CNDDB News Blog

Photo credit: Abigail Cramer, Rachel Powell, and Annie Chang

A couple of CNDDB staff recently volunteered to accompany permitted biologists from Area West Environmental to survey for California tiger salamanders at the SMUD Nature Preserve Mitigation Bank at Rancho Seco. Yearly monitoring visits to a mitigation site are vital to evaluating the success of restoration efforts, and often required by USFWS when approving a mitigation plan for threatened or endangered species.

The mitigation bank consists of both natural and man-made vernal pools which provide habitat for many native plants and animals, including the federally listed California tiger salamander. The California tiger salamander spends most of its life underground, only emerging after winter rains to breed and lay eggs in seasonal pools. When the SMUD mitigation bank first restored pools, California tiger salamanders were only found in pools near the margins of the restoration area, but today they can be found throughout the site.

We visited constructed vernal pools on the property to check for presence of salamander larvae and record measures of habitat quality. Not only did we find California tiger salamanders, we also observed vernal pool tadpole shrimp (federally listed as Endangered), western spadefoot (California Species of Special Concern), western toad, clam shrimp, garter snake, and chorus frog.

Thank you to Becky, Area West, and SMUD for the amazing opportunity to gain hands-on experience, and for submitting data to the CNDDB!

While much of the mitigation bank is closed to the public, the 7-mile Howard Ranch Trail traverses portions of the SMUD Nature Preserve, showcasing beautiful natural vernal pools and oak woodlands.

Number of Element Occurrences in Current Distribution: 93,015
Number of New Element Occurrences Added Since Last Distribution: 208
Number of Element Occurrences Updated Since Last Distribution: 315
Number of Source Documents Added: 1,509

What we've been working on:

Botany

• Allium jepsonii (Jepson’s onion)
• Allium tuolumnense (Rawhide Hill onion)
• Arctostaphylos myrtifolia (Ione manzanita)
• Astragalus claranus (Clara Hunt’s milk-vetch)
• Ceanothus foliosus var. viejasensis (Viejas Mountain ceanothus)
• Chorizanthe howellii (Howell's spineflower)
• Collomia rawsoniana (Rawson’s flaming trumpet)
• Crocanthemum greenei (island rush-rose)
• Epilobium nivium (Snow Mountain willowherb)
• Fritillaria pluriflora (adobe-lily)
• Grusonia pulchella (beautiful cholla)
• Heterotheca sessiliflora ssp. sessiliflora (beach goldenaster)
• Ivesia campestris (field ivesia)
• Orcuttia tenuis (slender Orcutt grass)
• Trifolium buckwestiorum (Santa Cruz clover)
• Verbena californica (Red Hills vervain)

Zoology

• Entosphenus lethophagus (Pit-Klamath brook lamprey)
• Euphydryas editha quino (quino checkerspot butterfly)
• Oncorhynchus mykiss gilberti (Kern River rainbow trout)
• Rana boylii (foothill yellow-legged frog)
• Rana cascadae (Cascades frog)
• Spea hammondii (western spadefoot)

What’s the strangest thing you’ve done in the pursuit of scientific knowledge? Oliver Hay tasted blood squirted from the eye of a live horned lizard specimen sent to the Field Museum from California in 1891. While we advise against going to such lengths, we do recommend getting to know the horned lizards, genus Phrynosoma (from the Greek: toad-body). Known colloquially as “horned toads” or “horny toads” due to their round, flat body shape, spiny scales, and bony horns encircling the head, horned lizards have many unique traits worthy of study.

Of the 22 species in the genus Phrynosoma, 4 occur in California. Phrynosoma mcallii, the flat-tailed horned lizard, is federally endangered and is restricted to sandy habitat in the Colorado Desert. P. blainvillii, coast horned lizard, is a California Species of Special Concern found in the south and central Coast Range, and inland to the Sierra foothills. P. platyrhinos, the desert horned lizard, is found throughout the Colorado and Mojave deserts (southern subspecies) and in eastern Modoc and Lassen counties (northern subspecies). Finally, P. douglasii, the pygmy short-horned lizard, is a tiny species whose range barely dips into the northeastern corner of our state.

Horned lizards are relatively easy to observe; rather than fleeing predators, they may rely on a variety of avoidance mechanisms including camouflage, partial burial in sand, or defensive postures that make them difficult to swallow (but impressive to photograph—see photo at left). Of the California species, only P. blainvillii is known to exhibit the blood-squirting defense mechanism, so keep that in mind the next time you reach for a horned lizard. Many Phrynosoma species depend on ants as their primary food source, a factor which may be contributing to their decline in regions where invasive insects are replacing native harvester ants.

Have you witnessed any incredible horned lizard behavior? Send us your observations of P. mcallii and P. blainvillii via our Online Field Survey Form-- and feel free to attach photographic evidence; your picture could be featured in our next Photo of the Month!

Photo credit: California Department of Parks and Recreation (Eric Hollenbeck), Joseph Belli