ON A WARM SPRING morning in 2002 I pulled into a parking lot next to a swampy area in the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve in Jacksonville, Florida. Cameron Young, a 20-something graduate student in the ecology program at the University of Georgia, was leaning against his car.

“I almost didn’t wait for you before I checked the traps,” Young said with a Southern drawl. “I’m anxious to see if we caught any.”

I waited on the shore nearby while Young, wearing rubber boots, waded into the shallow water. Sloshing past cypress trees with branches draped in Spanish moss, he picked up the aquatic traps he had set up the day before.

“Hey, we got a couple!” Young exclaimed.

He carried the traps ashore, set them down on the ground, and pulled out two slender, foot-long black-colored snakes with red bellies — black swamp snakes, a classic Southern species, like mud snakes and cottonmouths, which evoke images of serpents sliding through the muddy waters of swamps and bayous.

“Very cool!” I said. “I’ve never seen these in the wild.”

As their name suggests, black swamp snakes live primarily in swampy wetlands. They tend to hang out under aquatic vegetation, like water hyacinths, and feed on small fish, frogs, tadpoles, aquatic salamanders, and leeches.

On one of our data collection sheets, I documented that we had found the snakes, and I recorded other pertinent information such as the date, time, location, and weather conditions. Young turned the snakes loose back into the swamp.

YOUNG AND I were part of a team of students and biologists working on a herpetological survey — a count of reptile and amphibian species — in national parks in the southeastern United States. Young was a master’s degree student in the lab of herpetologist Whit Gibbons, an ecology professor at the University of Georgia, who was running the survey.

Gibbons had been awarded a contract to conduct the two-year Southeastern National Parks Herpetological Inventory of 16 parks within the National Park Service’s Southeast Coast Network, which extends along the Atlantic coast from the North Carolina-Virginia border south to Cape Canaveral, Florida. The herpetological inventory was part of a larger biodiversity survey of the parks. The purpose of the herpetological inventory was to provide reliable up-to-date species lists of the reptile and amphibian species present in the parks.

I was a pharmacist from Massachusetts working for a traveling healthcare company on a three-month assignment at a hospital in Jacksonville. I was also a biologist. I had a master’s degree in biology and was an adjunct college biology instructor at Merrimack College in Massachusetts. I was considering doing my PhD with Gibbons and was an authorized volunteer participant on the herpetological survey while I worked in Florida. Working on the project also gave me a chance to learn more about Gibbons’ research.

Biodiversity surveys are an important part of conservation biology. They provide managers of protected areas, like national parks and wildlife refuges, with a baseline inventory of the plant and animal species present in those areas and suggest what actions might need to be taken to protect threatened and endangered species. They can also reveal the presence of exotic invasive species, like the Burmese pythons in Everglades National Park, which can be a threat to native species.

“Inventories to develop site-specific lists of species typically precede monitoring efforts or research on populations and communities,” Gibbons, now a professor emeritus, said in an email. “Knowledge of species present at a specific site can direct conservation efforts and land management initiatives.”

For example, the documented presence of piping plovers, a species of shore bird that is a federally listed threatened species, has resulted in protection of nesting habitat at beaches along the Atlantic coast and elsewhere during their breeding season.

Biodiversity surveys also provide data for future scientists to work with, so they can assess whether species are increasing or declining, what species may have disappeared over time, and what new species might be present.

The research of Professor Richard Primack, a plant ecologist and conservation biologist at Boston University, is a case in point for utilizing past biodiversity observations. Primack’s ongoing study focuses on the effects of climate change on phenological events — the timing of seasonal biological phenomena such as spring leaf out and flowering times in plants, bird migration times, etc. — in the Walden Pond area of Concord, Massachusetts. It relies heavily on comparisons between records from the 1800s and 1900s, such as the timing of phenological events recorded by naturalist and writer Henry David Thoreau in Concord in the 1850s, to observations Primack has made in recent years, to see what impact climate change might be having on these natural phenomena. He has also surveyed plant abundance and diversity in the Walden Pond area to see how species composition has changed over time.

Primack said the biggest surprise of his plant biodiversity surveys has been the great loss of local populations of native wildflowers. More native species are declining in abundance than are increasing, and non-native species represent an increasing percentage of the flora.

