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In 1999, Robin Saunders (left with daughter Hyla),
spent 30 days in the rainforest in an effort to replenish
the stock of blue poison dart frogs here in the U.S.
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Gazing into the gentle blueness of tank after tank of marine life, visitors to the Newport Aquarium seldom, if ever, think about how the myriad of aquatic inhabitants on display made it from far-flung locations such as the Galapagos Islands or Africa's Lake Tanganyika to Northern Kentucky. Obviously, someone went into the wild, tracked down, captured and transported these animals back to the United States.
Robin Saunders, a senior aquatic biologist at the Aquarium who specializes in amphibians and reptiles, is no stranger to such field work, having traveled to Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands and Suriname to collect animals, take censuses and conduct research.
Saunders got her start in the field as an animal keeper at the National Zoo in Washington nearly 20 years ago. She's eager to speak about her overseas expeditions. Her last trip was to Suriname in 1999 where she and three other American research-ers spent 30 tough days in the rainforest conducting a census and collecting live samples. As one of the nation's experts on poison dart frogs, Saunders was in search of the bright blue poison dart frog and the dyeing poison dart frog.
Obtaining the frogs in Suriname was no easy task. American scientists can hardly simply show up in a foreign country, collect the animals they want and then leave. The process begins with procuring the necessary permits to collect specific animals.
"A lot of the countries strongly protect their wildlife," Saunders explains. "So there is a fair amount of paperwork to be done, and a lot of times we start off by contacting their fish and wildlife people through e-mails and letters to find out exactly what needs to be done to get these permits rolling."
When the paperwork is complete, the team gets out in the field and begins the real work of collecting animals.
"Once we've collected the animals, it becomes a little more difficult because you do have to keep the animals alive. ... And you have to find food for the animals. Sometimes we stay out in the field for up to 30 days so you have to make sure the animals are kept at the right temperature and that they aren't jostled around," she says.
Saunders describes how they blow up the Ziploc baggies with the animals inside and carry them along with them hanging from their belts. Some times, Saunders had as many as 12 baggies attached to her belt with animals moving around in them "and water and leaves ... but you blow the bags up and they will actually kind of cushion your fall sometimes. Though, I've never squished an animal."
Saunders goes on to describe how the animals are brought back to the United States. The animals fly as cargo, but there are some major hoops to jump through at customs, not to mention that after weeks in the field and a long international flight, the last thing Saunders feels like doing is hanging out and waiting around in customs.
"As we come back into this country, we fill out forms that they pass out on all international flights that say do you have anything to declare. And we say: 'Oh, yes! And put a big check next to wildlife!'
"When we get to the airport, we are met by a customs agent, who has already been contacted about our arrival. We start unpacking things, provide copies of permits, unpack things, answer questions as to what animals are for. Sometimes they make us unpack everything, even the venomous snakes!" she says.
In Suriname, Saunders gathered blue poison dart frogs to replenish the original stock brought into the country about 15 years ago. Most of the country's frogs came from the original stock, causing inbreeding issues that can only be addressed with new blood.
Though still ardently passionate about frogs, Saunders is working closer to home these days, carrying out field work with hellbenders, North America's biggest salamanders.
Found in larger rivers and streams in the Tristate, hellbenders are "very, very endangered and difficult to breed in captivity. It looks like one of their only hopes of surviving is if we learn how to breed them in captivity. A full-size adult hellbender doesn't have any predators, but the babies have many," explains Saunders, who is working on a head start program to raise the salamanders to a certain size before releasing them into their natural habitat.
Saunders credits her success in her field to timing, dedication and interest in her work: "At the time that I broke into the profession, there really weren't that many people, and there certainly weren't that many women. About the same time I was getting involved with this, other field scientists were looking around and saying, 'We're not seeing frogs in the amounts that we were seeing before. Something's going on.' Amphibians are such a wonderful indicator species of what's going on in the environment."
Saunders admits that amphibians didn't pique her interest at first. "I remember thinking, 'They're kind of slimy and they're brown or green. They aren't very interesting.' Also, at that time frogs really weren't popular. They're kind of the stepchildren of the zoo population." Saunders' mentor, Cecilia Chang at the National Zoo, "showed me how much was unknown about frogs. ... She got me hooked on the mysteries."
For her next field work, Saunders is sticking closer to home. She recently married, had a baby daughter and bought a house. So her hands are full.
Also, she recalls, "Suriname was a tough trip. The conditions in the country were very rugged, so I was ready to stay at home for awhile. I had slept in a hammock for 30 days and had bug bites all over me that were infected and festering. The insects there are so big. They take chunks out!" ©
