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MCC Daily Tribune

Students Saving Salamanders

For the fifth consecutive year, students in BIO 120 (Essentials of Life Science), BIO 265 (Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy), and SCI 132 (Science for Future Teachers II) classes are lacing up their boots, heading to the woods, and helping to save salamanders from a deadly fungus. It's all part of the Student Network for Amphibian Pathogen Surveillance (SNAPS), an international group of college and university students. These awesome students learn about the two species of deadly chytrid fungi, called Bd and Bsal (short for Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis and B. salamandrivorans), and then head outside to sample amphibians for these fungi. My classes focus on salamanders and Bsal, which is a fungus that is currently decimating salamanders in Europe. Bsal is currently not in North America, but because North America hosts one of the greatest salamander diversities in the world, and our native salamanders are very succeptible, there is great concern that Bsal may arrive here. And when it does, it won't be good for amphibians. Information is power, and we need to know as soon as possible if Bsal arrives. Thus, students will head to the woods, find salmanders, swab their skin, take essential data, and let the salamanders return to their lives. Swabs are sent to the USGS National Wildlife Health Center at University of Wisconsin for analysis to determine the presence of Bsal and Bd. In the meantime, we wait anxiously for what will hopefully be good news. 

Richard Stevens
Biology
04/28/2026