handled only for feeding and medical treatment and are kept inside of small cut tree cavities so that it replicates the natural nest. The lab where the chicks are kept is also located away from the primary site of the kitchen and tents so that the chicks are not exposed to much human noise.

What skills do you have that qualify you to do this work?

I personally have been breeding and hand rearing a variety of parrot species for over 23 years. I was a veterinary technician for more than 10 years of that time and also a zoo keeper. I have a vast knowledge of exotic animal medicine and nutrition since that was an area of particular interest to me during all of those years.

Discuss hardships you have faced while at the project station.

Running out of food was one of the major issues we faced. Depression sets in quickly when supplies are low and you have to start sparsely rationing. It takes a few days to fall into place with the conditions and most everyone has a mini-breakdown during the first week there. Once that passes, everything seems better. Oddly, when the trip is coming to a close and you are excited about being able to take a hot shower and really be clean for once, you also feel a sadness that you are leaving.

Language barriers are present as well during the first few days since everyone speaks Spanish, and only one other person has some broken English. You find your way rather quickly and begin to teach each other.

Series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

To learn more about Fauna NYC, visit our website!

Guatemala Project: Part 3 – A typical day at the Project Station

Series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

As many of you know, Daniel Kopulos, owner of Fauna, will be returning to Guatemala in May 2013 to continue his conservation work with Scarlet Macaws, Mesoamerican River Turtles and Jaguars. As he embarks on this adventure, we thought it would be fun for us to relive his past excursion in Guatemala in 2012, as well as educate and answer questions we’ve received from our many supporters of this conservation project. We will present Daniel’s exciting and important story in a series of interview questions and photos. Enjoy!

Describe a typical day while you are in Guatemala at the project station.

In the morning you awaken to the sound of howler monkeys at around 4:30-5 am. You crawl out of your tent, shake out your boots before slipping your feet in, (snakes and scorpions!), and then make your way over to the kitchen. The first person in the kitchen has to make a fire and start heating up the rainwater for our instant coffee to get the day rolling along. Someone will make some eggs, and reheat the beans and tortillas that may have been sitting out for a few days for breakfast.

After eating, we decide who is going to visit macaw nest sites and who is going to stay back to hand feed any babies that may be at the station. We typically always go out to the nest sites. Most of the nest sites have to be hiked to and can be several miles apart. Once at a nest site, we document if the parents are around, if there are vocalizations from within the nest, and what the grounds are like surrounding the location.

As a team, we get the climbing gear up the tree and one person will climb up to the nest cavity and inspect for eggs or chicks. If there are known chicks in the nest, they are carefully removed,  one by one, and lowered to the team below. They will then get a full examination, and body measurements are taken for records.

New as of last year, chicks will have a microchip implanted for permanent identification in the event a dead bird is found or if any birds are confiscated across the border. Any birds with issues are treated on the spot, if possible, or are taken back to the field station for further treatment. If there are more than two chicks in the nest, the youngest will be removed for hand feeding and fostering to nest with fewer chicks. An average day consists of visiting at least six nest sites a day.

After those long hours of hiking, you come back to the field station exhausted, but still have more work to do! Now it’s time to examine all the chicks in the lab (oh yeah, we set up a lab last year while we were there!), and do treatments as needed. Then you wash up as best you can, grab a snack (usually a tortilla with honey or something like that) and take a siesta in the blazing heat.

After about an hour, we all gather to review information, tell stories and plan the following day. If we did not get to all the nest sites earlier, we would make another trip out to finish up, or start doing maintenance work at the station. Trucks need to be worked on constantly, and structures and water pumps all need TLC.

Following this we begin to prepare dinner. There may be a trip out to the lake to go fishing. That makes for a special evening. All the fish will be cooked and we share in the bounty of 3 inch fish! Tortilla making is especially fun for the group. Everyone leaves being an expert in hand making tortillas.

