Biologist Hunts State’s Missing Species

Tom Pauley tramps along streams and hikes up mountains in search of things that would make most folks cringe. What he isn’t finding has him concerned.

Species like the Blanchard’s cricket frog, the spadefoot toad, the red salamander and the hognose snake seem to be disappearing.

“We spend an enormous amount of time in the field,” said Pauley, a Marshall University biology professor and the state’s leading herpetologist. “I have walked literally hundreds upon hundreds of miles through this state. It’s difficult for me to think we’re missing these things.”

Records on the Blanchard cricket frog, no bigger than a thumbnail, date to the mid-1930s. It lived in small ponds and swampy areas of Mason County. If it can’t be found, it will be cut from the state’s amphibian list.

At the same time, red salamanders seem to be vanishing from southern West Virginia.

“I have not personally seen one in eight or 10 years,” Pauley said. “It was not uncommon for me to see 10 or 15 a night.”

The eastern hognose snake, which plays dead when threatened, hasn’t been sighted in three years, he said.

The preservation of West Virginia’s 83 species of reptiles and amphibians falls to the state Division of Natural Resources, but without accurate population counts it’s hard to determine what protections are needed.

Collectors are allowed to have up to 100 turtles and 100 salamanders in their possession at a time. The division would like to modify the limit but is reluctant because of public apathy.

“The public at large is not concerned about them as they are with other organisms,” said Don Phares, an assistant chief in charge of special projects. “Who ever heard of someone going out and tearing off their porch to kill a robin, but they will do that to kill a snake.”

The division is reluctant to impose new restrictions without public support, he said.

Pauley said competition among species can keep numbers and ranges in check, but habitat changes are more devastating.

The spadefoot toad, for example, spends a good part of its life underground. It only comes out after heavy rains. At one time, the toad could be found at several sites near Huntington. Today, the sites are parking lots.

“We’ve been out searching and searching, and we have not been able to find them,” Pauley said. “We’re fearful the habitat has been pretty much destroyed.”

Highway projects, clear cutting and coal mining methods that chop off mountaintops and dump dirt and rocks into streams and valleys also take their toll.

But to what extent?

“We’ve obviously done some damage to the state,” Pauley said. “We have done a fair amount of work on what happens when you clear cut. It kills them . . . but it doesn’t kill them all.”

Pauley and his graduate students are studying salamanders and other species living in areas slated for coal mining valley fills.

“Obviously, when they throw the mountain into the valley it kills them,” he said. “There’s no need to argue about that. We’re looking at the effect on the salamander downstream.”

They are also looking at how amphibians are faring in streams that receive state-sponsored limestone treatments to combat acid rain.

Some of the species Pauley tracks, including the Cheat Mountain salamander, are sought by collectors because of their rarity. The salamander is only found in four West Virginia counties at elevations of 3,000 feet and higher.

If a reptile or amphibian is not sold in a pet store or bait shop, it may end up in a jar of formaldehyde on shelves in classrooms, laboratories or museums.

Why should people be concerned about saving reptiles and amphibians? For one, they could be the perfect bellwether of the state’s environmental health.

“Amphibians are great bio-indicators,” Pauley said. “ . . . So they are going to be able to tell us something if they start dying off.”