4-H Animal Science Resource Blog

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Reproduction – Amphibian Style

April 12, 2021

Spring is the time you start hearing the calls of toads and frogs.  You might have even heard the Spring Peepers calling as early as March!  Why do they make these sounds?  What is their purpose?  To find a mate!  Amphibians have a variety of interesting ways of reproducing and preparing for their young. Although there are often exceptions in biology, we can start with … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Current Issue, Focus on STEM, Herpetology

Learning how to do research in the field: A Pilot Study in Guyana for Coral Snake Mimicry

January 18, 2021

Or how research really goes in the field! Everyone talks about research being done in the field.  It can sound glamorous, especially when the results are exactly what you hope for or even expect. But the reality is just the opposite.  More often than not, it is what you don’t find or what doesn’t work that helps you learn and adjust your experiment. Anthony Sena, a first … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Career Profile, Focus on STEM, Herpetology

Hometown Hero: The Blue-spotted Salamander

January 4, 2021

If towns are shutting down entire roads for you, you must be important, right? Every spring in central New Jersey, temporary road closures are created to protect amphibians who migrate across roads in search of perfect mating grounds. In March and April as the temperatures warm to 40-45 degrees, amphibians including frogs and salamanders make the trek from their winter homes in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Club Programming Idea, Current Issue, Focus on STEM, Herpetology

What can snakes on Madagascar teach us about evolution?

November 2, 2020

Arianna Kuhn, PhD Candidate, City University of New York, American Museum of Natural History As a  PhD candidate at the City University of New York, my current work aims to understand the evolutionary events that cause new species to form, but my career in herpetology actually began with geckos from Africa! As an undergraduate at Villanova University, I knew that I … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Career Profile, Focus on STEM, Herpetology

The Search for Urban Snakes in NJ

July 17, 2020

Written by Tianqi Huang, a PhD student majoring in Ecology and Evolution at Rutgers University - New Brunswick , currently working on urban snake ecology. Tianqi is co-advised by Dr. Peter Morin and Dr. Sara Ruane.         Nowadays, a large proportion of world’s population lives in urban areas, but we know that cities are not only home to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Animal Project Areas, Career Profile, Current Issue, herpetology, Herpetology, Herpetology, STEM Learning

East Brunswick, NJ Shuts Down Road For Salamander Migration

March 18, 2020

Originally posted February 11, 2020 | Updated Feb 12, 2020 at Patch.com.   Re-posted with permission from author, Carly Baldwin, Patch Staff. Yup, you read that correctly. One of the earliest signs of spring in central New Jersey is the annual salamander and frog migration. EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — New Jersey residents are used to roads closing for flooding, downed trees … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Current Issue, Herpetology

Poachers and habitat loss are endangering these N.J. snakes. This professor works to keep the reptiles safe.

January 25, 2020

Originally posted Sep 29, 2019 at NJ.com.   Re-posted with permission from author, Avalon Zoppo, NJ Advance Media. Deep in the Pine Barrens, poachers can wander for hours at a time. Their eyes scan the forest floor for dull orange, camouflaged corn snakes, a state-endangered reptile long threatened by a combination of encroaching development and collectors who sell … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Ask the Expert, Career Profile, Current Issue, Herpetology

Rutgers Herpetologist Shares 2019 Travels!

December 15, 2019

Dr. Sara Ruane, Rutgers Herpetologist and Evolutionary Biologist, shares her awesome 2019 travels with us. Louisiana In April, I went to Louisiana to collect genetic samples from snakes with my former PhD advisor, Frank, a curator at the American Museum of Natural History, and his postdoc, Skip. This collecting was for some projects that we are working on together and to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Animal Project Areas, Career Profile, Herpetology, STEM Learning

Making the World Your Office: Traveling for Research

October 30, 2019

There are many avenues of work that a research-type occupation or program can, and most likely will, take you in. As you enter into a research career, especially one in the realm of biology, you will find yourself in an actual office environment, but you may also find yourself in a lab, trying to get the data that your thesis or dissertation is dependent on (and for graduate … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Career Profile, Herpetology

Virginia Tech paleontologist finds, names new 3-foot-tall relative of Tyrannosaurus rex

September 8, 2019

This article was first published in the May 7, 2019 Virginia Tech News  https://vtnews.vt.edu/ A new relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex – much smaller than the huge, ferocious dinosaur made famous in countless books and films, including, yes, "Jurassic Park" - has been discovered and named by a Virginia Tech paleontologist and an international team of scientists. The … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Animal Project Areas, Ask the Expert, Featured Resource, Herpetology, Herpetology Tagged With: dinosaurs, extinct, suskityrannus hazelae

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