UGA Coastal Ecology Lab

Welcome back to another !🐍 Today's post is going to be a little different from usual, as this past week has been the Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation's . In honor of this, today's topic will include both snakes and turtles!

Our highlight species for today is the nonvenomous Brown Water snake (Nerodia taxispilota), which is a common species of water snake found from southeastern Virginia down along the East coast to Mississippi. Being a larger-bodied snake, this species is often mistaken for Water Moccasins; however, up close, they have a distinct pattern of dark square-shaped blotches running dorsally down the length of their brown body and along their sides. On their ventral side, they are yellow or lighter in coloration, marked with darker patterning. This species is typically piscivorous, feeding generally upon fish; however, they have been known to take advantage of whatever they can capture and swallow.

This leads to the main focal point for today, and that is the documentation of a Brown Water snake feeding upon a baby turtle! We found a Brown water snake out in the field that had ingested a hatchling turtle. Now it is uncertain as to what species of turtle the snake had ingested because we did not want to make the snake throw up the meal it had just eaten. However, it is quite interesting for a snake to swallow a turtle since the shell circumference of some species can be quite large even as hatchlings. This is not too surprising, though, given that snakes have highly flexible jaws and their bottom jaw is not fused like ours.

While it may be sad to see, this is the natural cycle of nature, and it continues like this every day in the ecosystem without being noticed. Such an opportunity to observe and document this event is rare and truly an awesome find!

For this week’s , we’re highlighting the currently blooming Fewflower Milkweed (Asclepias lanceolate). Fewflower Milkweed is a delicate native wildflower found in moist habitats throughout the eastern coastal region of the United States. It can grow 3 to 5 feet tall, with oppositely arranged pairs of long, thin leaves spaced out along their slender stems. The plant is very easily overlooked until it produces its small clusters of brilliant orange and red flowers in late spring and summer.

Like other members of the Genus Asclepias, Fewflower Milkweed contains a toxic, milky latex in its leaves and stems that it uses as a defense against hungry caterpillars. However, caterpillars of Monarch and Queen butterflies are specialized to feed on these plants despite their chemical defenses, making milkweeds an important host plant for larval Monarchs and their relatives. The flowers are also a great source of nectar for bees and wasps.

When planting milkweed in your garden, always choose a species that is native to your region!

📸 Joshua Billings

Happy and happy ! For Wild Turtle Week, we are going to highlight the amazing diversity among Diamondback Terrapins (Malaclemys terrapins), a unique aquatic turtle native to the coastal salt marshes and brackish estuaries of the southeastern US.

Diamondback terrapins are easily identified by their distinct, raised diamond-shaped patterns and concentric growth rings on their shell. Similar to human fingerprints, no two terrapins have the exact same color and pattern, and their skin and shells are highly individualized. Diamondback terrapins naturally exhibit extraordinary color variation by region, but these differences are dramatic even among individuals in the same nest or population.

The upper shell (carapace) ranges from light gray, brown, and yellowish-green to deep, nearly solid black. Their underside (plastron) is usually yellowish or greenish, often decorated with unique, irregular black flecks or bold, dark blotches. Their skin tones range widely from bright white or pale grey to dark grey and jet black. The concentric rings on their large diamond-shaped plates (scutes) alternate in color with shades of yellow, gray, or dark brown. They can even have variation in their eye color and facial markings.

The subspecies most commonly seen here on the Georgia Coast is the Carolina Diamondback (M. t. centrata), which is known for its exceptionally bold patterns and bright, highly contrasting skin.

Check out this unique artwork by Madison Bragdon, created from photographs of individual diamondback terrapins that were found right here off the coast of Georgia and participated in a 2024 UGA Coastal Ecology Lab research project evaluating experimental barrier designs to help keep terrapins off roadways and reduce road mortality!

📸: Madison Bragdon

Hello everyone! Today’s post will be all about the large and in charge River Frog (Lithobates heckscheri)!

This species is on the larger end of frogs, able to reach up to 6 inches at maturity (15.5cm). Tadpoles of this species are also notably large, reaching 5 inches in length (12.7cm). Adults are a dark green – earthy brown in coloration with a black – grey belly. No dorsolateral ridges are present, and they have rough, wrinkly skin. Juvenile eyes are often reddish in coloration, often changing to gold with maturity. Tadpoles have a distinct black margin around their tail fin and exhibit schooling behavior. Males have a larger tympanum than females (hearing organ located behind the eye), which is larger than their eyes, and a yellow throat. Female tympana are often smaller than their eyes and far less distinct than those of males.

