Monstrego, my male red ear slider (Trachemys scripta elegans), comes up to breath in his 55-g tank. Monstrego and Barzini are currently in the same tank, and Monstrego is constantly courting Barzini, although I haven’t seen him successfully breed this year. Barzini has laid three clutches that I’m aware of, none of which had any hatchlings emerge. Luckily though, these turtles can live upwards of 30 years if well cared for, and both of mine are about six. I’ll get a hatchling one of these times…
Tag Archives: Animals
Northern Water Snake
While collecting stream insects for some lab rearing I was doing, I ran into this water snake. Of course, I immediately picked it up and, astonishingly, was not bitten. After a futile attempt to calm the snake, I set him down and snapped a few pictures of its aggressive, flatten stance. The scale across the snake’s eye is blueish, indicating that it will likely molt soon. Indeed, a couple of days later, I caught the same snake (well, presumably the same one, given that it was under the same piece of bark), and it had a fresh, shinning layer of scales. Further, its aggressiveness was reduced the second time around, adding to evidence, at least in my experience, that snakes get kind of angry when they are close to molting.
Gull
This was my first attempt to get a shot of a bird with my new Olympus e-420. Although I had to crop most of the sky from the original image, the picture, taken with the kit lens, turned out decently. I think the gull’s neatly tucked away feet look cool.
Anatomy of a fish
Here, Mike gets a first look at the internal anatomy of a yellow perch (Perca flavescens). This opportunity was provided at the Stone Laboratory on Lake Erie for a class in Aquatic Ecology. There will be more perch pictures, but not quite as gruesome.
Jamie’s Mom
I found this midland painted turtle (Chrysemys picta marginata) in an oxbow on the edge of the Jennings Woods property. This individual had only three legs, the fourth having apparently been gnawed off by a predator (or just a neighborhood dog). The turtle’s reduce mobility and the fact that it was a cool spring day made capturing the normally very skitish turtle much easier.