Cooperative Program on Reptiles and Amphibians of South Dakota
Biological Resources Division
Northern Prairie Science Center
8711 37th St. SE
Jamestown, North Dakota 58401-7317
February 5, 1997
Northern Prairie Science Center Announces Cooperative Program on Reptiles and Amphibians of South Dakota
On January 20, Northern Prairie Science Center (NPSC) in Jamestown, ND, and the South Dakota Department of Game Fish and Parks (SD GFP) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperative work leading to development of a South Dakota Reptile and Amphibian Atlas.
According to NPSC herpetologist Brian Smith, published information on South Dakota's reptiles and amphibians is badly out of date: "The most recent publication, 'Amphibians and Reptiles of South Dakota,' was published in 1943, and it was basically an update of a 1923 book...parts of the state haven't been systematically surveyed since the 1920's."
Under the terms of the agreement, SD GFP will supply NPSC with herpetological data from the SD Natural Heritage Program Database, including results of recent limited surveys of threatened, endangered, and declining amphibians and reptiles conducted by SD GFP. SD GFP will also provide a set of museum and literature records compiled over the years by SD GFP Resource Biologist Steve Thompson.
NPSC in turn will physically verify the identity of specimens held in museum and other collections and use the available data resources to assemble a distributional map for each species. NPSC will then assemble distributional maps and other information into an atlas that will be available to researchers, students, and the interested public on the NPSC World Wide Web home page.
Smith anticipates that the project is likely to lead to further cooperation in the form of systematic surveys in selected portions of South Dakota. Said Smith: "The project is really timely; amphibian populations are especially sensitive to environmental changes and are in general decline throughout the world. Knowledge of historical and present distributions is a critical first step in preserving an important part of our natural environment."
Northern Prairie Science Center is one of 16 research centers administered by the Biological Resources Division (BRD) of the U.S. Geological Survey. It conducts research on the biological resources of the Great Plains. The Center's home page (http://www.npsc.nbs.gov) serves a wide variety of information on the nation's biological resources, with emphasis on the Great Plains.
The South Dakota Natural Heritage Program is one of 85 similar programs established by The Nature Conservancy in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. The programs monitor populations of rare, threatened, and endangered species within their jurisdictions. The South Dakota Natural Heritage Database contains over 4,000 records of rare, threatened and endangered species within the state. Natural Heritage Program Databases provide scientific information on which conservation priorities can be based.
