Buncombe County Government, NC Library, 28 Jul 2020

Previous Meeting Next Meeting

⏯

youtube image

►

From YouTube: ecoEXPLORE: Learn about reptiles and amphibians!

Description

Scientists need YOUR help in studying animals everywhere, including your own backyard!
Join the staff from The North Carolina Arboretum for an introduction to herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians. You’ll learn all about our scaly and slimy friends and even virtually meet some live animals! You can also join our crew of ecoEXPLORERS — kids who submit observations of plants and animals for scientists to study and earn prizes while they do it. Find out how you can earn your Herpetology Field Badge and many other fun, nature discovery badges!

Libbie is a educator and scientist who works at the North Carolina Arboretum.
================================================
The Buncombe County Library System provides this content for non-commercial educational purposes only. All content, including but not limited to lyrics, melodies, and stories, if not already within the public domain, are the property of their respective owners. Any infringement, perceived or otherwise, should be brought immediately to the attention of the Buncombe County Library System.

A

Hi everyone, my name, is libby. I work for the north carolina arboretum, um I'm here today to talk to you about reptiles and amphibians, and I'm actually going to take my mask down just for this, so that you all can hear it make sure you can hear my voice clearly, but thanks to you all for joining me, I have some animals, some very special animals that I brought with me. These animals all fall under the study of herpetology.

A

That's a really big science word. Herpetology is the study of reptiles and amphibians. So I bet, if you thought, really hard, you could probably think of your favorite, reptile or amphibian.

A

Maybe it's an animal you've seen recently near your home, maybe it's an animal that doesn't live in north carolina that you've learned about maybe through a book or on the internet. So while we're going through our program today, I invite you to think about your favorite, reptile and amphibian.

A

um So before we dive into taking some of my critters out of their boxes, we can talk a little bit about what a reptile and amphibian is. So these two kinds of animals are really closely related. They have a lot of similarities, but they also have a lot of differences too.

A

So when we think about reptiles, we think about animals that have scaly skin. We think about animals that lay eggs most of them lay eggs. They lay hard shelled eggs that they dig in the ground. Not all reptiles. Do some do have live birth like a copperhead snake actually does not lay eggs and all reptiles are cold-blooded animals, which means that they have to um always be kind of stressed and worried.

A

They have to kind of regulate their own, um their own body temperature, so we might have to put on like a coat or a sweater if it gets cold outside, but we don't have to go sit in the sun and sit and bask on a rock to make sure our temperature is at the right level, our body temperature, so a reptile does so you might see certain reptiles sitting out and basking and that's to help warm themselves up. So all reptiles are also cold-blooded.

A

um So I have my first example of a reptile with me.

A

I'm going to start with our native reptile, so if an animal is native to north carolina, that means that they're from here that means they're originally from north carolina.

A

So the native animal that I have with me is willow. Here she is an eastern box turtle, so box turtles are really good. Examples of reptiles, they've got scaly skin on their legs and they also lay hard shelled eggs. Now. Willow here is a young box turtle, so you probably may not have seen some quite this small.

A

They do get to be a little bigger, but willow is even though she's small she's about 10 years old, so she may look little but she's, actually, not all that young. They can live to be close to 80 years old in captivity in the wild. They are a little younger than that, maybe 60 years old or so, but willow here still has a lot of a lot of life ahead of her. What makes box turtles really interesting and unique is that they have a hinge on the bottom of their shell.

A

Now this hinge will help them close up like a door. So if you think how you can slam a door shut, they can slam their shells shut and that helps them um stay protected from predators.

A

So the shell is a really interesting adaptation, uh because it's like their home and their protection that they carry around with them all the time. um So most box turtles don't have a hinge like this at the on the bottom of their shell. So that's a really unique thing about our eastern box turtles.

A

Also, they have little lines on their shell that you can count, and you can see how old that box drill is now that's only. um You can only really use that until they're about 35, once they're 35 their shell actually stops growing, so they're not going to grow new rings, but for the our younger turtles, you can kind of get a good guess on their age by the amount of lines on their shell.

