Red-backed Salamanders

[clever...@gmail.com]

While lifting boards that had lain in place for over a year, I found two red-backed salamanders (under different boards – they are territorial).

 

 

I’d put the boards down last year to smother an infestation of creeping bellflower (which appeared to be successful, but I’ll wait until next spring to render a final judgement). There were more boards I was going to remove, but will wait until next spring when winter is not bearing down on them. I seldom see them, given their habit of spending most of the day under (or within) logs and other cover, or underground altogether, so have always wondered how common they are. Doing a little digging, I was struck with this on the Ontarionature.org site: “With a typical home range of only a few square metres and population densities that can exceed 2,500 individuals per hectare, the eastern red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus) is often the most abundant vertebrate on the landscape.” That probably applies only to southern Ontario, where they are more abundant than north of our border, but still surprises me. Similarly, the Amphibians and Reptiles of North Carolina site says “Although red-backed salamanders are often extremely abundant and easily discovered, surface active individuals make up only a small part of the population.  At any given time, the vast majority of red-backed salamanders are underground.”

 

Watch your step, folks!

 

Steve Wilson

[Al Stoops]

The eastern redback salamander is a fascinating creature. Easily the most abundant salamander in many eastern forests, certainly here in New England (I live in southeastern New Hampshire).  If you weighed all the redback salamanders in New England, they would weigh more than any bird or mammal.  I wouldn't be surprised if the same was true in northern Minnesota. 

   "Eastern Red-backed Salamanders are easily the most abundant vertebrate in many northeastern hardwood forests and their combined mass dwarfs that of any bird or rodent."

https://www.oriannesociety.org/news/the-red-backed-salamander/?v=400b9db48e62

-Al Stoops

Nelson, NH

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[sparky stensaas]

Great find Steve! Definitely not the most abundant vertebrate in our neck of the North Woods.

They are a unique salamander that lays its eggs on land, doesn’t have an aquatic larva and so doesn’t require standing water.

Now time for the shameless plug… Tons of great info, photos and natural history in our guide—Amphibians and Reptiles of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. See attached photos. Should be available at Piragis. I would think. Certainly Amazon.

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Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2023 7:23:59 PM
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Subject: {Ely Field Naturalists} Red-backed Salamanders

 

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