River frogs are nocturnal and have been described as more “approachable” or less “wary” than other frogs. This leads to them being easier to capture. They are more likely to go limp and “play dead” when captured than they are to flee. River frogs can also secrete an unpleasant odor/ toxin through their skin when threatened as an additional way of deterring predators. The call of the river frog is a deep, rolling “snore” that some have likened to that of a distant chainsaw or lawnmower. River frogs are found throughout the Coastal Plain and are typically more common in the southern ends of their home range. They often inhabit swamps, Blackwater streams, and associated wetlands. They are listed as least concern under IUCN, but have regional conservation concerns. They are considered in decline in their eastern range and extinct in North Carolina.



Photo 1 (top left) by “rreams” CC-BY-NC, iNaturalist [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/207234675]
Photo 2 (top right) by “lucaspigeon” CC-BY-NC, iNaturalist [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/342481296]
Photo 3 (bottom left) by “rreams” CC-BY-NC, iNaturalist [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/164065029]
Photo 4 (bottom right) by “phils1stpix” CC-BY-NC, iNaturalist [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/102699057]

Happy Monday! Many times, once we remove an alligator's satellite tag, we don't see them again, but recently, while conducting captures, we accidentally recaptured an old friend in male BDE!

BDE was the first alligator we fitted with a satellite tag at the Folkston Entrance to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge back in 2020. He had a fairly small home range and could usually be found hanging out around the boat basin. Back when we first caught him in 2020 and again in 2021, to remove the tag, he was exactly 9ft long; however, when we captured him this time, nearly 5 years later, he was 9'9" long. Those nine inches may not seem like a lot, but for a male alligator comes with 50-75lbs of muscle, which can make a huge difference in trying to find mates. We can certainly tell that BDE has been trying to mate and find his place as he has quite a few battle scars and even a tooth mark on his snout (circled in red).

This long-term monitoring can also tell us a lot about the growth rates of alligators in the swamp versus other areas in GA. For example, while he grew 9 inches over the course of 5 years, an alligator at Ford Field and River Club that we have captured twice grew 4 inches over a single year from 10'3" to 10'7". We know that alligators on the coast grow quicker than inland alligators, as coastal alligators have access to the rich food sources of the marsh, but this really shows how vastly different the growth rates may be and highlights the importance of long-term research and monitoring.

🚨 🚨Not every orange butterfly you see fluttering through the air is actually a monarch. In fact, several species across the Southeastern United States have evolved to look similar or almost identical to the Monarch butterfly, so much so that people and predators tend to mistake them for the real thing! This week, we are taking a closer look at Monarch butterflies and the butterflies that mimic their famous warning colors.

In the images below this post, there are four butterflies pictured: Viceroy (Limenitis achippus), Monarch (Danaus plexxipus), Queen (Danaus gilippus), and a Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae). Comment below your guess of which butterfly is the true Monarch butterfly. If you want a challenge, try to identify all four species to the correct photo.

The Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexxipus) is one of the most recognizable insects in North America. They are especially known for their striking orange and black wing patterns, along with their long-distance migrations across North America. But Monarchs are more than just pretty butterflies; they are flying warning signs to predators. As caterpillars, monarchs feed on milkweed plants, which contain toxic compounds called cardiac glycosides. These toxins remain in the butterfly’s body into adulthood, making Monarchs taste unpleasant and sometimes toxic to certain predators like birds.

Due to predators learning to avoid the Monarch’s warning coloration, several other insects have evolved to look similar through mimicry. One of the most common examples is the Viceroy butterfly (Limenitis achippus). For many years, scientists believed the Viceroy was a harmless species copying the Monarch for protection, but later research has shown that Viceroys may also be distasteful themselves, creating what is known as Müllerian mimicry, where both species benefit from sharing similar colors.

There are two other similar mimics to the Monarch, the Queen (Danaus gilippus) and Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae). The Queen is a close relative of the Monarch that also feeds on milkweed and shares a similar coloration to the Monarch. The Gulf Fritillary, however, evolved independently from the Monarch, developing a similar color scheme due to its own toxicity from passion vine.

So, next time you spot an orange butterfly drifting through a field or garden, take a closer look; it may not be a Monarch, but rather one of nature's most convincing impersonators.

