SUN JOURNAL • November 7, 2021
Maine is home to only 18 amphibian species, one of whom shouldn’t even be here: A Colby College professor accidentally set them loose when cages broke free in a storm in 1939. Maine is also home to turtles still reproducing into their 80s. And there’s a salamander here so darling that Disney could have had a hand. They are small in numbers and in size, but Maine’s reptile and amphibian populations are also the subject of the longest-running citizen-scientist project in the state. A project that would like your help. We asked two experts what makes the mini so mighty in Maine’s ecosystem, what species they’re monitoring, why New Hampshire rattlesnakes couldn’t just slither across the border into Maine and, when pressed, could these two serious scientists nominate a contender for Maine’s Cutest Reptile or Amphibian?