A bit of herping in NC

[Zookeeper Gabe]

Siobhan (my fiancee) recently got back from a trip to the Boone are of North Carolina to visit her mom for a few days. I had really really wanted to get more herping in but I got a little bit done
The largest Nerodia I saw

Me poking for caudates, I found about 8 Black Bellied (or so I'm told) salamanders in this stream. they were by far the most difficult salamander I ahve ever tried to wrangle.

Eastern Spotted Newt Eft form (they called it the E F T stage)

The neighbors Chicken and Guinea fowl she is raising.

Needed assistance on this one, think Southern Leopard

Southern Toad?

The one picture that came out of the Black Bellied Desmognathus quadramaculatus

[Zookeeper Gabe]

Please take the picture already

Live prey enrichment at Grandfather Mountain

mmm Fish

mmm fish

Wait is that a fish?

What happens when Chipmunks fall into Otter exhibits

Such a sweet face

[Zookeeper Gabe]

Edit my Southern Leopard is Bronze Frog(I never even thought of that one). And I just found this other picture of the Desmo

[umop_apisdn]

you caught your mistake on the frog. since you were in the mountains, i almost wanna say your toad was an american toad, but it's hard to tell from the picture.

you're right that your salamanders are mostly desmogs (exception = newt), and blackbellies are the most common in the area. too hard to ID from the pics, though.

your snake was most likely a northern water.

[corinthia]

OMG the otters are so cute!