Protecting our scaly and slimy friends, with Priya Nanjappa
The conservationist describes her work with Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, keeping salamanders safe, and being a problem-solver
As a conservationist, Priya Nanjappa has a lot of critical issues on her plate.
Amphibians in particular are disappearing at an alarming rate due to a variety of man-made and environmental factors. Some 200 species have gone extinct since the 1970s, many as a result of the deadly chytrid fungus.
Nanjappa acknowledges how the odds are very much stacked against the animals she seeks to protect, but rather than feel daunted by this, she appears inspired by the creatures’ determination and resilience.
“These animals have figured out how to survive over millions of years and compete and persist even though we’ve had so many impacts on their world,” Nanjappa said. “I just feel like if I can help them to survive, in spite of our continued influence on their world, then I’m happy.”
What is a day in Priya Nanjappa’s life like?
“Definitely a lot of problem solving,” Nanjappa emphasized. “Definitely a lot of just communicating with partners and listening — trying to understand what they need.”
Nanjappa is the National Coordinator for Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (PARC) and is soon to be the Operations Director for Conservation Science Partners (CSP). Rather than working directly with amphibians and reptiles as a field biologist, she spends most of her time working with partners to solve specific conservation problems.
PARC consists of a wide range of partners, including individuals from universities, conservation groups, the pet industry, and the government.
“I get to work with people who are finding out and observing problems or challenges on the ground, in the field, and then I get to help communicate those problems to the people who can actually do something about it,” she explained.
One such problem is the spread of a salamander fungal pathogen to the U.S.
“[I’m] trying to figure out how I can make sure that it never gets here, or that when it gets here, the salamanders are going to be able to survive,” Nanjappa said. “I’m trying to save the animals and save the habitat — and just do that as best I can — by making sure the right people have the right information…I’m sort of that bridge that provides that.”
A long love affair with the outdoors
It’s difficult for Nanjappa to pinpoint exactly when she first became interested in science. But she knows she’s always loved the outdoors — enough to make a career out of protecting it.
“I do remember one particular moment of bird watching with one of my friend’s parents,” she recalled. “Her dad had found an owl nest, like a day or two before, so we were just sitting there with our binoculars looking at this hole in this tree, hoping to maybe catch a glimpse of this owl…and I was really aware of all the things around me, you know — the grasses were moving…the leaves were fluttering in the trees, and it was quiet, and but also all these cool little sounds, all these little bugs and dragonflies and things that would be crawling or flying around…I was just observing all of those things, and somewhere along the way I sort of figured out that I wanted to do something where I could work in biology — but outside.”
She became specifically interested in frogs and other amphibians in college, when she worked with a professor studying limb deformities in frogs and learned more broadly about the massive declines in frog populations.
Nanjappa’s hands-on work with these creatures meshed perfectly with her early love of nature.
“In going out to kind of study the frogs, you encounter all the other critters — the turtles, and lizards, and snakes and stuff, and it was really just fascinating,” she said. “This is a group of animals that you can actually hold in your hands if you find one, and really observe them and look at them up close, and that was I think what really got me into them.”
While her current role is less hands-on, Nanjappa still gets to see a real-world impact in the ways that the treatment of amphibians and reptiles has improved over the years. She’s seen changes in amphibian and reptile management at the state and federal levels, and she helped shape a policy that prevents high-risk species from being brought into the U.S. for trade.
“In this role I have been able to see the needle move just a little bit,” she said. “Pretty much everything I’ve done has been with partners, and that we collectively have had an impact — and I’ve had a role in it…that’s really cool to look back and think about.”
What is Priya Nanjappa’s personal powerhouse?
She actually has two. The first shouldn’t be a surprise; it’s problem-solving — but not just at work.
“I love to cook, and as I go in my cupboard and realize that a certain ingredient is not there that I wanted…what can I substitute instead?” she said. “How can I kind of work around things and use what I have to solve the problem? I think that’s generally kind of what really gets me going and that’s why I’ve been doing the kind of work I’ve been doing.”
The second isn’t too surprising either, given Nanjappa’s love of nature.
“There are some moments, when the weather conditions are just right, when you’ll get hundreds and hundreds of salamanders migrating to a particular pond,” Nanjappa said. “They always come back to the same pond from which they emerged as juvenile salamanders — they always come back to that pond to breed — and I’ve had a couple of instances where I’ve gotten to witness that and…see the ground just moving with all of these salamanders that are coming back for this one purpose on this one night.”
These Salamander-homecomings are particularly awe-inspiring for the way the animals’ chemo-sensory abilities and other adaptations allow them to overcome great geographic barriers, Nanjappa pointed out.
“It is just amazing,” she said. “How do they know where exactly to go? And in some cases they’re traveling really long distances…how do they remember how to get back?”
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