In honor of leap day: Give some love to kids working to save the most endangered frog in the US

According to the red list, the dusky gopher frog is one of the most critically endangered frog species in North America.  At one time, you could find this frog in the southern coastal plain from Louisiana to Mississippi.  Now, there are less than 250 left in two ponds in Mississippi.

When I buzzed around the web looking for a any non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the frog, I found something much more inspirational: a group of middle-school students in Gulfport, Mississippi that took it upon themselves to save the frog species.  Meet the Commodore Climate Changers:



"Three of the students found this Mississippi gopher frog online," she said. "It has only one habitat in the United States and it is here." 

Friday was the first day for the students to visit the site where they cut underbrush to make way for grass.

 These students are doing work on the ground to restore habitat, as well as increasing awareness in their school.

Give 'em some love on their facebook page.

 

10 fun things to do with kids on a nature trail

1.  Nature bingo.  To head off any potential sibling discord, I put the wild animal poop on both cards.

2.  Nature alphabet photography.  To do the entire alphabet might take several trips, so here are some ideas for shorter attention spans:

• Stick to the letters of their name.
• Help nature along a bit by doing some letter arrangements with leaves, sticks, etc.
• Shoot as many letters as they can find, and challenge them to make as many words as possible.

3.  Project Noah.  Upload pictures of your spottings of plants and wildlife to a community-based site where people all over the world are documenting biodiversity on a global scale.  Use your smartphone with a free app, or use a digital camera and upload pictures at home.  You can earn "patches" by the number of spottings or join a "mission" to document spottings for a cause.  If you have no idea what you've spotted, no worries, someone in the Project Noah community will help you identify it!
  

4. Free play with a Discovery Backpack - Do not even think about beginning this activity until you have done two things: A) put the oldest playclothes you possess on your child and B) make a plan for a direct route from the car to the bathtub when you get home (plastic for the car seat might be wise as well).  Then, let them go wild with tools of nature discovery.  Rest assured, giving your children uninhibited play in the wild is the absolute best thing you can do for their bodies, brains, and well-being.  This blog has a great list of items for the backpack that I can't possibly improve on.  Except maybe an underwater viewer.

5.  Who Pooped?  The multifunctional and fashionable SCAT SCARF is a must-have.  I know what the Easter bunny is bringing this year.

6. Greetings on the trail.  How many ways can you use natural materials to leave clever messages for the next trail adventurer?  Just be sure you leave no damage and that the messages can be washed away by rain or blown away by wind.

7.  Build a house for a fairy or an elf.

8.  Meet a tree game.  Blindfold your child and lead him/her to an interesting tree (yet another function for the scat scarf!).  Ask specific questions, like "Can you put your arms around it?", "Is the bark smooth or rough?" and "Do you feel any holes or big bumps?".  When your child is done exploring the tree, lead him/her back to the starting point by an indirect route.  Now, remove the blindfold and see if your child can find the tree!
 
9.  Flora and fauna identification apps.  Unfortunately the list does not include a scat app, but there are lots to choose from, including birds and tree leaves.

10.  Birder's Life List journal.  If you've got a budding bird-lover, here's a clip mosaic of some great ideas for making a personal birder's journal, where he or she can begin documenting lifetime bird sightings.  I would recommend starting with a spiral-bound book that can lay flat.  And how about a plastic zippered pocket to keep feathers?  Journaling tips from the birding community here.



Pascal. Miniaturized.

On the heels of the discovery of the world's smallest frog, comes the announcement of the discovery of the world's tiniest chameleon.  (You might recognize a chameleon if you are the parent of a daughter in the throes of Rapunzel-fever). 

The species, Brookesia micra, was found in remote rainforests of northern Matagascar.  They are considered "microendemic", which means that they are not only endemic (found in only one place on earth), but they are seriously endemic - this little guy can only be found on one island.

(As an aside, and because I am into pre-school humor, the island carries the unfortunate name of Nosy Hara).

Great biodiversity stuff I can't embed

The Great American Zoo Trip of endangered species in our zoos, courtesy National Geographic.  Be sure to check out the video, bottom left.  Power past your initial heebie jeebies, and then marvel at nature's beautiful and perfect design.

130 years of global climate change in 30 seconds, courtesy of NASA. 

Earth's Biggest, Fastest, and Bloodiest Insects, courtesy Wired Science.  To balance the karma, they included a "Best Dad" category.

