Backyard biology is blooming
By Heather Young
hyoung25@uwo.ca
When John Urquhart asks a roomful of people to put their hands up if they’ve seen an amphibian or reptile in the last year, he says everybody’s arms shoot into the air.
It’s a great start, he says, but ideally, those people would be passing those sightings on to him.
Urquhart, staff ecologist for Ontario Nature, is heading Ontario’s amphibian and nature atlas, a project to collect data about where those creatures are spending their time.
And – like a growing number of projects – it relies heavily on the participation of citizen scientists -- volunteers who submit information to official agencies for analysis.
“I think people are becoming more aware that the environment isn’t doing well, and they want to do something about it,” he says.
Ontario Nature started the amphibian and reptile atlas in 2009. In its first year, there were about 100 participants. In 2010, there were over 400, and this year, Urquhart hopes to have even more.
“We want to continue to increase that number,” he says. “It would be nice to have a couple thousand.”
Participants – casual or deliberate – make note of any amphibians or reptiles they see while in nature, paying special attention to the species and its location, as well as other factors, like temperature and date. Some people go looking for creatures in wetlands and marshes, and others just take note of what’s in their backyard. Either way, they send the observations to Ontario Nature, which passes it on to the Natural Heritage Information Centre to compile the data.
In the 18 years before the atlas started, there were 165,000 observations in the provincial database. In the past two years alone, there have been 162,000.
Observations, which come from individuals, researchers, and nature groups like conservation authorities and Frog Watch, are used in part to determine how amphibians and reptiles are doing in particular areas.
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| Photo by Joe Crowley |
| The five-lined skink is Ontario’s only native lizard. |
In Ontario, 75 per cent of the amphibians and reptiles are species at risk, says Urquhart. And in order for animals to be protected under the Endangered Species Act, there has to be evidence of a species at risk in the area.
“And at this point, it’s a lot of guess work,” says Urquhart. “There’s a particularly strong need for data for amphibians and reptiles because they’re not as loved.”
These species are mostly found where summers are warmer. Amphibians and reptiles are ectotherms, which means their body temperatures are controlled by the environment – “they’re essentially solar powered,” explained Joe Crowley, species-at-risk herpetology specialist for the Ministry of Natural Resources, at a talk in March. They use the sun’s heat to get energy to go about their activities, like hunting, so they are found in places where the sun’s heat is the strongest. In Ontario’s that’s in the south, and that’s where Ontario Nature is trying to recruit the most volunteers.
“Right now, we’re focusing our efforts where there’s a more urgent need for data,” says Urquhart.
Many of the participants come from naturalist groups, where the atlas does a lot of outreach. For example, last month, Crowley gave an outreach presentation to Nature London.
He told the audience of about 100 people that it was important to monitor amphibians and reptiles because they – especially amphibians – are often the first creatures to suffer in unhealthy ecosystems. And in Ontario, they’re not doing well.
“They’re the most endangered group of animals in Ontario,” he said.
He said the biggest threat for the creatures is loss of habitat, as appropriate land remains only in “tiny specks” across the province.
Because they get energy from external heat, they are attracted to hot summer roads soaking up the sun. And there, vehicles present a threat.
“Roads are big trouble for these species,” said Crowley, who explained that a huge number of reptiles and amphibians die at the hands of unknowing drivers.
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| Photo by Joe Crowley |
| The spotted turtle is listed as endangered in Ontario, so authorities, researchers and citizen scientists don’t reveal their locations. |
But human persecution and collection can have a grave impact on populations, too. Some people go out of their way to kill snakes, for example, said Crowley. And there are a number of poachers who remove the animals from the environment to sell them as pets. He said the threat from humans is so high that the location of these species isn’t given to the public.
By submitting observations to the atlas, Crowley told the audience they could help protect these animals and help research on amphibians and reptiles in Ontario.
“It’s possible for everyone to make a contribution,” he said.
Many people in the crowd asked Crowley questions (“What will happen with the data? How much of a commitment will it take? Will you take information from years ago?”) and seemed to be interested in participating.
One interested audience member was Pete Read, the vice-president of Nature London and the Middlesex bird records chairperson.
“Certainly if I’m out and I see some frogs or turtles, I’ll send in my observations,” he says.
Read is no stranger to citizen science. The London native spent his childhood years running along the Thames River, trying to catch frogs. That was a natural starting point for a life-long love of nature, he says. Since then, he has participated in a number of volunteer bird tracking activities in the area: the Christmas bird count, the breeding bird survey, the Ontario breeding bird atlas, the great backyard bird count, project feeder watch and forest bird monitoring.
Some activities demand Read’s specialized knowledge – for the breeding bird survey, he makes 50 stops, each almost a kilometre apart, and identifies as many birds as he can by only their calls – while others require only a casual familiarity of birds. But anyone can learn to identify birds like he does, Read says.
“Most people start from the ground up, like I did,” he says. “They affiliate themselves with a group like Nature London.”
Regardless of the capacity in which Read volunteers his time, he submits his observations to the appropriate agency and each time becomes a more involved citizen scientist. And for him, the outcome is always the same.
“It really gives you a sense of pride,” he says.
But Read is hardly the only one. Kathy Jones, volunteer coordinator for Bird Studies Canada, says there are probably at least 20,000 people involved in North American citizen science projects. BSC’s membership alone is 6,000.
BSC coordinates many of the projects in which Read participates, and Jones says volunteers help the organization gain valuable information about birds.
“We do a lot of work that assesses habitat and improves the knowledge in the community,” says Jones.
How much of that work depends on citizen scientists?
“I’m trying to think of a program that doesn’t use volunteers,” she says. Then a few moments of silence as she thinks. She comes up with none.
