Searching for salamanders

Also known as: one fun assignment.

So this professor at Virginia Highlands Community College has been monitoring the salamander population at the TVA's South Holston Lake weir dam for several years. He has found where there are high populations of the salamanders -- four-toed, marbled and spotted salamanders -- live, and mapped how they migrate. His students help him track the salamanders, seen here -- the salamanders have little chips in them - think microchipping your pet - and these trackers pick up the chips and can identify from aboveground which animal it is.

The TVA takes this data and uses it in monitoring populations around the dams.

Recently, the TVA gave VHCC a $25,000 grant, which the prof hopes to use to buy equipment like a fiberoptic camera to stick in the salamander nests to see the shy little guys.

Here's the story I wrote for the Bristol Herald Courier.