Instagram story viewer> @antonsrkn> Posts

Anton Sorokin

@antonsrkn

30.6K

followers

1713

following

Biologist & Conservation Photographer in California. Sharing lesser-known nature. There will be frogs!
@ilcp_photographers Associate Fellow

POSTS STORIES REELS

The last few days at #WPY62 have been incredible and overwhelming in the best way. My photo of a California newt won the Reptile and Amphibian Behavior category and I'm overcome with gratitude for all the love and support everyone has shown me.

Newts are near and dear to my heart, and it's very meaningful for me to showcase this species on the world stage to such a positive response.

An enormous thank you to everyone that has made this visit to London so special and unforgettable. And as always an extra special thank you to @emma2steigerwald . My partner in all things.

Congratulations to all the other photographers this year, i'm in absolute awe of you all.

@ilcp_photographers by @antonsrkn

Really excited to finally be able to share that I placed in this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year (#WPY60) with a shot of hellbender combat in the reptile and amphibian behavior category. My 1st time in WPY here in London.

An unforgettable experience seeing some familiar faces in a new setting, meeting old friends for the 1st time, and meeting new friends on hallowed ground for nature photography. Truly an incredible group of people out here and a privilege to be included.

I didn't get to make a speech but of course thanks to my partner @emma2steigerwald for her 1000% support over the years. And a huge thank you and shout-out to @isaacszabo
Who spotted the developing situation at the den and called me over from where I was photographing a different hellbender in time to witness and photograph this interaction.

And it wouldn't be right to show off these hellbenders without acknowledging that Hurricane Helene recently swept through the area; destroying cities, people's livelihoods and natural environments. Flooding, exponential increases in flow, sediment, runoff, etc.... The full effects on hellbenders which depend on clean waterways and other aquatic species may never be known but the situation is dire. Human induced climate change is happening now all around us and to protect the animals we love, It cannot be ignored and must be addressed through our everyday actions, voting with an environmental mindset, and encouraging others to do so as well.
.
.
.
@ilcp_photographers @nhm_wpy
@natural_history_museum #wpy #amphibianconservation #animalbehavior #ilcp_photographers #herpetology #freshwaterlife #freshwater by @antonsrkn

Yearly Halloween post of the swimming dead, or is it the spawning dead? Or the rotting living?

Anyways, you get it. The salmon look spooky. Happy Halloween. by @antonsrkn

If only parenting was always this calm and peaceful…

Anton Sorokin (@antonsrkn) found this California newt laying its eggs as it clasps vegetation that already holds another newt’s egg clutch. These newts interlock their back feet to protect the clutch, staying like this until the gelatinous mass around the eggs has swollen too big to be eaten.

To capture this photo, Anton waded along the edge of the pond. He carefully dipped his camera and lighting beneath the surface to record this remarkable view of parental care.

📸 ‘Protective Pose’ is the winner of #WPY62's Behaviour: Amphibians and Reptiles category.

Book your tickets to our new exhibition now via the link in our bio!

#WPY #WildlifePhotographerOfTheYear #WildlifePhotography #NaturePhotography #NaturalHistoryMuseum #Newt by @antonsrkn

A smattering of shots from one of the highlights of the past summer, accompanying @johnny_bugatti, @emma2steigerwald, @willvuyk & @garrison_ferone57 on a multi-day trek into a remote portion of the high Sierra Nevada Mountains in California to document some exciting amphibian research. A collaborative meeting of the minds from three universities... and me with my camera.

Rather than working with individual frogs, the team was up there to dig into the history of disease ecology in the region. Lacking a time machine, the best way to get an idea of the history in the region was through sediment at the bottom of lakes, which the team carefully selected based on depth and other factors.

Although not working directly with live frogs, it was very exciting for me to see endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs (Rana sierrae) for the 1st time during the course of the work. The mountain frogs occurred in one of the sites where work was done. The 2nd shot shows an endangered frog in the foreground as the team preps equipment.

@ilcp_photographers by @antonsrkn

"Are There Any Poisonous Snakes?"

