A weekend of Siren-ing in Florida

[pierson_hill]

I don't get a chance to post here much but thought that you guys might enjoy seeing the results of some Siren hunting in north Florida.

The first spot I dipnetted was a small grassy depression pond in Levy Co, FL. The target was Pseudobranchus striatus -- this particular pond is ~ 10 miles from the type locality of P. striatus lustricolus, a large distinct form of the dwarf siren that hasn't been collected since its original description in 1951.

I turned up a three smallish (~4") Pseudobranchus in pretty short order which resulted in some temporary excitement, but unfortunately none of them conformed to the Wilfred Neill's description of the Gulf Hammock Siren in that they lacked distinct light striping on the dorsum.

I would call this P. s. spensicus but it doesn't quite look like the animals I've seen further north in the FL panhandle.

The status of P. s. lustricolus is becoming increasingly suspicious -- it seems their range is MUCH smaller than suspected and that they might occupy a different ecological niche than the other races of P. striatus.

I also caught a smallish Siren intermedia in the pond.

As well as a larger one in a minnow trap the next morning:

Heading southeast into the highlands of central Florida, a transition from low coastal flatwoods to sandhills yields a transition in the dominant Siren assemblages. Sorting through large mats of floating water hyacinth readily yields Pseudobranchus axanthus axanthus and larval Siren lacertina.

A few minnow traps produced some bruiser adult S. lacertina, although getting a decent photograph of the animals in the field was a chore.

Hope you enjoyed.

 

[Jennewt]

Yes! Enjoyed very much! I really appreciate you taking the time to get naturalistic photos and post them for us.

 

[Jake]

Those are beautiful animals!
Thanks for sharing with us.

 

[aramcheck]

Those are great picture, I really love the coloration of the larval one!
Cheers for posting those.

 

[tylototriton]

Those are great photos. I'm brand new to photography, so I have a couple questions in regards to photographing them. Mostly, how did you do it? Did you have staged setup, or was this just where you found them? And second, what kind of camera and lens did you use?

Thanks,
Alex

 

[John]

Pierson, thank you for posting these. I'm a big fan of Sirens (spent several weekends this year looking for intermedia). I hope we hear from you again soon.

 

[Ralf]

AW: A weekend of Siren-ing in Florida

Fascinating animals, very interesting background information, great photos. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Kaysie]

Some people just have all the luck!

Great post, Pierson.

 

[Jan]

Absolutely wonderful photography! Please don't be a stranger to the forum.

 

[Nathan050793]

Fantastic! Very enjoyable, especially the quality of the photography. I look forward to more in the future.

 

[onetwentysix]

Wow, nice, Pierson! Very cool; you make me really want to just road trip down to Florida with photos like that! How do you get such great shots of the sirens?

 

[michael]

Very nice. I like that close up picture showing the head and gills. Don't be a stranger.

 

[Axel01]

It's great to be able to go outside and meet them on their own ground.

 

[mikebenard]

Great shots!

Is the white sand the natural substrate the animals are on, or is it something you carry with you to use for photographs?

Mike

 

[pixolite]

Great photos! Any advice for finding these? I live in Central Florida myself.

 

[Abrahm]

These are gorgeous photos. It is nice to see some photos of wild animals that you tend to not see very often, I especially appreciate the larva photograph.

 

[pierson_hill]

Thanks for the responses. Living in FL, I encounter most of these species pretty regularly but it's rare that I actually try to photograph them -- my past attempts have been exercises in frustration. I tried some techniques this time around that didn't require lugging along an aquarium and I'm pleased with the results.

To answer the questions on photography, I'm shooting with a Canon 20D and Sigma lenses (a 150mm macro and a 28-70 zoom) in conjunction with Canon's Twin-lite MT-24ex flash. The animals were posed in shallow plastic containers with natural substrates and vegetation from the site of collection. The sand was not from the ponds proper but from nearby uplands -- most siren habitats are far too silty or muddy to be able to use the aquatic substrate for photos. I tried to use clear water just deep enough to cover their bodies and tilted the containers slightly to reduce reflection. As for how I got the squirrely critters to sit still, that's a trade secret (and NO, they're not dead).

As for finding Siren and Pseudobranchus, I use a large sturdy steel-framed dipnet to haul large mats of leaves or aquatic vegetation to shore, where I then sort through it and pick out the critters. Large Siren are rare to catch in nets so I rely mostly on traps for anything over a foot or so. The best habitats are permanent or semi-permanent bodies of still or slow-flowing water with LOTS of vegetation, decaying or otherwise. Some ponds simply don't have populations for stochastic reasons so I move between sites readily if I don't turn anything up within a few minutes of dipnetting.

 

[i_love_necturus]

Very cool. I would sure love to go siren-ing someday. It can be a pain living in the north when most of my favorite caudates are southern.

 

[bewilderbeast]

These shot are terrific! I love the Pseudobranchus... especially the larva... very striking.

This may seem like a silly question but how much do you worry about venomous snakes and alligators while you are collecting in Florida? I have family near lake Okeechobee and plan on getting down their sometime next year. Anyway I'm not too worried about snakes but having no experience with gators I wondered if Florida dip-netters and log-rollers worried at all about them as they waded along the waters edge through thick mats of aquatic vegetation...

This may be like a Foridian asking me if I worry about earthquakes while herping in Northern California...

Also, what time of year were these photos taken?

 

[ezmynd]

Wow Those are absolutaly beutiful pictures. I really like the pic of the larvae. I also wish I had one just like the one in the second pic, nice specimen! Thanks for the pics.