reptile and amphibian study merit badge...reptile and amphibian study merit badge 1 created by...

Reptile and Amphibian Study

Merit Badge

1

Created by Robert ‘Scorpio’ Carlin, T2319 Eagle, 2020

T2319 Reptile & Amphibian Merit Badge Counselor OPA Tom Schmeltzer

Requirements1. Describe the identifying characteristics of six species of reptiles and four species of amphibians found in the

United States. For any four of these, make sketches from your own observations or take photographs. Show markings, color patterns, or other characteristics that are important in the identification of each of the four species. Discuss the habits and habitats of all 10 species.

2. Discuss with your merit badge counselor the approximate number of species and general geographic distribution of reptiles and amphibians in the United States. Prepare a list of the most common species found in your local area or state.

3. Describe the main differences between (a) Amphibians and reptiles (b) Alligators and crocodiles (c) Toads and frogs (d) Salamanders and lizards (e) Snakes and lizards

4. Explain how reptiles and amphibians are an important component of the natural environment. List four species that are officially protected by the federal government or by the state you live in and tell why each is protected. List three species of reptiles and three species of amphibians found in your local area that are not protected. Discuss the food habits of all 10 species.

5. Describe how reptiles and amphibians reproduce. 6. From observation, describe how snakes move forward. Describe the functions of the muscles, ribs, and belly

plates. 7. Describe in detail six venomous snakes and the one venomous lizard found in the United States. Describe their

habits and geographic range. Tell what you should do in case of a bite by a venomous species.

Requirements8. Do ONE of the following:• (a) Maintain one or more reptiles or amphibians for at least a month. Record food accepted, eating methods, changes in

coloration, shedding of skins, and general habits; or keep the eggs of a reptile from the time of laying until hatching; or keep the eggs of an amphibian from the time of laying until their transformation into tadpoles (frogs) or larvae (salamanders). Whicheveryou chose, keep records of and report to your counselor how you cared for your animal/eggs/larvae to include lighting, habitat, temperature and humidity maintenance, and any veterinary care requirements.

• (b) Choose a reptile or amphibian that you can observe at a local zoo, aquarium, nature center, or other such exhibit (such as your classroom or school). Study the specimen weekly for a period of three months. At each visit, sketch the specimen in its captive habitat and note any changes in its coloration, shedding of skins, and general habits and behavior. Discuss with yourcounselor how the animal you observed was cared for to include its housing and habitat, how the lighting, temperature, and humidity were maintained, and any veterinary care requirements. Find out, either from information you locate on your own or by talking to the caretaker, what this species eats and what are its native habitat and home range, preferred climate, average lifeexpectancy, and natural predators. Also identify any human-caused threats to its population and any laws that protect the species and its habitat. After the observation period, share what you have learned with your counselor.

9. Do TWO of the following: • (a) Identify at night three kinds of toads or frogs by their voices. Imitate the song of each for your counselor. Stalk each with a flashlight and

discover how each sings and from where. • (b) Identify by sight eight species of reptiles or amphibians.• (c) Using visual aids, give a brief talk to a small group on three different reptiles and amphibians.

10. Tell five superstitions or false beliefs about reptiles and amphibians and give a correct explanation for each. Give seven examples of unusual behavior or other true facts about reptiles and amphibians.

Background• The study of Reptiles and Amphibians is called Herpetology• Paired together because of Carl Linnaeus• You will sometimes hear reptiles and amphibians referred to as

“herps”, and looking for them as “herping”

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Reptile and Amphibian

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• Vertebrates• Lay hard shelled, cleidoic, and amniotic eggs• Keratinized scales• Coldblooded (Ectothermic)• Composed of Squamates (Lizards and

Snakes), Turtles, Tuataras, and Crocodiles (and Birds! More on that later)

What are the Defining Characteristics (Synapomorphies) of Reptiles?

Yes!• Genetically, birds are just advanced crocodiles• You can see the phylogeny below• It’s a bit too complicated to go into with this, so I

would recommend using Google Scholar to do your own research into it

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Are Birds Reptiles?

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• Vertebrates• Ectothermic• All living amphibians

are classified as Lissamphibia

• Most lay soft-shelled eggs, some give live birth

• Composed of Salamanders, Frogs, and Caecilians

• Smooth, wet skin• Require moisture

What are the Defining Characteristics (Synapomorphies) of Amphibians

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• Snout shape and teeth• Only 2 species of True

Alligator (American and Chinese)

• Several other species of Caiman, which are in the family Alligatoridae

• 14 species of true crocodiles, plus 2 species of Gavialidae (Gharial and Tomistoma)

What is the difference between Alligators and Crocodiles?

