While walking through a creek during a Natural History field trip May 1, senior Maya Moellendick had no clue that a little amphibian she snapped a picture of was actually a rare four-toed salamander. It wasn’t until the next day that science teacher Daniel Jonas told her that the salamander she found was the first four-toed salamander ever recorded in Wood County. 

“I almost stepped on it,” said Moellendick. “I was just walking and the whole point of the trip is to look for salamanders and things like that. I looked down and it was right by my foot and I picked it up and that was really it.”

After Moellendick discovered the salamander, Jonas talked to herpetologist Dr. Thomas Pauley to confirm that it was the first ever four-toed salamander to be found in Wood County. He also sent the information about the salamander and its discovery to scientists working on a new West Virginia Herpetological Atlas. 

“Books should come out next year. It’s the second edition of West Virginia Herpetological Atlas,” said Jonas. “It’s going to have every species in the state and a map of where they’ve been seen. The first edition of the map would not have had Wood County and the new one will. Somewhere in the end, probably the citations, her name should be in there.”

Moellendick enjoys both Nature Club and Jonas’ Natural History class and how they give students the opportunity to find animals like these all the time. Just the week before, also during a field trip, students found a snake and were able to hold it and examine it. 

“Nature Club is great but Natural History is amazing and that class is incredible,” said Moellendick. “So anybody who has the interest in animals, reptiles, that kind of thing, should definitely take this class because it’s so worth it and you’ll find stuff like that all the time. I’ve always loved animals and that kind of stuff so to know that my little hobby of picking up animals in the woods has paid off is really nice”