Dinner is quick as it becomes pitch black outside and the insects gather around. There is no way to avoid consuming a bulk of them, and after a while you just become oddly used to it. After dinner there is more story telling, songs, aka jungle concerts, and then maybe a shower if there is enough water – and SLEEP!

Series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

To learn more about Fauna NYC, visit our website!

Christian Morehouse and the Guatemala Project!

Christian Morehouse

Ever since I was a child, I have felt at home in the forest. It’s a connection that I’ve had up through college, where I majored in environmental studies with intentions of protecting our natural resources.

Going to Guatemala is a dream come true. I look forward to take part in active conservation efforts and instill environmental value within the local community. I can’t wait to learn more about the area, the wildlife, and the culture.

As it has been with Daniel, I see this as one of many steps I will take with environmental conservation and am extremely grateful to be given the opportunity to help.

Please donate to our Indiegogo Guatemala Project campaign to help us deliver thousands of dollars worth of lab equipment and medical supplies, as well as aid and educate the lab on the best ways to care for the newly hatched chicks and injured adults that come through the station late this spring. Every dollar helps!

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To learn more about Fauna NYC, visit our website!

The Guatemala Project: Part 2 – Into the jungle!

Series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

As many of you know, Daniel Kopulos, owner of Fauna, will be returning to Guatemala in May 2013 to continue his conservation work with Scarlet Macaws, Mesoamerican River Turtles and Jaguars. As he embarks on this adventure, we thought it would be fun for us to relive his past excursion in Guatemala in 2012, as well as educate and answer questions we’ve received from our many supporters of this conservation project. We will present Daniel’s exciting and important story in a series of interview questions and photos. Enjoy!

What is it like in the jungle?

Beautiful. There is something magical about being in such a remote location surrounded by nature. Aside from the beauty, it is hot. Humid. And oh yeah, HOT! It gets so hot and humid that the only working times are early morning and late evening just before dark. During mid-day it can be so unbearable that you just lay down trying to expose every part of your body to the slightest breeze that rarely passes.

The insects are also an issue. There are biting flies, mosquitoes  microscopic ticks just to name a few. My legs were covered in bites from walking through the forest. I also managed to become a host for a bot fly larvae in my right arm, which we named Miguel… One would think that the tarantulas and scorpions would be the concern, but they were never a problem.

What are your living arrangements?

We slept in tents on the ground.

What is your food/cooking situation?

There is a make shift fire pit/stove at the field location.

Before embarking on the two week trip we stop for supplies and a bit of shopping. There is no refrigeration so things you bring must be able to remain stable in the heat. This means mostly dry goods, beans, rice, powdered milk product, basic spices and of course loads of hot sauce! We all take our share of cooking duties and dish washing in the sink that has lake water pumped up to a small sink.

What is your bathing, laundering, etc situation?

In the first year of going to the location there was a shower of pumped up lake water that was sort of a small shack with a wooden plank floor with some of the pieces broken so you had to be careful where you stepped. This last year, they upgraded the shower to one with a door and solid floor. There was also an actual toilet in a separate room rather than the usual pit in the ground with a tarp as a door!

Washing clothing is important and a part of daily routine since you don’t have the room to pack a new change of clothes for more than two days. There is a board leaning against a fallen tree and a bucket of lake water that is used to wash your clothing, and a line between two trees to hang them for drying. Never forget to pull your clothes in at night since it rains overnight!

What is the technological situation? Cell phone service? Wi-Fi? Laptops? Electricity in general?

For the most part when in the field station there is no cellular service. There is a mirador (lookout tower) that you can hike to and then climb to the top to get spotty cellular service. I did bring my laptop and used it very conservatively for medical books and charts that we brought to share information.

Electricity is only available for about two hours a night just as it becomes dark via a small generator. During that time we all try to charge everything! Most often your batteries are just dead while in the field. For my camera equipment I just make sure that I bring several fully charged batteries.

Part 3 of our Guatemala Project story will show us life in the project station!

Series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

To learn more about Fauna NYC, visit our website!