A

Just like you would maybe age a tree by counting the lines these box turtles are our state reptile, so they're really important, reptiles to north carolina, um but sadly their numbers are starting to decrease and scientists are starting to get a little worried about our box turtle populations, um a lot of people, um it's because a lot. A lot of people do like to keep these box turtles as pets, and I can't say I blame them all that much because she um is so cute.

A

Willow is adorable and they're, actually relatively friendly turtles, so like besides, maybe sticking your finger in front of a box turtle's mouth other than that they're, probably not gonna bite you, unlike some other turtles that you might find. um So I get it. I totally understand the the desire to have these guys as pets, but box turtles are always the happiest and the healthiest when they are kept in the wild.

A

So it's important to keep them where you find them. So if you see a box turtle outside congratulations, it is your lucky day. You found a box turtle, but you'll want to keep them kind of where you found them. So take photos of them. Definitely, you know, observe them. Take a look at them, spend a little time with them and then keep them where they are.

A

Another reason box turtles are on decline is because they um they will often get hit by cars. um So one of box, turtle's favorite foods, is an earthworm and a lot of times with these guys, the juicier, the better. They love big fat juicy earthworms.

A

So when it's raining, the earthworms come out of the ground right, so you might see a lot of earthworms on the sidewalk during kind of a cool summer day. So that's when these boxed turtles come out too. So if it's a kind of a cooler rainy summer day, keep an eye out for these guys in the roads, because that's a lot of times when they they are out and moving and sometimes get hit by cars.

A

If you do see them in the road make sure you're with an adult, your adult says it's safe and you can go and help that box journal cross the road.

A

So you always want to carry a box turtle like this across the road and help them go in the direction that they're going so don't turn them back around and put them back on this other side, as they'll just turn right back around and go into the road again.

A

So that's one way that we can help these box turtles they're, pretty um dynamic, cute little animals and I love finding these guys out in the wild great. So that is our little willow, our eastern box turtle.

A

I'm going to put her back and I also have another reptile with me today. This reptile is non-native, so it's a reptile that you're not going to find in north carolina. In fact, it's not even native to north america, so it's not even found on our continent.

A

The animal that I have is a bearded dragon, um so our bearded dragon bernard is pretty large lizard.

A

You can see this bearded dragon was born and in captivity, so he was um they breed these lizards in captivity, and then they use them as pets, so he wasn't taken from the wild, but these guys are actually from or natively found in australia.

A

So that's a big continent all the way across the world. It's really hot! In australia, there's a lot of desert in australia, so bernard here is perfectly adapted to living in a desert. So you can see he's got a lot of tough scales on his body and his camouflage really helps him blend in to like a sandy desert environment.

A

Bernard loves to eat um different kinds of meat, so he eats insects, crickets different kinds of worms, but they also eat a salad as well, so they eat both plants and meat and we have to keep his home at the arboretum really hot. So he has one side of his enclosure that cannot go below 95 degrees, so they re. He requires um a lot more heat than than we find here in north carolina. So if I were to set bernard free, he probably would not survive. It gets a little too cold for him.

A

Also. um He has why they're called bearded. Dragons is because he has some scales underneath his neck and on the side of his face and when he gets scared.

A

If he thinks that someone is trying to eat him, he will um he will puff up his little scales under his chin and make himself look really big and really scary, um and but I can actually touch and pet his spikes and they don't even hurt so they're, not even real spikes they're. Just to make him look really scary. They can bring him around here. What else.

A

Yeah, nice yeah, so you can see those scales really up close right under his neck and his spikes right here. So you can see that I am petting his spikes, so they're, not even very sharp they're, just kind of there to um to make him look, really scary and intimidating.

A

So one difference between a lizard and a snake. You may think it's that there's that snakes don't have legs, but actually there are legless lizards in this world, which is pretty wild, but lizards actually have ears and snakes do not. So you can see. Bernard here has got some pretty big ear holes and he also is blinking too. So a snake does not have eyelids where lizards do so. That's the big difference between a reptile and a or I'm sorry, a snake and a lizard great, I'm gonna put bernard back and I'm gonna take out.

A

While I'm up here, I'm actually gonna take out our smallest animal that I brought this animal is not a reptile.

A

So remember that a that herpetology we are studying amphibians and.

