You may have heard about Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills, a unique opportunity to see giant aquatic salamanders in the wild, a “long term survey” which Fred Schueler and Aleta Karstad have been sharing with the public on Friday nights all through the winter going on 25 years!
Mudpuppy Night is now under the banner of the non-profit Fragile Inheritance, and increasingly attracting attention from scientists, nature-lovers, local schools and community groups, and naturalist groups across Ontario and beyond.
Aside from the regular Friday night guided visits for families and individuals at 8:00 and 8:30 pm to look for Mudpuppies below the dam in Oxford Mills from late October to spring breakup in March, there is an opportunity for groups to schedule special Saturday events.
Beginning with a slide and video presentation (often attended by live Mudpuppies) at the History Hub, the presentations are followed by an outing to the bridge and the dam in Oxford Mills, where Mudpuppies in their natural habitat may be seen if viewing conditions are right.
For further information, to register a group for a special Saturday night presentation, or to join one of the scheduled presentations if there is room, contact Fred Schueler bckcdb@istar.ca or phone/text Aleta Karstad (613) 299-3107.
The weekly Friday Night visits can be booked online from the Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills FaceBook page.
Sponsored by Fragile Inheritance: Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills Saturday presentations at The History Hub, 148 Prescott St, Kemptville, on 17 February, 6:00-7:00, followed by a field trip to the dam in Oxford Mills.
Registration required. Donations appreciated (Proceeds split between Fragile Inheritance and NGHS)
Until flow in the creek goes back towards the average – https://his.rvca.ca/rvcafwl/ISG/StandardGraph_KemptvilleCreek_Hourly.html – we won’t be seeing any ‘puppies in the creek, so the evenings with groups will be limited to slideshows in the History Hub. Mudpuppy Nights usually end with the spring freshet in mid-March, but this year’s February warm spell and rain has melted a lot of snow and brought the creek up to the point where the Mudpuppies can’t keep their place on the flat creek bottom below the dam.
Online resources: Our Mudpuppy pages are https://www.facebook.com/MudpuppyNight – and – http://www.doingnaturalhistory.com/2019/12/mudpuppy-night-in-oxford-mills.html – Matt Keevil has a post-doctoral fellowship with Steve Cooke – https://www.fecpl.ca/ – at Carleton to do the tagging. PIT tags are tiny (1×3 mm) cylinders that allow the radio identification of animals – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-frequency_identification – which Steve Cooke uses to document the movements of fish. You can see reports on previous year’s Mudpuppy Nights at – https://groups.google.com/g/naturelist/search?q=mudpuppy – and newspaper articles at – https://ngtimes.ca/?s=mudpuppy The Crayfish invasion of the creek is documented (not very up-to-date) at – http://www.doingnaturalhistory.com/2016/01/rusty-crayfish-super-hybrids.html – and – http://www.doingnaturalhistory.com/2017/10/crayfish-assault-on-dam-at-oxford-mills.html – the flow in the creek is nicely graphed at – https://his.rvca.ca/rvcafwl/ISG/StandardGraph_KemptvilleCreek_Hourly.html