Fun with systematics

Word cloud of the taxonomic groups of 19,232 species new to science described in 2009:



Ever wanted to be a marine biologist?

"Citizen Scientist" is one of the hottest buzzwords these days, reflecting a new trend toward involving citizens in real data collection efforts.  Budget cuts have forced organizations and agencies to think outside the box for gathering data, and many are creating training programs for citizen volunteers in a wide variety of scientific fields. 

There are many aspects of data collection that do not require advanced degrees in science, and give the public an opportunity to spend time in nature while contributing to knowledge.  In return, trained citizens become the first eyes and ears to notice and report when something is amiss.  By far the biggest benefit of training citizens to monitor lakes, streams, oceans, forests, and wildlife is that they are on the front line advocating for their community ecosystems. 

Sometimes the message is much more effective when it comes from a neighbor.

Here is a sampling of the plethora of ways that you can get involved in biodiversity monitoring with kids, starting with marine biology:

Sea Turtles!  If you live near a coast, chances are you can volunteer to monitor egg laying and hatching activity of sea turtles.  Here just a few of the many I ran across, including Florida, South Carolina, and Alabama.  Even if you are land-locked, you can volunteer to spend a week in the summer at the Wassaw National Wildlife Refuge.  And can you say Costa Rica?

Diving and snorkeling for the REEF survey project, where you can collect and report data on fishes, seaweeds, and other critters along the west coast of the US.  They have an online store with all of the gear and picture guides you need to get started.

Phytoplankton monitoring project hosted by NOAA across the US coasts and the great lakes.  The goal of the project is to gain more information on harmful algal blooms (or HABs).  Most microscopic phytoplankton are harmless, but there are a few species that bloom or produce toxins that are very dangerous to fish, birds, and marine mammals.  I know what you're thinking.  YES!  You get to use a microscope.  And there's an app.

Speaking of marine mammals, if you ever find yourself in Alaska you can combine the best of both worlds - a cruise and the chance to collect data on marine wildlife, including humpback whales!  Take a jacket.

If getting wet is not your thing, check out WhaleFM, an innovative new way to engage citizens in research.  Put on your listening ears, and help researchers classify whale sounds to increase our understanding of whale communication (another plug here).  Along the same lines, there's also Digital Fishers, developed by NEPTUNE Canada, where you analyze 15 second snippets of video taken from the deep sea.  Designed like a game, the 'player' answers questions about the scene, and can advance through levels that get more complex with more experience.

Birds!  The king of citizen science for birds is Cornell University Lab of Ornithology.  There are several options for volunteering, including eBird (for the serious birders), Project FeederWatch, PigeonWatch, and the Great Backyard Bird Count (from the comfort of your own home). 

Flutterbys.  Most people would be surprised to hear that butterfly populations have taken a hit from habitat loss.  Monarch Watch is asking volunteers to create 'monarch waystations' in backyards, parks, schoolyards, and vacant lots.  A waystation is a monarch habitat planted with their favorite delicacy, milkweed.  They can get you started with a seed kit designed for your region of the country.  Or, if you fancy yourself an amateur lepidopterist, or have keen photographic skills, consider volunteering for BAMONA and submit butterfly and moth sightings to their online database.

Who doesn't love ladybugs?  You can volunteer to monitor native ladybug populations that are at risk because of the relative success of ladybugs that were intentionally brought here from other continents.  Enter the Lost Ladybug Project, which has a wealth of fun and resources for their citizen scientists, including the Lost Ladybug Song.

Another group of insects where native species are battling introduced ones are ants.  School of Ants is an easy way to collect data on ant populations, and they offer instructions on making your own simple ant collecting kit with index cards, ziploc baggies, and cookies!   

Benthic macroinvertebrates, loosely translated, are spineless, bottom-dwelling creatures that can be seen with the naked eye.  If you have ever looked under a rock in a stream, you can catch sight of small crustaceans, immature insects, snails, and clams.  Some of them are very sensitive to pollution, and others can handle it, so they are good indicators of water quality.  Many states have Stream Teams, and the like, where citizens are trained to collect and identify benthic macroinvertebrates.

World's tiniest frog - a new record

About the size of a Tic Tac, these miniaturized frogs were discovered in the forests of southeastern Papua New Guinea.  One of the two new species of frogs was given the scientific name Paedophryne dekot.  The species name 'dekot' is the word for "very small" in Daga, the native language. (photo credit: Kraus, 2011)

  

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