A

Well, he does not jump away, we are studying amphibians and reptiles, so this is a great example.

A

And he's escaped in the.

A

Hey studio he's the first, so if I put him like this, maybe we can look at him better, a bit more.

A

There we go, he doesn't like to be held quite as much as bernard does. So this is a tree frog. This is a copes gray tree frog. It is an amphibian, so you notice he has really squishy smooth skin.

A

He does not have um scales like our reptile friends we looked at and he actually started his life as an egg in the water, so all amphibians lay their eggs in ponds and in lakes, um whereas willow and bernard they hatched out of their egg on land. So that's kind of our big difference between reptiles and amphibians.

A

This frog will hatch out of the water, then move to land and live most of its life up in trees.

A

um So we don't see them quite as much, maybe as other frogs, but they live way up in trees, and you can see he has really great camouflage to really blend into the branches and to the leaves up in the trees, cool nice.

A

All right. We had an exciting animal.

A

A

All right, so there is one last thing I wanted to talk to you all about. um We have a program at the arboretum called eco explorer. Eco explorer is a free science program for any kid ages, 5 through 13..

A

So when you participate in eco explorer, you get to go outside. Take photos of plants, animals, insects, anything that's wild outside you submit those photos onto our website and then we take those photos and we give them to scientists to use in real research projects. So your photos are helping scientists, because a scientist cannot be everywhere at once. They can't be. They can't see all of the animals and all of the plants in the world, so they rely on people just like you to help them in their research.

A

So you take your photos. We give them to scientists to use our. We want to reward you for all of your hard work when you're helping scientists. So all of your photos that you submit to eco explorer gets points, so you can get up to five points per photo and you can trade those points in for different prizes.

A

So I brought just a couple prizes with me today: our biggest prize is a ipod touch. It is a thousand points, so it's a lot of work to earn our ipod, but if you do earn it, you can take your photo and you can submit your photos all on this device.

A

So a thousand points seems like a lot and it is. It is a lot of work, but I know someone who earned their ipod in three months by working really really hard. So it's definitely something that you can work towards.

A

We have some smaller prizes too, like I brought along these birds that make make the noise of their their bird species, you can hear what different kinds of birds sound like you can earn this. By taking your photos, we also have like a trail camera which is really fun. You can put this out anywhere and see what kind of animals are hanging around.

A

Maybe when that are too afraid to come close to you, um you can capture them on this as well. We have a lot of other prizes, so you can go to ecoexplore.net and see all the other things that you can earn, and this program is really good right now, because you can do this program, a hundred percent on your own with your family and we mail, you your prizes in the mail. So it's something that that families can do together, spend time outside be really safe and about science and nature.

A

So we have prizes in eco, explore. We also have badges so right now we are in our herpetology season. So that's why I brought my um scaly and slimy friends with me today to earn a badge. This is not the actual badge. It's a small iron on badge. You can earn.

A

You take six herpetology photos, so six reptile or amphibian photos. You do some special challenge and then we will mail. You, your herpetology badge.

A

We have four main badges that we use throughout the year after herpetology we go into entomology the study of insects. So you take your six insect photos. You do special challenge and we will mail. You your entomology badge after that, in the winter time we focus on ornithology, which is the study of birds.

A

um So you do your photo six photos, you do your challenge, we'll mail, you, your ornithology badge and lastly, in the spring, when all the wildflowers are blooming, we do our botany season. So this is the easiest field season we have because plants are everywhere. So it's really easy to take your six plant photos. You do a challenge and then we can mail. You your badge.

A

We have a lot of other badges as well. These are our four main ones we focus on, but we have what we call bonus badges. So we have a duck badge. We have a snake badge, a dragonfly mammal badge, we're and we're adding new badges all the time so to sign up for eco explorer.

A

So to sign up for this program. Where you help scientists, you earn prizes, you earn badges all for free, you go to ecoexplore.net, you make an account and you submit your photos straight onto that website and you can join look at our website to see our other prizes and badges. You can earn as well so that is ecoexplore.net.

A

Thank you all so much for joining me and all my animals today. I really enjoyed hanging out with you. I'm gonna put my mask back on because we're headed back to the arboretum, but thank you all so much and happy exploring.