Classroom & Laboratories @ AF

We are located at the beautiful Blue Heron Nature Preserve in Buckhead (Atlanta). We share the space with Blue Heron staff and visitors, and Acton Academy.

Jeffrey, AF Facilities Manager, pictured here mid-build for our new stage, tortoise spa, preserved specimen and merchandise displays.

Students are fascinated with the preserved specimens on display in the classroom, including Lucille. Sadly, Lucille has passed, but she came to us as a retired television star. She was on the Chupacabra episode of the Walking Dead.

Mark unpacking one of Joel Satore's photographs. Joel Sartore (National Geographic PhotoArk) donated his Vanishing Amphibians exhibit to the Amphibian Foundation when the tour concluded.

Perhaps a fan favorite specimen among our students and campers is this American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) which happened to choke to death on an Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus). The horticulture staff @ ABG found the two floating in a fountain in midtown Atlanta. It was clearly a bad day for both of them.

Staff and Volunteers after our annual Behind-the-Scenes Tour, which we do each year in March, as part of the Atlanta Science Festival.

In the back of the classroom is an 8-foot tall Rainchamber exhibit featuring Anthony's Poison Frogs (Epipedobates anthonyi) which has at least 3 generations (grand-babies) of frogs and tadpoles, and Black-footed Golden Poison Frogs (Phyllobates terribilis). Both species sing throughout the day. There's also an Emerald Tree Boa (Corallus caninus) in there — see if you can find her when you visit, she's sneaky.

Crystal (Collections Manager) holding an Emperor Newt (Tylototriton shanjing) in the Amphibian Lab at AF.

Lake Titicaca Frog, Telmatobius culeus, in the aquatics section of the Amphibian Lab.

Dedicated Bridge Program and research space is centrally located at AF.

Mark's office at AF also holds a huge Greater Siren (Siren lacertina), Rufus, and non-native venomous snakes such as a Gaboon Viper, Monacled Cobra, and Eyelash Viper.

This is the world's first captive survival-assurance colony of the Frosted Flatwoods Salamander. This lab was also the first room established when AF was founded in 2016. Funding to develop this lab to a salamander holding facility was provided by the Turner Foundation.

The Striped Newt, Notophthalmus perstriatus, is an imperiled species in the Southeast, with a severely limited range in Florida and Georgia. As a member of the Striped Newt Repatriation Project, which aims to restore stability to Striped Newt populations thoroughout their range. You can see our Striped Newt partners on our partner page. Here's Ian, AF Research Assistant, in clear approval of the newt propagation program.

Lizards and snakes are so closely related to each other, that they are taxonomically united into the group Squamata. Our Squamate Lab houses our ambassador lizards and snakes, which are used for educational and training programs like Critter Camp and the Venomous Training & Certification Workshop. Here is Crystal (Collections Manager) in the Squamate Lab at AF.

This is the Reptile Megaplex, which is part of Special Collections at AF. The Megaplex was the first project for our Facilities Manager, Jeffrey. Built during the pandemic, it was such as success that we asked him to build the adjoining 'phone booth' to the left, which was an urgent need when USFWS asked us if we could house confiscated Solomon Island Skinks, Corucia zebrata an incredible, prehensile-tailed lizard.

This is the Poison versus Venom exhibit, which houses Splash-back Poison Frogs, Adelphobates galactonotus, Mint Golden Poison Frogs, Phyllobates terribilis, and an Eyelash Viper, Bothriechis schlegelii.

The Venom Lab at AF safely holds species of venomous snakes for education, outreach, and training programs, such as the Venomous Training & Certification Workshop offered every other month. The lab is also where Competency Training occurs on bi-monthly weekends. The Venom Lab door is adorned with an impressive collection of herp and conservation stickers — front and back — with some of our favorite groups and partners.

The Venom Lab is where the venomous snakes are housed and also where Venomous Competency Training occurs. These trainings are every other month for the public, but occur each Friday for our Research Assistants through the Conservation Research Bridge Program.

The Amphibian Research & Conservation Center (ARCC) of the Amphibian Foundation is a unique outdoor laboratory containing 33 artificial wetlands called mesocosms, which provide a natural, yet controllable setting for native amphibians for conservation breeding research and to form captive survival-assurance colonies for species at risk of extinction. The ARCC also includes the Field Research Center, which is a solar-powered indoor lab that we share with Blue Heron Nature Preserve staff.

Research Assistants in the Conservation Research Bridge Program: Jack, Jen, and Sarah checking on the developing Gopher Frog tadpoles being reared for an Assisted-Metamorphosis project in collaboration with Alabama DCNR, UGA, GA DNR, and USFWS.

Blue Heron Nature Preserve is a City of Atlanta Park, and open to the public from dawn to dusk. You are welcome and invited to come and see the mesocosms at Metamorphosis Meadow, and the Blueway Trail will lead you right to them. Thanks to a Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Viewing Grant, we were able to make these incredible signs explaining why the mesocosms are there, and what we are doing with them.