Herping

Mink frog

Last night my Master Naturalist group had a session on animals in the herptile family.  Our instructor was a young guy who at first I mistook for a child of one of our members.  I guess I don't think of such young guys in jeans with gauged earrings and a tongue piercing as DNR biologists specializing in herptiles but now I know.  He had a power point presentation but decided we should do the field work first because of the impending rain and darkness.  So at 6:30 we carpooled.  We were led into a section of Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area that was fenced off and padlocked shut.  Right away I knew this was going to be fun because we got to go inside a locked area that other people can't get to.  Our speaker had set out some minnow traps and turtle traps in some wetlands next to the very sandy road.  I was glad I rode with someone else because my Honda would have probably gotten stuck.  In the first minnow trap he found a painted turtle and a mink frog.  The mink frog was cool.  The reason they're called mink frogs is because they smell musky.  I smelled the fingers of someone else who touched it and I could pick up a slight musky, oniony stink.  This is the first mink frog I've ever seen.  The mink frog, more than other frogs, spends time in the water.  If you see a frog in Minnesota on a lily pad, it's more than likely a mink frog.  The painted turtle was also cool.  We caught at least eight in the traps tonight. He had about 12 or more traps set out.  The way to tell a male from a female painted turtle is that the male has longer fingernails once they're sexually mature.  Where male frogs croak loud and long to attract a mate, male painted turtles show off their long claws.  They actually dance and display their claws in front of the female hoping she'll think their claws are long enough to suit her.  I guess it's not so strange.  I've heard men with long fingers well, we don't need to go there.  Inside the traps we also caught a couple crayfish and two predacious diving beetles.  Those diving beetles looked like 4  to 5 inch cockroaches with extra legs - the stuff of which nightmares are made.  They were nasty looking and behaved very aggressively.  And they bite hard.  In the final turtle trap was the jewel of our herping session - a Blanding turtle that was 50 to 60 years old.  He weighed about 7 pounds. We knew he was a male because his underside (plaston) was concave.  It's possible he is older than I am.  Our group posed for a photo with the Blanding turtle.  Lets hope I don't get in trouble for that.  It is illegal in Minnesota to touch Blandings because they are a threatened species unless you are helping it across the road or taking it to a wildlife rehabilitation center because it is injured.  And if you are helping it across the road, take it in the direction it was headed because it has a destination in mind even if you don't agree it's a good idea to go that way.  By the time we finished with the traps our evening was over.  Some people stayed later for the power point session but I had to get going.  What a great night.  One man who had never been to a meeting before asked me, "Are all your meeting this much fun?"  I was happy to answer, "Yes, most of the them are."