As part of the Festival this year, Ryan and Rebecca led a field trip entitled, "Herper Heaven". We spent the morning of April 20th exploring 4 ephemeral ponds in the Munson Sandhills Region of the Apalachicola National Forest. One of the ponds was dry but metamorphic ornate chorus frogs and spring peepers were abundant in the damp pond basin. In the other ponds, we dipnetted for amphibian larvae, ate Smilax buds, and stalked the pond periphery for adult amphibians, lizards, and snakes. We encountered 11 species of reptiles and amphibians:

Amphibians
Mole Salamander, Ambystoma talpoideum
Cricket Frog, Acris gryllus
Spring Peeper, Pseudacris crucifer
Ornate Chorus Frog, Pseudacris ornata
Gopher Frog, Rana capito
Southern Leopard Frog, Rana sphenocephala

Reptiles
Chicken Turtle (shell), Deirochelys reticularia
Green Anole, Anolis carolinensis
Southeastern five-lined Skink, Eumeces inexpectatus
Southern Fence Lizard, Sceloporus undulatus
Eastern Cottonmouth, Agkistrodon piscivorus