The game animals and fish that are the staples of Maine’s hunting and fishing industry could be in jeopardy someday if scientists do not figure out how to conserve some of the state’s most hidden creatures.
That sounds a little dramatic, but in a very linear way, is true.
Maine’s 35 species of amphibians and reptiles play a fundamental role in the ecosystem’s food chain not filled by any other group. They are the linchpins that tie the land to the vertebrates that live on it, according to Phillip deMaynadier, wildlife diversity section supervisor for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
The creatures live under decaying leaves and logs, in small murky ponds or even temporary puddles called vernal pools, or in the grass, the debris on the forest floor or in rock walls. They eat insects and other small prey and become food themselves for the next level on the chain.
As temperatures and rain are increasingly erratic and people develop more land, the state’s snakes, frogs, turtles and salamanders are facing formidable foes. Climate change and development projects are altering or eliminating places where the animals live, deMaynadier said.
The biggest threat is habitat loss, especially in southern Maine, he said. Other threats are getting run over on the roads, pollution and illegal collection for the pet trade and food black markets, he said.
Some species are already in trouble. The northern black racer snake and Blanding’s turtle are endangered; the spotted turtle is threatened; and the northern spring salamander, northern leopard frog, wood turtle and eastern ribbon snake are all on the special concern list, according to the listings on MDIF&W. The timber rattlesnake is already gone from the state.
The warming trend of climate change is expanding the range of the gray tree frog — one of two species of tree frog in Maine — farther north into New Brunswick, deMaynadier said.
Frogs that rely on vernal pools call to each other and breed earlier in the spring. Intense droughts mean vernal pools and swamps dry out before tadpoles become frogs. Extreme warmups in the middle of winter coax amphibians out of hibernation and they migrate to breeding grounds that are still frozen, he said.
It all needs to be documented, he said.
For nearly 40 years, biologists like deMaynadier and a group of community scientists 3,000 strong have mapped the whereabouts, documented the habits and recorded everything they could learn about the state’s amphibians and reptiles in order to help them survive.
“It’s not just an academic exercise, but data we can translate into conservation action,” deMaynadier said, describing the project as the longest running community science project in Maine.
What they learned will be published in the third edition of an atlas titled “Maine Amphibians and Reptiles” next year, the culmination of a project that Malcolm Hunter Jr. started in 1984 between the University of Maine, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife and Maine Audubon.
Hunter, lead editor of the book, is Professor Emeritus of wildlife ecology and Libra professor of conservation biology at the University of Maine, and is recognized as one of the foremost authorities on Maine’s biodiversity. Hunter’s co-editors are deMaynadier, Aram Calhoun, Derek Yorks and Trevor Persons.
The project began with the development of the Maine Endangered Species Act and the realization that biologists did not have enough information about which species should be protected, Hunter said.
The numbers, locations and species of reptiles and amphibians in Maine were poorly understood before the project, deMaynadier said.
Distribution maps and knowing which species are common or rare helps biologists determine what needs to be listed as endangered, threatened or as a special concern, he said. And it gave them a baseline to measure the effects of climate change.
The collaborators also wanted to raise awareness about the amphibians and reptiles by getting people out looking for them and documenting them, Hunter said.
Most atlases have a fixed duration, but this one will continue indefinitely, he said.
.
“It has been very successful. Thousands of people have submitted useful information,” Hunter said.