A fun little piece I wrote for BBC Wildlife magazine on poisonous snakes. If you've spent much time online, telling people that snakes aren't poisonous but are venomous has become a favorite activity for folks who know four facts about reptiles and want to establish themselves as authorities. I've started to find the distinction a bit pedantic, at least in most contexts - when someone posts an image of an unidentified snake and asks if it's poisonous, it's clearly not because they're planning to make snake sashimi and want to get to the bottom of whether it's palatable or not. But more often than not, they'll attract a legion of people who tell them there are no poisonous snakes, often without answering the original question in their haste to issue a correction.

Anyways, most keen reptile enthusiasts know about Rhabdophis - a genus of Asian snakes that are both poisonous and venomous and obtain their toxins from a toad diet, and in the case of one species from firefly larvae (whoa!!) - but there's a new group of poisonous snake on the block! Good ole North American gartersnakes!

Since I came across the paper; 'Where Does All the Poison Go? Investigating Toxicokinetics of Newt (Taricha) Tetrodotoxin (TTX) in Garter Snakes (Thamnophis)' by Robinson et al. 2024 i've been looking for an opportunity to write about it and occasionally bugging editors for that chance.

Gartersnakes that ate potent newts kept the tetrodotoxin in their body for weeks afterwards, at a concentration that was deemed to be sufficient to be fatal to an avian predator up to 2 months later!!

And another paper demonstrated that gartersnakes in populations that consumed TTX were more brightly colored. Could it be a warning to potential predators (aposematism)!? I think so.

BBC Wildlife even gave me a chance to hypothesize about a whole different snake genus not currently known to be poisonous but one I think may be revealed as such in due course. And of course, I'm always happy to publish my image of newt predation.

I don't have a link handy but if you have access to BBC Wildlife magazine online or this month's printed issue. Check it out! by @antonsrkn

Some more of the endangered San Joaquin Kit Foxes photographed for @nationalwildlifemagazine.

In the 1st and 3rd images, a bold youngster peeks out of the den. Not long before the pups had rushed into the den when they caught sight of an off-leash dog. But before long, this little inquisitive pup poked its head out and started surveying the surroundings.

In the 2nd image, one of the pups and mom fox share a moment later that evening at dusk.

@ilcp_photographers by @antonsrkn

How do you track secretive San Joaquin kit foxes that often move from burrow to burrow? With camera traps and scat surveys of course!

Besides photographing the foxes, it was a privilege to join researchers like Alyse Gabaldon in visiting camera traps set up at various urban locations on artificial burrows built for the foxes.

Underneath bleachers at a high school, surrounded by discarded soda cans and chip bags, seems like a strange habitat for an endangered species. But at the same time it is heartening. If they can adapt to conditions like this. Then perhaps they have the tools to survive in the changing world of the Anthropocene.

Additionally, scat surveys are a non-intrusive way to monitor the population. The samples are collected in field and then processed in the lab to make sure they belong to fox and pull other data from them.

@ilcp_photographers by @antonsrkn

Another image of what is arguably the most threatened trout in California - the McCloud Redband Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss calisulat).

Will the impending El Niño help them with ample precipitation and increased snowpack at high elevation that will feed their streams in the summer to come? Or will it be another serious threat and hurdle to overcome as it will be for countless wildlife species across California?

I don't know. But I'll be raptly paying attention.

#Californiafreshwater
@ilcp_photographers
#hybridflash from @backscattervideophoto
Nikon D850, @nauticamhousings by @antonsrkn

Some more from my National Wildlife Magazine shoot on endangered San Joaquin Kit foxes and the people working on them.

Urban San Joaquin Kit foxes are generalists when it comes to food; I mostly saw them scavenging human food scraps, but I also got to observe some squirrel hunts. SJKF are close associates with ground squirrels; they'll expand and live in the burrows ground squirrels create and they'll happily eat them too.

All the attempts to capture a squirrel I saw were unsuccessful, but on a single occasion, in the twilight hours, I was waiting close to a den. I saw one of the adults trotting back with quite a haul of squirrely goodness.

