Amphibian Declines: Around the World and in Your Backyard

Have you heard about the Jemez Mountain Salamander recently being put on the endangered species list? They are not the only ones facing severe challenges; amphibians around the world are experiencing declines, extirpations, and extinctions. Some of these losses have been observed in the southwest United States, including New Mexico and the Jemez Mountains, in northern New Mexico. In this talk, Michelle Christman will briefly cover general amphibian biology, threats amphibians face, general amphibian declines, and scale it down to New Mexico and the Jemez Mountains. The biology of the Jemez Mountains salamander (Plethodon neomexicanus), and some of the factors that supported a recent decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list this salamander as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act, as amended, will also be discussed.

Michelle Christman is a Fish and Wildlife Biologist with the New Mexico Ecological Services Field Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in Albuquerque, NM.  Michelle has worked with amphibian and reptile conservation in New Mexico since 2000, and in 2008, became the species lead for several listed and sensitive species of amphibians and reptiles for FWS. She actively participates in the conservation, recovery, and management of amphibians and reptiles for work as well as in her personal life. Michelle received her MS in Biology in 2005 from Utah State University, where her thesis focused on post-fire effects to the Jemez Mountains salamander (Plethodon neomexicanus), and she met her herpetologist husband over a salamander. Together they raise leopard frogs and a nine year old girl.

This program is free, and no advance registration is required.