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Difference Between Alligators, Crocodiles, Caimans, and Gharials

Chinese Alligator(Alligatorsinensis) sinensis)

Saltwater Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus)

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Difference Between Alligators, Crocodiles, Caimans, and Gharials

Spectacled Caiman (Caiman crocodilus)

Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus)

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What is the difference between Frogs and Toads?

• Skin• Habitat• All toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads

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Anuran Phylogeny

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What is the difference between a Salamander and a Lizard?

• Lizards are Reptiles• Salamanders are Amphibians

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What is the difference between Snakes and Lizards?

• Genetically, not much actually

• Snakes have an unfused jaw and no eyelids, hips, limbs, or external ears

• Both are Squamates• Lizards have limbs,

hips, eyelids, fused jaw, and external ears

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Legless Lizards • Are what their name says, lizards without legs• However, they still have external ears, a fused

jaw, and eyelids• Also have dorsolateral fold, which neither snakes

nor lizards have

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How do Frogs Reproduce?• Use external reproduction• Male fertilizes eggs as the female lays them• All amphibians have larval stage before

metamorphosizing into adults• Picture shows 2 frogs in amplexus

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How do Salamanders Reproduce?

• External Reproduction (Sort of)• In some cases they reproduce like frogs• Other cases the male leaves a spermatophore for

the female to pick up later• Some species guard eggs, some don’t

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How do Caecilians Reproduce?

• Internal Reproduction• Some lay eggs (oviparous)• Some have live birth (viviparous)• After birth, the mother produces a nutritious skin

layer that the larvae scrap off and eat

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How do Turtles Reproduce?

• Internal Fertilization • Most species do not guard their eggs, but some do

(Burmese Mountain Tortoise)• Reptile gender is dependent on temperature that

the eggs incubate at, warmer temperatures produce females, cooler temperature produce males

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How do Squamates and Tuataras Reproduce?

• Internal Reproduction• Some are oviparous (lay eggs), some are viviparous

(live birth), and some are ovoviviparous (eggs develop in the mother’s body and then hatch inside of mother)

• Some species guard their eggs and occasionally young, but some don’t

• Squamates are also able to reproduce with parthenogenesis

• In doing this the female basically clones herself so that she does not need a male to reproduce

• Interestingly, while most lizards and snakes can only produce female offspring through parthenogenesis, Komodo Dragons can only produce males

• This is due to Komodo dragons having opposite sex chromosomes as humans, so 2 identical chromosomes produces a male, not a female.

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Parthenogenesis

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How do Crocodilians Reproduce?

• Internal Reproduction• Females will guard the eggs and young• Females make large mounds of decomposing

plants to guard the eggs and to help incubate them

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How do Snakes move?

• Concertina movement is also called accordion movements. The snake fixes one loop in one position and moves the other forward, pulls the first loop forward, then repeats

• Serpentine movements is a long continuous motion

• Sidewinding is basically the snake throwing part of its body forward

• Sidewinding is only seen in desert habitats

• Caterpillar motion is used by large, heavy bodied snakes and uses the muscles around the ventral scales

• 4 Major type of locomotion• All types involve either the ventral scales or the muscles around

their vertebrate

• Around 460 species of reptile and amphibians

• Most species are in the Southeast US

• At the Southeast fall line the number of amphibians goes up

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US Reptiles and Amphibians

• Southeast has the greatest diversity of salamander out of anywhere on the planet

• One of the highest diversities of turtles in the world

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Southeast Reptile and Amphibian Distribution

• Eastern Box Turtle (T. c. carolina)• Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis)• Ringneck Snake (Diadophis punctuates)• Green Tree Frog (Hyla cinerea)• Red Salamander (Pseudotriton ruber)• American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis)

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Common Southeastern Species

• Prey-many are prey items to other reptiles and amphibians, birds of prey, and mammals

• Predators-larger snakes help keep rodent populations down, snapping turtles eat carrion in rivers and lakes

• Keystone species-Gopher Tortoise burrows provide shelter to dozens of other species, including several other endangered and rare species

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How are Reptiles and Amphibians important to the environment?

