Amphibian Big Day 2022: Part I

Last year, John Howard, Kelly Capuzzi and I conducted our first Amphibian Big Day. Maybe the first for Ohio; we don't know of another attempt. It's an effort to find as many of Ohio's 37 amphibian species in a 24-hour period as possible. We began on March 30 and ended on March 31 and were afield for nearly 22 hours. Our total: 18 species (19 if we count a Northern Ravine Salamander that John had caught a few days earlier and detained). We worked almost entirely in Adams and Scioto counties, with a brief foray into Brown County.

We learned lots from that inaugural attempt and tweaked this year's effort accordingly. The biggest change was shifting the dates back a few weeks. By doing so, we didn't lose any species but gained several. Another BIG change was inviting amphibian expert Aaron Crank to be a team member. He is from Scioto County and his been infatuated with herpetology since he was a young kid. Aaron knows many honey holes and is adept at finding these secretive creatures. As in 2021, we worked mostly in Adams and Scioto counties, and repeated the brief excursion into Brown County. The latter trip was to a large marshy area, primarily to bag Northern Leopard Frog and Western Chorus Frog.

Perhaps we were lazier this year, although I'd suggest smarter, and only spent about 20-21 hours afield. This allowed for a bit longer siesta at John's house, from about 5am to 8am. We also added two new spots that Aaron knew, one in eastern Scioto County and the other in nearby Pike County. Both of these added species we really wanted but are tough to find, Mudpuppy and Red-backed Salamander. The former is not that uncommon but it helps tremendously to have a known spot. Time is of the essence in 24-hour marathons such as this. The Red-backed Salamander, so common in much of the state, is (to me) inexplicably absent in most of the region we were working in.

Cutting to the chase, our team found 25 species, a big spike over last year's total. This included a number of species that eluded us in 2021, and some cooperative rarities. As always seems to be the case during Big Days, we missed one that should have been easy: Northern Slimy Salamander. They're pretty common and we looked hard but no go. It was one of the first salamanders we located in 2021, and the only species we had that year that we didn't find this year.

We'll probably try this again in 2023 and think that 25 species can be eclipsed by working in the same general area. If we turn up Northern Slimy Salamander and get all of the others that we had this year that would do it. Fowler's Toad and Streamside Salamander are also possibilities, and by going somewhat further afield we could possibly add a few more. At this point, I would say that a 30 species Big Amphibian Day in Ohio is possible but it'd be a lot of work and travel, and there'd probably be no time for siestas.

Here's 75% of our team, looking under rocks for Mudpuppies. L to R: Kelly Capuzzi, John Howard, Aaron Crank. I took the photo. Photographer Sam James also joined us for a few hours on Tuesday evening.

Following is the list of what we found, in the order that we found them. I have lots of photos of the critters, some merely documentary, others perhaps a bit better. I'll post some of those in a follow-up post.

1) Northern Cricket Frog

2) Southern Two-lined Salamander

3) Northern Ravine Salamander

4) Spring Peeper

5) Western Chorus Frog

6) American Toad

7) Northern Leopard Frog

8) Green Frog

9) American Bullfrog

10) Northern Red Salamander

11) Mud Salamander

12) Kentucky Spring Salamander

13) Marbled Salamander

14) Four-toed Salamander

15) Jefferson Salamander

16) Spotted Salamander

17) Red-spotted Newt

18) Northern Dusky Salamander

19) Wood Frog

20) Mountain Chorus Frog

21) Green Salamander

22) Long-tailed Salamander

23) Pickerel Frog

24) Mudpuppy

25) Red-backed Salamander