Taegan McMahon '07

A childhood trip to the rainforests of Costa Rica introduced Taegan McMahon ’07 to poison dart frogs. Immediately, she was smitten. “They are very cool and absolutely beautiful,” she says.

Back home to Noank, Conn., McMahon raised them as pets. By sophomore year at Bates, she knew the inch-and-a-half amphibian would be a big part of her biology senior thesis.

Advised by Assistant Professor of Biology Ryan Bavis, she investigated how acid rain — a relatively new rainforest phenomenon — might affect the growth of the dart-frog species Epipedobates tricolor. [More...]