• Gopher Tortoise-Federally endangered due to habitat loss

• Pine Snakes-State Threatened due to habitat loss and lack of information about species

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Protected Species

• Hellbender-State Rare, being considered for federal listing due to habitat loss and bycatch

• Gopher Frog-State Rare due to habitat loss. Considered the rarest species of frog in Georgia

Requirement 1Describe the identifying characteristics of six species of reptiles and four species of amphibians found in

the United States. For any four of these, make sketches from your own observations or take

photographs. Show markings, color patterns, or other characteristics that are important in the identification

of each of the four species. Discuss the habits and habitats of all 10 species.

Resources for Requirement 1• Savanah River Ecology Laboratory Herpetology

website: http://srelherp.uga.edu/• Amphibian Foundation:

https://www.amphibianfoundation.org/• Any AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquariums)

accredited zoo or aquarium (e.g. Zoo Atlanta, Georgia Aquarium, Tennessee Aquarium, Chattanooga Zoo)

http://srelherp.uga.edu/

https://www.amphibianfoundation.org/

• Vipers (Rattle Snakes, Cottonmouths, Copperheads)

• Elapids (coral snakes, others are cobras, mambas, taipans)

• Some colubrids (boomslangs, genus Boiga, some US species have a very mild venom that doesn’t normally affect humans)

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Venomous Reptiles

• Venomous Lizards (Gila Monsters, Beaded Lizards, Komodo Dragons and a few others)

• 6 species total

• Coral Snake- smaller snake with colorful red, black, and yellow marking

• Copperhead-look for Hershey kisses on side

• Cottonmouth/Water Moccasin- heavy bodied, when threatened they open their mouth which has a cotton color, hence the name

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IDing Georgia Venomous Snakes

• Timber rattlesnake-Heavy body with zig-zag marking down back and black tail

• Pygmy Rattlesnakes-smaller snake with tiny, hard to hear rattle. Look for lateral spots

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IDing Georgia Venomous Snakes Cont.

• Eastern Diamondback rattle snake- Large snake with large head, look for rattle on tail and large diamond markings on back

• DON’T GO NEAR IT• Most venomous snake bites happen when people try to

either kill or touch the snake and don’t know what they are doing

• Snakes are not aggressive, but will bite if you scare them enough

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What to do if you encounter a venomous snake?

• Get person away from the snake

• Call 911• Apply pressure bandage above bite to restrict blood flow but

not cut it off• Don’t try to catch the snake for the doctors, they don’t need it

• Doctors will give you antivenin at the hospital

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Venomous Reptile Bite First Aid

• Doctors will give you pain medication but that’s about all they can do

• Symptoms from bites usually last only around 3 days

• It will be some of the worst pain you will ever feel, but unless you have an allergic reaction to the venom it won't kill you

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Venomous Reptiles

• If you are bit by a venomous lizard, follow all the same steps• The only thing different is that there is no antivenin for

venomous lizards

You have to do Requirements 8 & 9

on your own

Requirement 8 • If you have a reptile or amphibian at home, then

you can do the requirement with them• If not, you can see if there are zoo or aquariums

with live cams on reptiles or amphibians

Requirement 9• At this time (during self quarantine), it is probably easiest

to do Part C with your family or any other group that you can do a safe talk with. Just record it in some way and send it to your counselor!

• For the other 2 parts, Part A can be hard since some frog calls are difficult to tell apart, but if you can do it great!

• For Part B, the best way to do it at this time would be to take pictures of wild reptiles or amphibians, identify them, and send the pictures with the identification to you merit badge counselor.

• All Snakes with triangular heads are venomous= False• Many nonvenomous snakes will make their heads look

triangular to both increase surface area for basking and to mimic venomous snakes

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Reptile and Amphibian Myths

• Copperheads smell like cucumbers= False

• No…just no.• I have no idea

how this came around, but it is completely false

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• Toads give you warts= False• Not sure where this came from, but toads

defiantly do not give you warts

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• Coachwhips can bite their tail and role down hills=False

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• Milk snakes drink milk from cows=False• If you find a milk snake in your barn, its

looking for mice and other rodents, not milk

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• The only good snake is a dead snake=False

• As was discussed before, snakes are very beneficial to their ecosystems

• Also, most venomous snake bites happen when people are trying to kill the snakes, so don’t kill them

• Many states, including Georgia, have laws that prohibit killing nonvenomous snakes

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Thank You!

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