Dr. Foster and lab student Shawn Moreth joined colleagues from the NYSDEC and Pfeiffer Nature Center at Portville Heritage Days to promote conservation of the astern Hellbender Salamander. Shawn played the role of SAM (Slimy and Misunderstood) – and was a big hit with the local kids!

Congratulations to ACT student Shakira Jinez for winning the award for best student poster at the Northeast Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (NEPARC) conference in Stockton, New Jersey this summer! Shakira is working on the use of I3S pattern recognition software for the identification of individual hellbender salamanders. Her project is really taking off, with two zoos (Bronx Zoo and Good Zoo) signing on to collaborate for the next phase of this exciting research – assessing the applications of this technology for the identification of juveniles. Currently, little is known about young hellbenders in the wild because we have no safe and reliable method to tag or identify them. Shakira’s research is an important step towards a solution to this significant challenge in hellbender conservation!