Maine Big Night – Amphibian Migration Monitoring and Rescue

March 13th – Maine Big Night: Amphibian Migration Monitoring.
Speaker: Greg LeClair
Click here to Zoom: Password-192292 Available for people not able to attend in person.
Greg with rescued salamanders

April showers bring more than just May flowers to Maine – they bring the massive annual migration of amphibians, colloquially known as “big nights”. As many of these amphibians plod and hop through the landscape, they face unfortunately steep odds of reaching their breeding locations. While natural barriers (rivers, mountains, etc.) and predators are risks that Wood Frogs and Spotted Salamanders have calculated into their migratory plans, many have not had the time to adjust to the newest, and perhaps most deadly, risk during these migrations – roads.

This persistent and likely increasing threat is what inspired the creation of Maine Big Night: Amphibian Migration Monitoring (MBN). MBN is a community science project that harnesses the energy of community members throughout the state to accomplish two major tasks; record data on amphibian crossings and assist the creatures across the road to directly reduce mortality as a temporary means of protection.

Since the inception of the project in 2018, MBN has recorded 21,586 amphibians and surveyed 349 sites from Kittery to St. Agatha, which was recorded on the backs of 388 unique certified volunteers (plus many more joining them – perhaps thousands of Mainers have now participated in MBN!). Combined, volunteers have contributed just over 224 days of road monitoring, allowing 15,939 amphibians to be shepherded safely to and from their breeding locations.

Come and learn more about salamanders and how you can help them.