If you were to visit a rainforest or tropical island you would expect to find many unique and amazing animals. But did you know that there are some incredible organisms in the state of Ohio? Giant salamanders, parasitic birds, 1,400 pound bovines, and venomous snakes! All of these animal are uniquely adapted to their environment but some of them are in peril due to a number of human caused factors. Raising awareness of these fascinating animals that live in our own backyards is the first step in conserving the amazing biodiversity around us.

These are three specimens of hellbender salamanders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) which are Ohio’s largest amphibian species. They can grow to a length of 11.5 to 20 inches! They are mainly found in southeast Ohio hiding under rocks in fast moving streams. Despite their size, they are harmless to humans but not to small fish, insects, and aquatic invertebrates which they feed on.

Take a closer look at these amazing creatures!

Unfortunately, hellbenders are listed as endangered by the Ohio Division of Wildlife. The biggest threat to these animals are pollution and degradation of their habitat. Removal of rocks, stream damming, and excessive siltation due to nearby forests being converted to farmland all play a role in destroying the hellbender’s habitat. There has been an 80% decline in their populations in Ohio since the mid-1980’s.

Now to a unique life strategy in the avian world: Brood parasites are organisms that use members of another species to raise their offspring. If you have ever heard of birds that are brood parasites then you have probably heard of the Eurasian Cuckoo which does not occur in North America. But we do have a parasitic bird right here in Ohio: the Brown-Headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater). Look at a mix of male (dark birds) and female (brown birds) Brown-Headed Cowbird specimens in our collection:

Here are, from left to right, a female, nestling, and male Brown-Headed Cowbird. 

The female will lay up to 40 eggs each breeding season. However, she does not lay these eggs in her own nest but in the nests of other birds. She is not very picky about what type of nest either, Brown-Headed Cowbirds have up to 221 known host species. These birds are disliked by many because of their tendency to out-compete other songbirds in particular in the Eastern part of the U.S. where Brown-Headed Cowbirds are not native and many songbird species are not adapted to them.

You may have recently heard that the American bison (Bison bison) is now the national mammal of the United States.

American Bison Skull

But did you know that these animals once used to freely roam Ohio? Despite being the largest land animal in North America after the Ice Age, these majestic beasts nearly went extinct in the 19th century.

Native Americans in Ohio used to hunt wild bison but the bison population did not decline until European settlers reached Ohio. The settlers hunted the bison commercially for their meat and hides. In 1803, the last bison in Ohio was shot and killed in Lawrence County. Today, you can again see bison in Ohio, but they are all captive. One of these places is Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park where 11 bison are currently roaming the restored prairies.

Another animal you may be surprised to find in Ohio is the timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus).

These snakes are venomous but they are very docile (despite their Latin name – horridus) and will not attack humans unless provoked. You can call yourself very lucky should you spot one in the wild, because timber rattlesnakes are now considered endangered by the Ohio Division of Wildlife.

Timber rattlesnakes live in the forests of seven counties in southern Ohio. They used to have a much larger range in Ohio but due to direct killing, unregulated collection, and habitat destruction their numbers have severely declined. These snakes can grow up to 6 feet but on average a length of 3 to 4 feet. Like many snakes, these rattlers usually eat mice, rats, chipmunks, and squirrels.

So next time you are out on a walk in Ohio, keep your eyes open for some of these amazing animals that we find in our backyard.

About the Author: Chelsea Hothem is a 3rd year student majoring in Evolution & Ecology at The Ohio State University and works as a Research Assistant at the Museum of Biological Diversity in the Tetrapod Collection.

