These are the pitfall traps, which are the way we obtain most of our animals. Holes are dug along the trap every ten feet. When an animal jumps into the plastic wall, it hops alongside it to find the way around it, but instead falls into a bucket nestled in one of the holes. These traps have helped us this year to catch musk turtles, painted turtles, green frogs, one pickerel frog, one bull frog, and a few snakes too.

Just having taken these down last Thursday was emblematic of the closing of our studies in herpetology. Easier taken down than put up, the permanent closing of the traps marks the end of the season.

Here, Laura, Sam, Bobby, Matt, Nate, Ali, and I are shown at the outset of the herpetology unit putting the finishing touches on the second trap.