Knee high in the waters of California

Unlike last year, now known as California's mega drought, this year has started with water in the ponds. Ty McCaffrey is leading the team this year after successfully defending his thesis (Congrats Ty). They are about a month into sampling with some notable details already. For the first time in many years tiger salamanders are back at one of the parks where they have been missing. This is extremely exciting as tigers are one of the two endangered species, we work with in our pond system. Secondly, snails seem to have taken a hit from last year’s drought where some sites have none or very few alive when previously they occupied in stable numbers. Who knows what this means for parasites and amphibians! Stay tuned for highlights.