Category Archives: Salamanders

Blue-spotted Salamander

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While doing a bit of exploring at Maumee Bay State Park, I came across a few examples of this very cool amphibian. The Blue-spotted Salamander is a Mole Salamander native to the Great Lakes states and northeastern United States, and parts of Ontario and Quebec in Canada.

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This is a medium-sized amphibian with conspicuous markings of randomly distributed, sky-blue spots, blotches, and flecks on a base color of dark gray to black. Adults measure 3 to 5 inches in total length, with males being smaller than females. They have specialized glands on their tails that secrete a milky substance which is harmful to predators. In some cases, they will raise and wave their tail as a way to repel a potential predator.

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These creatures are primarily found in moist, deciduous hardwood forests and swampy woodlands with sandy soil, though they can be found in coniferous forests and fields too. They prefer vernal pools that retain water into mid-Summer, to ensure access to a suitable breeding habitat.

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Blue-spotted Salamanders are carnivorous, eating invertebrates such as worms, snails, slugs, centipedes, and spiders, as well as insects. Like most salamanders, they stay underground during the day. However, at night they will emerge from the soil to feed.

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This is truly a beautiful herp to come across and seeing on in the field makes for a memorable experience.

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Red-bellied Newt

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After many years of searching, I finally found this “lifer” amphibian on my visit to California this Spring. On a rainy day I hiked a trail in the Santa Cruz Mountains and after seeing 30-something California Newts, this fine creature was in the middle of the path.

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The Red-bellied Newt is a salamander that is native to coastal woodlands in northern California and is terrestrial for most of its life. When full grown, it measures between 5-1/2 to 7-1/2 inches from nose to tail tip. It has grainy skin, and is brownish-black on top with a tomato-red underbelly.

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It inhabits primarily redwood forests, but is also found within mixed conifer, valley-foothill woodland, montane hardwood and hardwood-conifer habitats. This amphibian feeds on arthropods, worms and snails in water and on forest floor in ground litter. The Red-bellied Newt requires rapid streams with rocky substrate for breeding and egg-laying.

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After hatching from eggs, the newts begin their lives as aquatic larvae similar to tadpoles, though elongated and with external gills. Once newt larvae mature into their adult form, which takes about four to six months, they leave the water and reside mainly underground. Red-bellied Newts can live for 20-30 years.

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When disturbed, this species pulls its head and tail back to reveal its bright-red underside. This serves as a warning to potential predators, as Red-bellied Newts have enough of a neurotoxin in their skin, eggs, and embryos to potentially kill an adult human, or 1,200 to 2,500 mice. Because they are so poisonous, they are nearly inedible and have no reported predators other than a few species of snakes which are resistant to their toxin.

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Like other newts, Red-bellied Newts have the ability to regenerate several body parts, including their limbs, eyes, hearts, intestines, upper and lower jaws, and damaged spinal cords.

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This was an exciting find and the highlight of my trip to the Golden State this year.

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Monterey Ensatina

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This was a neat “ghost” version of what usually is a brightly colored amphibian. This is a type of lungless salamander that conducts respiration through its skin and the tissues lining its mouth. Being lungless requires it to live in damp environments and to move about only during times of high humidity.

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The young develop in an egg and hatch directly into a tiny terrestrial salamander with the same body form as an adult. (They do not hatch in the water and begin their lives as tiny swimming larvae breathing through gills like some other types of salamanders.)

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When it feels severely threatened by a predator, an Ensatina may detach its tail from its body to distract the predator. The tail moves back and forth on the ground to attract the predator while the Ensatina slowly crawls away to safety. The tail can be re-grown. The tail also contains a high density of poison glands. When disturbed, an Ensatina will stand tall in a stiff-legged defensive posture with its back swayed and the tail raised up while it secretes a milky white substance from the tail, swaying from side to side.

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Monterey Ensatinas eat a wide variety of invertebrates. They expel their relatively long, sticky tongues to capture the prey and pull it back into their mouth where it is crushed and killed, and then swallowed. Typically feeding is done using sit-and-wait ambush tactics, but sometimes Ensatinas will slowly stalk their prey.

