THE CAROLINA HERP ATLAS
A CITIZEN-SCIENCE PROJECT FOR REPTILE AND AMPHIBIAN ENTHUSIASTS

     Have you ever seen an eastern kingsnake in your backyard or found a Fowler’s Toad on your porch and wondered if wildlife biologists needed to know about it? These observations are important and now there is a place to submit your observations that can help with the conservation of amphibians and reptiles in the Carolinas: The Carolina Herp Atlas (CHA). The CHA, developed by the Davidson College Herpetology Laboratory and Davidson College Information Technology Services, is a new, online database that uses observations by citizen scientists to track reptile and amphibian distributions in North and South Carolina. Funded by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, the CHA also allows users a simple way to maintain a personal database of the reptiles and amphibians they observe. County-level distribution maps can be viewed by anyone who visits the website. Wildlife biologists and herpetologists can use these data to understand activity periods, habitat relationships, distribution, conservation status and other facets of amphibian and reptile ecology in North Carolina.
     How does the CHA work? Before you can submit records, you must first register and set-up a “My Herps” account. Once you register, you are able to add records and keep track of your observations. Each observation should include: 1) state and county, 2) genus and species, 3) date, 4) location, 5) geographic coordinates (using our GeoLocator) 6) remarks, 7) and a digital photo for verification of the species identification. The GeoLocator allows the user to pinpoint the exact location of their herp observation.
     So, if you want to help conserve amphibians and reptiles in the Carolinas, then tell us where they are. Submit your observations to the Carolina Herp Atlas at www.carolinaherpatlas.org.