Incidental Herping

[rachel]

Today my Insect Zoology class went bug-hunting (in the pouring rain) in a stream just a bit north of Santa Barbara, and our TA caught a newt! A lovely ~6" Taricha, who was thouroghly appreciated before being released. Apparently they are protected because overall they are rare, even though our streams appear to be crawling with them. I didn't realize we actually had caudates in Southern California, so that just made my day!

 

[sharon]

neat!! lol I wish my part of AZ had some.. well... it does.. they are just elusive as all heck.

Seems like everyone is finding native sals but me! Congrats!

 

[russ]

FYI. They're not protected, but regulated in CA. But they have lost a lot of habitat in southern CA.

RUSS