📷:Gulf Fritillary by iNaturalist user “rawcomposition”
(https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/93940955)

📷:Monarch by iNaturalist user “philippthompson”
(https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/86045504)

📷:Viceroy by iNaturalist user “drew_baxter”
(https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/221084939)

📷:Queen by iNaturalist user “vijaybarve”
(https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/221084939)

Hi everyone, and welcome back to another 🐍! There are forty-six total species of snakes here in Georgia. Out of the forty-six, only six species are venomous. This means that 87% of all snake species in Georgia are non-venomous. Even though most are harmless, it is still important to be able to distinguish between the venomous and non-venomous.

One method people often use to try to identify a venomous snake is the shape of the snake’s pupils. The pit vipers found in Georgia have slit pupils that aid in hunting their prey in low light conditions and give them better depth perception. However, if you are close enough to be able to see the snake's pupils, you are too close, and there is a species of venomous snake in Georgia that does not have slit pupils, so this is not the best way to identify a venomous snake.

Another method that people often try to use to determine between venomous and non-venomous is the shape of the head. Pit vipers are known to have spade or triangular-shaped heads. This unique shape is due to the venom glands being located right behind their jaw. There are, however, several species, including harmless water snakes and hognose snakes, that have the ability to flatten their head and mimic this triangle shape. Additionally, there is a species of venomous snake that does not conform to either of these identification methods. So this is also not a reliable method to determine between venomous and non-venomous.

The species being referred to would be the Eastern Coral snake, as this species does not conform to either method of identification. To start off, the Eastern coral snake does not have slit pupils, but instead they are round, just like a non-venomous species. They also possess a round-shaped head instead of a spade shaped. If looking at only the head and eyes of this species, one may assume that it was non-venomous. However, coral snakes are venomous and should be left alone. The best option for venomous snake identification is to do your homework ahead of time and be able to identify all the known venomous species in your area. Let us know in the comments if you would like us to do a series teaching how to identify all 6 of the venomous snakes that can be found here in Georgia.

Pictured below is an image of an Eastern Coral snake showing how they do not have either slit pupils or a spade-shaped head. Also shown are two species of venomous with an Eastern Copperhead on the left and an Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake on the right, both representing the spade shaped head and slit pupils.



📷 Photos by:
wayne_fidler (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/350425800)
stuffbelafinds (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/366906222)
mark_hughes (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/366204300)

Welcome to this week’s ! Lobelia nuttallii, commonly known as Nuttall's Lobelia, is a delicate native wildflower found in moist pinelands, savannas, seepage slopes, and other wet habitats across Georgia's Coastal Plain. Growing only a few inches tall, this unassuming lil plant produces lovely pale blue to lavender flowers with a white center that bloom from late summer into fall. Like other members of the lobelia family, its blossoms are attractive to a variety of pollinators, especially native bees and butterflies.

Nuttall's lobelia thrives in open, sunny wetlands that depend on natural disturbances such as fire to prevent encroachment by shrubs and trees. Protecting and restoring these habitats helps ensure that species like Nuttall's lobelia continue to brighten Georgia's landscapes and support the rich diversity of life in our incredible little corner of the world.

Hello everyone! Today’s post is all about the unique Red-Spotted Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens).

This little creature has four different life stages, ranging from egg to aquatic larvae, to terrestrial eft (juvenile), back to aquatic newts (adults). Throughout all life stages, the “eye-like” red spots are present. Juveniles often are a stark red-orange color that fades with maturity. Once adults, they will present in an olive – dark green color. They can grow up to 4.8 inches (12.2cm), with their tail accounting for a majority of their length.

Terrestrial efts often hide under forest litter and move around during rainy days or at night. When threatened, they are capable of secreting a neurotoxin known as tetrodotoxin, which makes them undesirable to predators. As humans, handling one does not immediately put you at risk since it is only effective when ingested. However, it is recommended to handle (if necessary) with extreme caution, washing hands thoroughly afterwards. During their eft stage, this neurotoxin can be up to 10 times stronger than any other life stage.

Aquatic adults (newts) can inhabit a variety of habitats, like ponds, streams, and wetlands. Unlike other salamander species, they have an extra layer of protection with their neurotoxin, and will inhabit bodies of water with fish populations as well. If the body of water they are inhabiting dries up, they will migrate to another nearby body to prevent desiccation. Red-spotted newts are widespread and can be found throughout all of eastern North America. They do not have any federal protections, but are listed as threatened at the state level in Iowa and Kansas.


Photo 1 by “edropkin”, CC-BY-NC, iNaturalist [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/364353669]
Photo 2 by “zihanwei”, CC-BY-NC, iNaturalist [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/343210892]