Atlas Solicits Species Observations      

Have you ever seen an eastern kingsnake in your backyard or in a state park, or found a Fowler’s toad on your porch, and wondered if wildlife biologists need to know about it?

These observations are important, and now there is a place to submit such observations that can help with the conservation of amphibians and reptiles in the Carolinas.

The Carolina Herp Atlas (CHA), developed by the Davidson College Herpetology Laboratory and the college’s Information Technology Services branch, is a new online database that uses observations by citizen scientists to track reptile and amphibian distribution.

Funded by the Wildlife Resources Commission, the CHA also allows users a simple way to maintain a personal database of the reptiles and amphibians they observe. County-level distribution maps can be viewed by anyone who visits the website.

Wildlife biologists and herpetologists can use the data to understand activity periods, habitat relationships, distribution, conservation status and other facts of amphibian and reptile ecology.

Here’s how the CHA works. Before submitting records, a participant must register and set up a “My Herps” account. Once you register, you can add records and keep track of observations. Each observation should include state and county, genus and species, date, location, geographic coordinates (using the CHA GeoLocator), remarks and a digital photo for species verification.

Observations can be submitted to the CHA at www.carolinaherpatlas.org.