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Herp Poo !: |
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Vicar Senior Member Joined: 02 Sep 2004 No. of posts: 1181  View other posts by Vicar |
Posted: 13 Sep 2004 I'm working my way through various methods for determining Herp range within a local area. One of the possibilities is Faeces. The question is....Is it possible to determine the presence of a herp species by identification of faeces ? (peferably short of DNA analysis). And, does anybody have any pictures ? (I am aware of the Salmonella hazards) I had a search thru the web and found some very disturbing sites !, not sure I'll ever leave the house again ! Steve Langham - Chairman 
Surrey Amphibian & Reptile Group (SARG). |
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GemmaJF Admin Group Joined: 25 Jan 2003 No. of posts: 2090  View other posts by GemmaJF |
Posted: 13 Sep 2004 Well I've been pooped on by herps since I was 8 and have only once contracted symptomatic Salmonella in the 30 years since, at a restaurant in Muswell Hill!! (I know there are some very disturbing web sites that rattle on about Salmonella and herps, a packet of anti-bacterial wipes to clean hands in the field will reduce any risk to zero) I doubt if you will have much luck with identifying herp poo or using it to determine range. We are at a bit of disadvantage with picking up signs of herps other than sloughs, the only reliable methods are painstaking visual survey and placing refugia to locate the animals themselves, or preferably a mixture of both methods. Gemma Fairchild, Independent Ecological Consultant |
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Tony Phelps Forum Specialist Joined: 09 Mar 2003 No. of posts: 575 View other posts by Tony Phelps |
Posted: 13 Sep 2004 Rhys Jones is working on analysis of British snake faeces at Cardiff Uni, think his details are on the forum. T |
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Chris G-O Member Joined: 14 May 2003 No. of posts: 36 View other posts by Chris G-O |
Posted: 27 Sep 2004 To add to that, i would suggest that you're far more likely finding the actual animals than you are their faeces. Good luck anyway! Chris Gleed-Owen, Research & Monitoring Officer, The HCT & BHS Research Committee Chair |
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cyba Member Joined: 10 Aug 2004 No. of posts: 11 View other posts by cyba |
Posted: 27 May 2005 !bump! My herps live in an extremely isolated backyard, so the poop that I regularly find must belong to either common frogs or toads. In fact a frog crapped on my hand when I was trying to remove it from my kitchen ... I washed with soap and water and got no infection. You still want pix? |
- Herp Poo ! |