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RAUK - Archived Forum - Herp Poo !

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Herp Poo !:

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Vicar
Senior Member
Joined: 02 Sep 2004
No. of posts: 1181


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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 !

Vicar38243.5620949074
Steve Langham - Chairman    
Surrey Amphibian & Reptile Group (SARG).
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
Tony Phelps
Forum Specialist
Joined: 09 Mar 2003
No. of posts: 575


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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
Chris G-O
Member
Joined: 14 May 2003
No. of posts: 36


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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
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 !

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