In addition to their importance for conservation biology, the most exciting aspect of working on biodiversity surveys for many biologists is the thrill of exploration and discovery. Trekking across terrain I’ve never been to before, searching for species I’ve never seen in the wild, is an adventure. Participating in the herpetological survey of Southeastern national parks provided me with the opportunity to see species I’d never encountered in the wild.

AFTER TURNING THE black swamp snakes loose, Young and I started walking down a woodland trail to continue our search for reptiles and amphibians. A few minutes later Young spotted a garter snake basking in the sun. He grabbed the snake and examined it. The two-foot-long striped serpent had a sizeable bulge in the middle of its body.

“Feels like a frog,” said Young, as he gently felt the snake’s belly with his fingertips, a technique called palpating. “I want to see what kind of frog it is so we can add it to our survey.”

Using his thumb and forefinger he slowly pushed the bulge toward the snake’s head until the hind feet of a partially digested toad protruded from the snake’s mouth. The dead amphibian slid from the snake’s jaws and plopped onto the ground.

“Two for one!” Young exclaimed. “Record one common garter snake and one American toad.”

A little further down the trail Young stopped and said, “There’s a black racer coiled on that palmetto. Do you want to try to catch it?”

“Sure,” I replied.

The slender, three-foot-long, black-colored snake sat motionless in the center of a saw palmetto. It seemed like an easy target, but racers are fast, aggressive, and notoriously hard to catch. I nervously crept towards the snake, my heart pounding. When I got within a few feet I dove for it. The racer bolted and escaped. I ended up with cuts and scrapes on my arms from the sharp spines that lined the long leaf stalks of the palmetto.

“Yep, never can catch ‘em,” Young said. “I gave up tryin’ years ago.”

“You a**hole! Then why did you ask me to catch it?,” I barked, half joking.

“I figured maybe you knew how to catch ‘em,” Young responded wryly.

We had a good laugh and continued searching.

Despite not having caught the racer we still counted it in our survey, as we had seen the snake and identified it.

Walking around looking for animals or plants as part of a biodiversity survey is called an opportunistic visual search. To maximize the chances of finding the greatest number of different species, biologists search a variety of habitats, because many plants and animals are found in specific habitats, like streams or ponds. Searches should also be conducted at different times of day or at night, because some animals are nocturnal and only come out at night, while some are active during the day. Likewise, searches should be conducted at different times of year as some animals, like certain species of frogs and salamanders, have limited breeding seasons, when you’ll be more likely to see or hear them as they congregate in specific habitats, like vernal pools.

To find the greatest number of species, researchers should also utilize a variety of sampling techniques. If they just use visual searches, they may miss cryptic animals that blend in with their background, or species that hide under rocks or logs, or aquatic animals.

In addition to visual searches, the UGA research team used a variety of herpetological sampling techniques, including coverboards, terrestrial drift fences, aquatic dip netting, aquatic traps, automated recording of calling anurans (frogs and toads), and road-cruising.

In Timucuan the UGA researchers put out several coverboards — pieces of plywood laid flat on the ground. Animals like snakes, lizards, and salamanders, that hide under natural cover objects like rocks and logs, will often utilize manmade cover objects, like boards, for shelter as well. Under a couple coverboards we found a few little pine woods litter snakes, another Southern snake species that I had never seen in the wild.

The presence of some animals, like birds and frogs, can be identified by their songs or calls, even if the surveyor doesn’t see them. Recording devices called frog loggers are often used to detect what frog and toad species are present in a given area. Similar recordings can also be used to help determine what bird species are present in various locations.

Road cruising — driving slowly along back country roads at night — allows surveyors to find nocturnal animals. Animals like snakes and frogs stand out in your headlights as the animals are crossing roads. In warm climates like the South and desert Southwest, especially during summer, many species of reptiles and amphibians are dormant during the heat of the day and come out after dark. Roadkill specimens can also be added to biodiversity survey species tallies or collected for museum specimens.

Camera traps can also be used to detect animal species for biodiversity surveys. They are especially helpful in recording the presence of larger shy or nocturnal animals, like various species of mammals.

DESPITE THE GOOD intentions of researchers, biodiversity surveys can have some negative aspects.

