Mudpuppy Night

The temperature was -14 degrees Celsius. It was a clear and calm night. We drove away from the city to an area where you could clearly see the stars. We were heading to Oxford Mills to meet up with Fred Schueler. Our hopes were to find amphibians. Some might say it was hopeless and silly to try this is the middle of winter but for one certain species it is actually the best time to find them.

We met the fairly large group of people on the bridge bellow the dam in Oxford Mills and started our count right away. Underneath the swirls of foam we found our first Mudpuppy (Necturus). It swam away from the glare of our lights with such ease and everyone was excited to find more. Another spotted from the lower end of the bridge furthered this excitement and we walked down to the water. Those who had rubber boots or waders carefully got into the water from the ice and started to search. we found a few active mud-puppies and one that was hiding under the ice shelf. It was a little nerve wracking to wade into water with ice floating around knowing that if I slipped on the flat rocks or if the water ever reached the top edges of my boots I would be in for a chilling experience.

Mudpuppy (Necturus)

The Mudpuppies were quite active and seamed very at home in the cold water where they had little to fear in terms of predators. These amphibians never loose their gills and are aquatic their entire lives. They look like the aquatic form of juvenile salamanders.

After we were successful in surveying the area we headed over to the Brigadoon for desert and to warm up. The group coming up from Toronto arrived later due to weather and traffic so when they arrived we headed back out for a second search. On this second search we found even more. The Toronto crew which unexpectedly included an old friend waded out into the depths farther than my short rubber boots could reach where they found 8 Mudpuppies in one area along with a few scattered about.


It felt like the temperature was dropping and the night was getting late so we said goodbye to those who were still on the second search and headed home. It was very worth enduring the cold to find these amazing creatures.

More on this at Fred's website:
http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm