Category Archives: Salamanders

Northern Dusky Salamander

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Yes, it’s cold and Winter is upon us, but there still are herps to be found. While flipping rocks along the edge of this creek, I came across an amphibian I haven’t seen in awhile. Dusky Salamanders like wooded or partially wooded moist habitats with a running source of water. They may go into the water to find cover under rocks if disturbed.

If the stream substrate does not freeze, they can remain active year-round. In extremely cold conditions, they will burrow into the ground until they are below the frostline.

Northern Dusky Salamanders are mainly active at night, when they leave the log or rock that gives them protection during the day to find food along a steam or waterway. They hunt for insects, earthworms, slugs, snails, crustaceans and spiders.

Courtship between duskies is more romantic-looking than in other amphibians. During courtship, a male will approach a female while doing a “butterfly walk,” rotating his front limbs similar to a swimmer doing the butterfly stroke. The male then places his snout to the snout of the female. This “kiss” often results in the female choosing the male to fertilize her eggs.

The Northern Dusky Salamander is well named, for it is rather drab in color. They are one of the most abundant and easily found salamanders, but they are also one of the most difficult to catch. Duskies are alert, slippery, run swiftly, and are surprisingly good jumpers. To achieve their impressive jumps, they have stout, muscular hind legs in comparison to their front legs.

There are about a dozen types of Dusky Salamanders in the eastern United States, including two different species that reside in Ohio. Members of this family differ from all other salamanders in having an immovable lower jaw. The dusky must lift its head in order to open its mouth.

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Northern Two-lined Salamander

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One of the nice things about having a creek in my backyard is that I don’t have to go far to find cool stuff. The Northern Two-lined Salamander is a small (3-5”) stream-side salamander with a yellowish olive stripe down its back bordered by two black lines.

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In spring it lays eggs submerged underwater and attached to the underside of a rock. The larvae hatch one month later and remain in an aquatic larval stage until metamorphosis two years later. Adults live on land and can be found under rocks, logs and leaf litter at the water’s edge. These amphibians can be rather common and don’t seem to be affected by pollution as much as other types of salamanders.

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Northern Two-lined Salamanders exhibit complex courtship behavior. A male uses his head to nudge or poke a potential mate, and encircles the female’s head with the front of his body. The male scratches the female’s skin with his teeth, possibly allowing secretions to enter the female’s bloodstream.

The adult salamander’s diet consist of insects such as beetles, mayflies, and springtails, as well as spiders, pillbugs, and centipedes. Adults may also consume other small invertebrates including earthworms and snails.

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The Northern Two-lined Salamander has short stocky limbs. They are active mostly at night, especially after rains. This rainy Fall weather we’ve been having is “prime time” for finding them. Once, when coming home at night in the rain, there was one on the side door of my house!

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Marbled Salamander

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Today I found my first Marbled Salamanders ever. They are named because of their pattern.

Marbled Salamanders are part of a group known as “mole salamanders,” and spend most of its life under logs or in burrows.

Unlike most mole salamanders, instead of laying eggs in the spring, Marbled Salamanders lay their eggs in the fall in low areas that are likely to flood during winter rains. The female coils around the eggs until they can be underwater.

This reproduction strategy gives baby Marbled Salamanders a “head start.” The Marbled Salamander larvae gain a size advantage by feeding and growing for several months before the much larger Jefferson Salamanders and Spotted Salamanders hatch later in the spring.

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Northern Redback Salamander

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The recent heavy autumn rains have brought to the surface of the forest floor many tiny amphibians that have been waiting out the dry, hot summer deep underground.

Woodland salamanders with short legs, Redbacks are part of a large group known as “lungless salamanders.” Breathing is accomplished by absorbing oxygen through the skin and mouth lining. Lungless salamanders will drown if submerged in water for a long period of time.

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Unlike most amphibians, Redback Salamanders are completely independent of water. There is no tadpole or larva stage. The eggs, usually six to eight, are laid in hanging grape-like clusters under moist rocks and logs. The female coils around the eggs to protect them from predators and prevent them from drying out during the six week incubation period.

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These are small, slender creatures usually less than 4 inches in total length. The Northern Redback’s world is magical and unfamiliar to us – they hunt in the damp thickness of leaf litter just below the forest floor.

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In addition to the highly variable “red” back (it also occurs in a “leadback” variation, which is dark and unpatterned) this amphibian is often sprinkled with greenish metallic highlights. Here is a “leadback” version:

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Although not often seen, throughout most of their range Redback Salamanders are very common – they can be the most common vertebrate in the eastern woods. Population densities of Northern Redbacked Salamanders can range from 800 to 8,000 salamanders per acre. This species lives throughout most of the northeastern United States.

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Because they’re so abundant, they play an important role in forest food chains. They’re active predators and eat just about anything they can catch (ants, termites, beetles, earthworms, spiders, slugs, mites, and millipedes).  On the other hand, Northern Redback Salamanders are important food items for small forest snakes and birds that forage in the leaf litter.

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Eastern Newt

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Walking along a waterway in South Chagrin Reservation today, I saw a few Red-spotted Newts. There are many different types of newts in the world, but in the United States we just have Eastern Newts (like the Red-spotted) and Western Newts which live in California and all the way up the coast into Alaska.

Newts are a particular family of salamanders that are mainly active in the daytime. Most newts are aquatic and spend a lot of time in the water.

The Eastern Newt has a unique life cycle. They emerge from mid-March to early April from hibernation. Often their first meal of the year is the eggs of other salamanders. Here’s a newt that I saw in March heading over to a woodland salamander breeding pool to eat eggs.

Later, the newts themselves breed. Their own eggs are subject to predation from other animals, but if they’re lucky, they hatch in 3 to 5 weeks. The eggs hatch as gill-breathing larvae, much like other salamanders. They stay this way for three months.

But unlike other salamanders which then metamorphose into adults, they have an imtermediate phase, where they develop lungs and a rough-textured skin. Eastern Newts also turn bright orange and leave the water to live on land. This phase of the is known as a “Red Eft.” Here’s one that I found in Central Ohio.

Red Efts take slow, deliberate steps and do not seem to have any particular destination. The bright colors advertise the young newt’s toxic nature (though they are safe to pick up – just don’t eat one). This “adolescent stage” is unique, no one is sure why the salamanders don’t transform directly into aquatic adults. Red Efts wander the forest floor for a year or two.

Eventually they will make it back to the pond where they originated and change to their adult background color of green, develop a flattened tail for swimming and become aquatic.

There are several subspecies of Eastern Newt. The Red-spotted Newt resides here in Ohio. The Central Newt lives to the west and typically lacks spots; here’s one that I found in southern Illinois last year.

These four-inch amphibians can live for well over 10 years.

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Mudpuppy

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This creek near the Ohio/Pennsylvania border looked like a cool place to explore.

There were many cool freshwater invertebrates to be found, such as this: a Stonefly larva.

A bit later I found something that I’ve never seen before, a Dobsonfly pupa. It was pretty weird looking.

Turning rocks in the creek revealed a number of small fish like darters, suckers and catfish. One rock had a large creature under it that at first I thought was a catfish. Then I realized that it had no fins and I was looking at an amphibian that I have not seen in the wild for over 20 years – a Mudpuppy.

Mudpuppies are large aquatic salamanders. They have gills and spend their entire life underwater. They show a degree of parental care, tending to their eggs after attaching them to submerged stones and logs.

Mudpuppies prefer shallow lakes and streams that have slow moving water and rocks to hide under. They have a voracious appetite and eat a large variety of food items, which enable them to survive under diverse conditions. These foods include worms, water insects, crayfish, mollusks and small fish.

It was awesome to see one of these big amphibians in the wild again!

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Northwestern Salamander

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Hiking through the woods in Northern California, I came across this large, dark amphibian along the edge of the trail. It was the largest wild salamander I’ve ever seen – a Northwestern Salamander. 

Like the Spotted Salamanders and Jefferson Salamanders from Ohio, these are “mole salamanders,” which spend much of their adult life underground. They can get up to 9-3/4 inches in total length.

Unlike their eastern counterparts, Northwestern Salamanders are mildly poisonous and have glands like a toad that secrete poison when the amphibian feels threatened. They are harmless to people (unless you try to eat one). Finding this big salamander, the first I’ve ever seen, was the highlight of the herping day.

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