All photos ©Hothem, 2016

Bird specimens that are part of the Tetrapod collection

When you picture a vertebrate collection, you probably think of a collection of taxidermied birds and mammals or jars of pickled fish. But when you actually visit the collection, you will find the typical research study skins, and pelts and – out of necessity- preserved parts of specimens such as jars with tongues, eyes, stomach contents, brains, boxes of horns, eggs, nests, wings etc. These are organized as sub-collections within a vertebrate collection and are known under varying names such as the osteological or oological collections. These “sub-collections” can be used as educational tools, in research projects, or in art classes. But when we salvage or collect a specimen, why don’t we keep the entire specimen? One may argue that a whole specimen would have higher value to a researcher than the bits and pieces found in these sub-collections.

Indeed it is useful to preserve the entire specimen but there are many constraints that vertebrate and other museum collections face that prevent us from keeping an intact specimen.

One big issue museums face is space. For vertebrate collections, though it would be lovely to

A walrus as a whole specimen takes up a large space but when folded up it can fit in a cabinet. (S. Malinich, 2013)

have an entire whale or elephant in the collection, such a specimen would take up a large part of our collection area. If a museum has a whale in its collection it may only keep parts that researchers have requested in the past such as particular vertebrae, a manus, or a partial skull. A great example of this can be found in the AudioVision “Whale Warehouse”  video episode. Within the episode, Grant Slater and Mae Ryan, producers for Southern California public radio, explore the L. A. Natural History Museum’s over-sized specimen storage facility, a place where curators store parts of large aquatic mammal specimens. Not only are the specimen parts inside large but they take up an entire warehouse off grounds from the main facility!

Larger birds, such as these Golden Eagles, take up space where hundreds of smaller song birds could fit. (S. Malinich, 2013)

Here at the Museum of Biological Diversity, we do not face the challenge of storing whales, but smaller specimens in large numbers can soon turn into a space problem, too. Over 20 swan specimens, can take up the same cabinet that could be holding over a thousand smaller song birds. This puts constraints on how many specimens of a species we can accession per year and the maximum size of specimens that we can accept.

Another problem museum collections face is the condition of a specimen. Upon receiving specimens we conduct quality checks on varying aspects of the specimen.

Smelling a specimen before preparing it can help make decisions if it smells rotten.

First, we conduct a sniff check: if the specimen smells rotten, it is past the point of return and we do not attempt to make it into a study skin, because it would continue to decay at a rapid pace.

A student prepares a specimen skin. While she prepares it she checks it for any reasons why it could not be made into a full study skin.

Second, we do a visual look over on the outside of the specimen: We look for maggots, large wounds, as well as gangrenous flesh which would prevent us from turning the specimen into a whole study skin.

Third, we consider acceptance of certain specimens over the year. Though

Examining a large Great Horned Owl before salvaging parts of this specimen.

it would be nice to make every specimen we receive into a study skin, we simply cannot  fit them all into cabinets. So only the specimens that are clean (or cleanable) and not losing feathers or fur will be preserved as full skins.

Sub-collections may arise because of a researcher’s fascination with a particular feature of a specimen, but they have become important parts of modern collections. Some sub-collections of the Tetrapod Collection are: skeletons, wings, feet, tails or samples of feathers. This way important research material is preserved, but instead of taking up a large portion of a cabinet these specimens can be filed just like documents into filing cabinets. This also makes sure that valuable records of species are kept even though a full skin could not be made because of how they were found when salvaged. These parts collections can still be valuable for research, for example, when scientists need DNA samples of a particular species. New molecular techniques allow extracting DNA from small tissue samples. To make up for the loss of a full skin, we take multiple images and measurements during processing to accompany the specimen in the collection.

A typical set up for preparing study skins.

Though it would be ideal for museum’s to preserve an entire specimen it may not be possible in the future as museum collections continue to grow. However as science progresses we are finding that even the smallests amounts of tissue samples of specimens can reveal much about a species. Entire collections of just tissue samples are being formed all around the world focusing on specific taxons or groups of species. In the future, as collections continue to grow it will become more beneficial to create more sub-collections with tissue samples to further the research value of museum collections.

About the author: Stephanie Malinich manages the tetrapods collection at the MBD.