The Pennsylvania Herpetological Education and Research Project launched a new application to its web site today. PAHERP has been working on the Pennsylvania County Species Application for more than a month, anticipating it will be a great tool for the public.

The County Species Application is a web based site developed as an educational tool to bring awareness of the reptiles and amphibians to the Commonwealth counties. Using data from the PAHERP database, the program relates the information to older county records.

The application shows up-to-date verifications from data submitted by the public to the PAHERP database. It also shows unverified records related to older references for a county predating 2000. Finally, it shows historic species that have not been documented within a county for a number of years.

The application has two search features that can be used, Search by County and Search by Species.

Search by County brings up the list of all counties in Pennsylvania. When a county is selected, the user is taken to that county’s species list. This is a list of species that have been documented or had historic occurrence in that county.

Search by Species gives the user a list of all species that may be found within Pennsylvania. On selecting a species the user is taken to the species page showing a list of counties it has been documented in or has a historic status. A link is also provided to take the user to the PAHERP Identification site on that species for information on identification.

“This application is an important tool that allows folks to identify what may be living in their backyards. Additionally, with increased input from volunteers, an accurate picture of species’ ranges can be drawn which ultimately can assist with the conservation of some Pennsylvania’s rarer herps.” – Kyle Loucks

“Cool Application! Not sure what herps are in your county or a given area, just one click away! Great for species ID and range info also! Very user friendly. ” – Kevin Wolfe

Information on the species is updated after records have been reviewed from the PAHERP database. The application also updates the maps related to those species on the Pennsylvania Herpetological Identification site.

Pennsylvania County Species Application is an ongoing program to expand the range of species thoughout Pennsylvania. It is easy to use, and anyone interested in verifying a species in a certain county should visit the PAHERP database, sign up and add his or her sighting.

Launch the application now though PAHERP’s side menu or visit PAHERP App

Are you up for a challenge? Volunteers Adam and Lisa have set up a geocache for PAHERP in Bald Eagle State Park in Center County.

We appreciate the time and efforts Adam and Lisa have put into setting up the geocache. We are excited to have PAHERP involved, because participants often encounter Pennsylvania’s diverse reptiles and amphibians while geocaching.

To find the geocache, you must be a member of geocahing.com and solve the quiz to find your coordinates. Good luck to all who venture out to find the cache, and we look forward to seeing new volunteers at this fun, outdoor event.

We would love to have others set up a geocache in their counties. Anyone interested should send us an email, and we will send out brochures and cards to add to the cache.

We are always up for new ideas to get people involved in our efforts. Let us know your ideas.

PAHERP Challenge Geocache

The organizers behind the Pennsylvania Herpetological Education and Resource Project are excited about the data people have submitted within its first three months of operation. The group has successfully gained 55 volunteers and submitted 675 records, including 2,240 individual reptiles and amphibians.

PAHERP is an online resource center for the conservation of reptiles and amphibians throughout Pennsylvania. The organization started in April 2009. Since then, herpetologists and volunteers have been working together to identify and track these animals in the state.

The organizers behind PAHERP have added some new features to the site and database such as the new community forum and video tutorials to encourage discussion and participation and to get newcomers involved with PAHERP. More features will continue to be added to the site such as video podcasts.

Fifty-five volunteers have contributed 675 records to the PAHERP database. These 675 records have identified 2,240 individual reptiles and amphibians since April. Of these submissions, 250 were tracked species (endangered, threatened, candidate species or species of concern) by the Fish and Boat Commission and the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Project. Forty-nine species out of 76 total species found in the state have been added to the database.

Thirty-nine out of 67 counties in Pennsylvania have records of reptiles and amphibians so far. To see more on what counties have records and what species have been reported in each county, see the PDF below.

PAHERP’s goal for the year is to have more than 300 volunteers and more than 10,000 records. The organization is working hard to spread the word and get more people involved. Printed brochures will arrive in a few weeks, so interested volunteers should stay tuned for their arrival.

Start volunteering today!

We have opened the new PAHERP community forum. Sign Up – Communicate with others, ask questions, or get help. The forum is new and will still be fixing some small errors. If you happen to find one or see something out of place please leave us a note or send us an email.

Visit the PAHERP Forum.

We are pleased to announce that the PAHERP Database has reached over 100 records within three weeks of launching , and the records are climbing. Thanks all the contributors who have entered in thier data. There are 15 counties with records and 37 different species entered so far. We hope to see more participation in weeks to come and see the database grow and being used to acvhive our goals in conservation.

We have also added a few new small features to the database in the past week:

Record Count:
We have added a new record count on to the front page of the Database. The new record box will show you the number of records that have been submitted, record count for today, and also the number of joined members.

Record Contributors:
The record contributors is a new page we have added to show the list of contributors that have submitted records with in a certain range. The ranges are broken up in to sections of 1-10 records, 11-20 records, 21-50 records, 51-100 records, and 100+ records submitted by contributors. http://www.paherp.org/db/contributors.php

Video Tutorials:
As pre-request for a few contributors we have added two video tutorials for the database. The first is a introduction to the database that goes though the site to show some of the databases features. The second is a quick video on how to use Google Earth to obtain Latitude, Longitude and Elevation. If you are having any trouble or would like assistance with the database feel free to use our contact form and let us know how we can help.
http://www.paherp.org/db/videos.php

Request Cards:
We would like to let you know that if you would like to share the site with people off-line, just let us know and we will send you a few of our cards by mail. Just visit http://www.paherp.org/request and fill out the form.

ForgottenFriend.org Kids Quiz May 2009:
Our friends at Forgottenfriends have a fun kids quiz set up for kids to win prizes each month.

“One winner will be randomly selected each month from the highest quiz scores. Winners will receive a Reptile Fun Pack, which includes a “Give Reptiles a chance” T-shirt, and other reptile goodies like glow-in-the-dark snakes and lizards, reptile and amphibian stickers and tattoos, a frog beach ball, activity books, and more!”
Visit: http://www.forgottenfriend.org/kids.php

More to come:
We are working on new documents for the resources, kids zone, and teachers zone so stay tuned for those.

We appreciate your continued support and any feedback or questions you may have.