Initially, it dropped the squirrel off in the open but perhaps due to some nearby human activity unrelated to the foxes, only one kit was brave enough to venture out to it. After a few minutes of letting the one pup chew on it, one of the adults took the squirrel closer to the den. Unfortunately, the rest of the food delivery happened behind vegetation. But let me tell you, the sound of half a dozen hungry fox pups getting delivered a plump squirrel has got to be one of my new favorite acoustical sensations. Snarling, yipping, whining, gekkering: sounds I dont have words for but despite it all, totally adorable.

@ilcp_photographers by @antonsrkn

An image that did not make it into the NWF article on endangered San Joaquin Kit Foxes that i'm partial to. This was a scene I had in mind to highlight the urban nature of this fox population.

Shortly after sunset, I used settings unlike any I have ever used for wildlife before - f2.8, handheld at 1/20sec which was too slow to freeze any motion - see the blurry kit running on the right side and ISO cranked to 10,000.

I needed a few things to come together for it to work; 1) the foxes had to be in the right spot and close enough. 2) Foxes had to stop moving. 3) I needed light. This is an endangered species & to be safe, I did not want to flash them or spotlight them right at the den. The foxes were denning in an area with no lights - but there was a road nearby. When cars drove down it, there was a stretch before the road turned when even from far away, their headlights cast just a bit of light onto the scene. As it was getting progressively darker, this became necessary to even be able to focus on the foxes.

With the high ISO and low shutter, the distant headlights that would splash over the den for 3-5 seconds while cars were in the appropriate part of the road was enough to separate the foxes from the background and make them pop.

So once I was in the right spot, I'd wait for cars to pass and do my best in the windows of opportunity I had hoping that all 3 criteria for success would be met. Needless to say, usually they were not.

I worked this scene for as long as I could before it got too dark which was probably an hour and a half after sunset. And in the end got two images I'm content with. The 1st is my preferred one as it includes mom fox & kit. The2nd image I like was taken 12 minutes prior - which made a significant amount of difference in terms of available light, so I was able to shoot at a mere 8000 ISO - two kits outside the den and a tad crisper. Nevertheless, I prefer the one with the adult & stronger highlighting from a passing car's headlights.

Incredible to see an endangered species carving out a niche in less-than-pristine conditions. But they're doing it!

@ilcp_photographers by @antonsrkn

Overjoyed to share another bit of my work, hot off the press! Earlier this year, I photographed San Joaquin Kit Foxes - an endangered, secretive fox found only in California's Central Valley for @nationalwildlifemagazine . Besides the foxes, I also photographed ongoing research.

I'll admit my 1st thought was "Uh-oh. Why did it have to be foxes?" Not because I don't like foxes; I think they're absolutely incredible. But because this species has a reputation for being secretive. I wasn't entirely sure I'd be able to find them, let alone get good images within the project timeframe. I'd never seen one before. I was apprehensive but determined to give it my absolute best shot and after speaking with others I was optimistic about my chances.

NWF made sure I had the right tools - I was given a map of den sites - complication was that it was ~45 burrows and a few natal dens from the past few years and these foxes move around between them. There was no guarantee as to where the foxes would be. Luckily, I like to walk. My 1st task was to check every one of the burrows and get an idea of where foxes were active. With a break in the middle of the day to meet with and photograph researchers. I started pre-dawn and covered over 15 miles on foot that day, but it paid off. I found multiple active dens, and was able to pick the best for my purposes. By the end of my first day, a few hours after sunset, I was on the board with fox images. Won't say I relaxed after that, but the rest of the work went quite smoothly.

I'm extremely grateful for the trust that the editorial team at NWF put in me and the collaboration of the researchers working on San Joaquin Kit Foxes. Everyone's insight and support made this successful. An extra big thank you to @eugeniachang.photoeditor for tapping me for this. An assignment that I was apprehensive to take on ended up being one of my favorite shoots of the year. And extra pleased to highlight SJ Kit Fox on the cover! My 1st non-reptile or amphibian cover.

The excellent article by Brittany Oceguera and additional photos are free to access. Link in bio

I'm looking forward to sharing more from my time with the foxes soon.

One of the you by @antonsrkn