Hannah Chin

There's the full eradication approach, basically making your yard as inhospitable as possible to any animal.

Yeah.

Which, Daniel does say, comes with tradeoffs.

So that's the eradication approach.

And then there's the sharing is caring approach.

Because, Emily, these reptiles and the amphibians, they want to hide.

So Mara suggested build a spot for them to do that rather than tearing rocks and native plants out completely.

Just put them in a separate part of a garden.

The part that maybe Shabdam doesn't garden in.

And Mara says this gentler approach, it has benefits for people too.

Mara told me, to some extent, yes, the shift in wildlife that we're seeing goes beyond the greater Atlanta area.

It's happening in all these places that are urbanizing.

Because what we gain in real estate, animals lose in habitat.

Like in South Florida, where developers continue to push the Everglades boundary.

or subdivisions and ranches in the greater Yellowstone area?

Yeah, and Mara said this is just one of a few ways that human development can affect local amphibians.

Another way is fragmentation.

Mara also mentioned human use of chemicals like pesticides that are really bad for amphibians and reptiles.

And then there's the issue of the predators that humans bring with us.

like outdoor cats.