“Some populations of rare plants and animals can be more easily targeted by poachers if their occurrences are made public,” said Mike Jones, State Herpetologist at the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife’s Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program. “Some habitats are fragile enough that large teams of surveyors could do permanent harm or introduce invasive plant species. And some study methods, such as trapping, can result in harm to the study animal.”

Negative aspects of biodiversity surveys are not a one-way street. Surveyors can be injured too.

On one occasion during the national parks herpetological survey, in Timucuan one of the undergraduate students from UGA was bitten on the hand by a three-foot-long Florida water snake when he tried to grab it. Luckily, water snakes are non-venomous, and other than some bleeding, he was okay.

Another time while surveying in Timucuan alone, I rolled over a log and a scorpion stung me on my finger. I called the local poison control center on my cell phone, and they assured me that a sting from the scorpion species in this area was not life threatening.

BIODIVERSITY SURVEYS ALSO provide non-scientists with the opportunity to contribute to scientific research.

“Biodiversity surveys are enjoyable,” said Wayne Petersen, director of Mass Audubon’s Important Bird Areas Program. “People like being part of a citizen science project or a university-driven project. The value is self-evident. They’re an interesting, fun, ‘wowee’ kind of thing.”

And there are often surprises that come from biodiversity surveys. Petersen said he participated in two Walden Bioblitzes, intensive one day biodiversity surveys held in a several-mile radius around Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts in 2009 and 2019 in celebration of the 80th and 90th birthdays of the late Harvard biologist, EO Wilson, a strong advocate for preserving biodiversity. Hundreds of biologists from around the country and the world descended on Concord to lend their expertise to finding as many different species as possible in a single day. Petersen said that among the thousands of species of plants, animals, and fungi that were documented during the 2009 Bioblitz was a black bear. This in a suburb just 16 miles west of Boston.

“It’s amazing how much you can find when you put all these eyes out there looking,” said Petersen.

One morning I took a pharmacist and a couple of the pharmacy technicians I worked with at the hospital in Jacksonville over to Timucuan. They were curious about the herpetology survey and wanted to tag along. The pharmacist, Mitch, had an undergraduate degree in biology and was familiar with Florida natural history. As we were getting out of my car, Mitch walked over to the edge of the parking lot and rolled a log over.

“Hey, I found a coral snake,” he said nonchalantly.

Turned out it was a scarlet snake, a harmless coral snake mimic that has similar color patterns to coral snakes. But Mitch’s find was the first officially documented occurrence of a scarlet snake in Timucuan. Score one for citizen science.

TOWARDS THE END of my three-month participation in the herpetological inventory I drove down to survey Fort Matanzas National Monument, in St. Augustine, Florida. Part of the national monument was Rattlesnake Island, named for eastern diamondback rattlesnakes that supposedly inhabited the island. I checked in at the visitor’s center, and one of the rangers took me over to Rattlesnake Island by boat. He told me to call him on my cell phone when I was through.

The island had numerous gopher tortoise burrows, which eastern diamondbacks and other animals sometimes use for shelter. After exploring the island, the only reptiles I found were a few green anoles, a type of little lizard.

As I was walking back to the shoreline of the island, I noticed something in the tall grassy vegetation near the water. As I got closer, I was surprised to see it was the carcass of a leatherback, an endangered sea turtle species. With shells that can be over six feet long and a weight that can exceed 2,000 pounds, these oceanic giants are the largest turtle species in the world. This one was huge, with a shell about five feet long. It looked pretty dried out, so it had likely been there for a while. The leatherback was so big I assumed the park rangers knew about it. I recorded it on my data sheet and called the ranger station to send a boat to pick me up. When the ranger asked me what I had found, I told him just a few anoles.

“I assume you guys know about the leatherback,” I added.

“What leatherback?” he replied.

Endnote: The UGA researchers reported that over the course of their survey they recorded 123 of the 147 native species of amphibians and reptiles that were within range of or peripheral to the NPS Southeast Coast Network, plus 8 introduced species. The research team also reported that for most of the 16 parks, their surveys increased the number of documented reptile and amphibian species considerably, and thus provided the most complete and accurate list of species available for each of the parks.