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This creature inhabits moist, shaded evergreen and deciduous forests and oak woodlands, mixed grassland, and chaparral. It often find it under rocks, logs, other debris, especially bark that has peeled off and fallen beside logs and trees.

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Ensatinas have several subspecies. They have been described as a “ring species” in the mountains surrounding the Californian Central Valley. The complex population of subspecies forms a horseshoe-shape around the mountains.

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Finding this neat amphibian was definitely a herping highlight of my visit to southern California.

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Southern Redback Salamander

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While walking along the edge of a glade in Missouri, I hiked along a creek. I rolled a few logs to see what herps would turn up, and I encountered this “lifer” amphibian. Noticeably territorial, this salamander marks its territory with scent to notify other salamanders of its presence.

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The Southern Redback Salamander is typically gray or black in color, with a red-brown, fading stripe across the width of its back. It grows from 3 to 4 inches in length. This creature can evade predators by dropping all or part of its tail in the event of an attack.

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Mostly nocturnal, this creature lives in ground debris in moist, forested areas. It is often found beneath rocks, logs and leaf litter in mixed hardwood forests. In dry seasons, it moves closer to permanent water sources. Its primary diet is small insects, spiders and other invertebrates.

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Due to their lack of lungs, they need to live in damp or moist habitats in order to breathe. Unlike many other amphibian species, they have no aquatic larval stage. Females lay eggs in damp environments and the eggs hatch as tiny land-dwelling salamanders.

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Oregon Ensatina

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This is my second species of Ensatina that I’ve found while herping California. It tends to be darker in color than the Yellow-eyed Ensatina, which was the first species of this fine salamander that I had come across while looking for reptiles and amphibians.

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Ensatinas live in humid forests, woodlands and other areas with woody debris. They hide under logs, bark piles at the base of snags, stumps and even woodpiles in residential areas for cover from weather and protection from predators.

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They reach a total length of three to five inches, and can be identified primarily by the structure of the tail – it is narrower at the base and looks like it has a constriction band. They also seen to have very “expressive” faces.

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The Oregon Ensatina belongs to a large family know as Lungless Salamanders, because they do not have lungs; instead, they absorb oxygen directly through their skin. They must remain moist at all times so that oxygen and carbon dioxide can diffuse through the skin.

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This species is fully terrestrial and the eggs are deposited under logs, in rotting stumps or in other moist environments on the forest floor. Individuals overwinter below the frost line in talus slopes, mammal burrows, root hollows or other underground cavities.

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Ensatinas are most active during wet weather and forage on the forest floor for insects, spiders, worms and other arthropods. When threatened, individuals excrete poison from glands on the top of the tail and arch their tail toward the threat. If captured they may autotomize (drop) their tail, which creates a diversion while the salamander escapes.

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Ringed Salamander

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While herping in the St. Louis area last weekend, I found a salamander that was definitely a highlight of my week-long herping trip.

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Above, the ground color ranges from grayish black to black. The belly is normally slate gray to buff yellow. A series of bold, narrow white or yellow rings usually extends over the back but may be broken at the midline. The rings never completely encircle the body. This amphibian is usually 6 to 7 inches in total length.

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The Ringed Salamander is a species of mole salamander native to hardwood and mixed hardwood-pine forested areas in and around the Ozark Plateau and Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri.

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It is found in damp, wooded areas, usually under leaves, rotting logs, or in abandoned ground holes of other organisms – often near shallow ponds. Highly fossorial (adapted to digging), adults are commonly found in subterranean refuges.

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This salamander is increasingly rare and perhaps endangered. This is likely a result of its restricted range and specific breeding habitat needs. In Autumn, stimulated by heavy rains and cool temperatures, they migrate by night to fishless woodland ponds, where they may congregate by the hundreds for breeding.

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It was awesome to encounter this strikingly colored salamander that is mostly cryptic and underground most of the year.

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Western Slimy Salamander

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I came across several of these cool creatures on my visit to Missouri last month. The Western Slimy Salamander is a black to blue-black, medium-sized woodland salamander with a long, rounded tail and numerous silvery flecks irregularly distributed over the head, back, limbs and tail.

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This amphibian is in a group of some 13 closely related species called the Plethodon glutinosus complex; at one time these were all considered a single species, the Slimy Salamander. The Western Slimy Salamander is the only member of this group that occurs in Missouri.

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They are most active on the surface during cooler, wet conditions in the Spring and Fall. During the hot Summer months they are difficult to find, since they retreat underground into cool, moist caves, or find damp places by burrowing into large piles of leaf litter.

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Western Slimy Salamanders feed on a wide variety of arthropods, including ants, beetles, flies, worms insect larva and pill bugs. They can reach nearly 8 inches in total length, but most individuals vary from about 4 to 7 inches. Much of that length is because of its long tail.

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This salamander has an interesting defense mechanism. When handled, it produces a thick, sticky substance from glands in its skin. The substance is not only extremely sticky, but is also very difficult to clean. This ploy prevents it from being eaten by snakes and other potential predators.

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Eastern Tiger Salamander

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While visiting southern Illinois, I came across the largest land dwelling salamander in North America. It generally grows to be between 7 and 8-1/2 inches in length, but can reach up to 13 inches.

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The Eastern Tiger Salamander is stocky with sturdy limbs and a long tail. Its body color is dark brown (almost black) and irregularly marked with yellow-to-olive colored blotches.

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Belonging to the family known as Mole Salamanders, Tiger Salamanders are fossorial, spending much of their lives underground, feeding on worms, snails, insects and slugs.

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These salamanders migrate to breeding ponds in late Winter or early Spring. One to two days after courtship, a female lays up to a hundred eggs, which hatch about four weeks later. The larvae stay in the pond for 3 to 5 months before emerging to live on the land.

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Eastern Tiger Salamanders are the most widely distributed salamander in North America and can be found in habitats ranging from woodlands to open fields to marshy areas.

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Santa Cruz Black Salamander

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I found this cool creature while herping the Golden State. They can measure up to 5-1/2 inches in total length. As their name implies, they are often solid black, though they sometimes sport a few fine white specks.

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This amphibian belongs to a large group known as Lungless Salamanders; they do not breathe through lungs, instead they conduct respiration through their skin and the tissues lining their mouth. This requires them to live in damp environments on land and travel only during times of high humidity.

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The Santa Cruz Black Salamander lives in forested areas and grasslands, where it uses rock slides, rotten logs and surface debris for cover. Like most salamanders, it feeds on small invertebrates such as spiders, beetles, ants and termites.

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This is a terrestrial amphibian that does not need standing or flowing water for breeding or any other part of its life cycle, although it may be found close to creeks or seeps. There is direct development of eggs into juveniles that resemble miniature adults, except with some color variation.

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It was enjoyable to make my acquaintance with this animal, which only lives within a very limited range and is endemic to California.

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Southern Two-lined Salamander

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While visiting southern Illinois in October of this year, I came across a few of these fine amphibians while exploring a creek. Southern Two-lined Salamanders are fairly small, usually being three to four inches in total length inches in total length.

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They are tan to light yellow with two distinct black stripes running from their eyes to their tail. This creature is found in moist habitats – most commonly beneath rocks, leaves, and logs along the edges of woodland streams and seeps – but some may occur on the forest floor as well.

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Like most salamanders, the Southern Two-lined Salamander eats small invertebrates like spiders, ticks, earthworms, beetles, millipedes, snails, grubs, flies and ants.

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Adults head to breeding streams in late Winter to early Spring. Their eggs are attached under rocks in streams and the female attends the eggs until they hatch in late Spring. Their aquatic larval period lasts from 1-3 years.

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I have Northern Two-lined Salamanders residing in the creek in my backyard, so it was nice to see their southern relatives while herping in the Land of Lincoln.

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