Aneides lugubris : photos of my colony

i have 3 adult arboreals, 2 juveniles/near adults and 5 of the hatchlings from last year.

there are some head shots posted under <font color="0000ff">breeding arboreals question </font>also-those show the dimorphism of the teeth in full detail. i hope to buy a closeup lens for this cam, what i have now is as close as i can get and still be in focus. i never noticed the dimorphism in these guys-since i never looked at them so close before-but also im getting near 20/40 vision in my (ahem) old age and its amazing how much more you see in a picture that in real life sometimes, plus the picture has them sitting still!(they kept crawling up my arm). so here are some pics, this first one you will like alot-i took it especially to show use of their prehensile tail, which is pretty rare in salamanders(some will show slight use of their tails as a spare limb, but nothing like this). i was thinking too-some people have mentioned that perhaps they didnt breed in captivity (which was 1.5 years before egg deposition) but if this may be the case why did the 'couple' choose both to guard the eggs and yet not just exclude the smaller male but actively attack him?



here is a smaller pic(its not quite in focus)of the pair that bread for me last year, im thinking she is looking plumper than i remember...but my memory is subjective...



here is a shot of the females vent-it looks different(as in its been used recently), i will have to get a pic of the males for comparison (i was going to but i ran out of room on my memory card)



here are a few body shots of these guys, remember to note the square toes that aneides are famous for. this is a picture of my smaller male that was getting beat up by the breeding pair.

here is a pic of the big female



here is a pic of the smaller adult male - he just sat there in the cup and had lots of pics taken....note the glint in his eye though..



here is another detail of his head, from some angles these look very sweet......



BUT from some other angles they look very sinister......

this is the female

these are very active salamanders when you take them out of the cage, and since they are a climbing sal they want to climb on EVERYTHING! that is how i got this pic, she was looking into the camera, front feet hanging out, trying to get to the lense (maybe she saw her reflection in it too). these guys do look 'mean' from their massive jaw muscles and facial features, but i have NEVER had one bite me-and ive tried to even provoke them into it! (they dont eat like tigers either-these distinctively throw their toungs like frogs)
i can hand feed them and have never had any reason to suspect them of upholding the 'arboreal' reputation of being mean biters. i know that with these huge jaw muscles they COULD take a decent chunk out of me if they wished. has anyone ever really been bitten by these or is it just woodsmans lore that 'you never ever want to get bit by one of those!'( i was told this by a forester i met in cali)

Is that why I never find them...they're hanging from trees with their prehensile tails! j/k

Those are great shots! You should start taking some pictures of your Taricha collection (*wink wink*).

I got bit once.

Mine won't hold still for me to look. I'm leaning towards female.

I don't suppose you have a pic of a chin gland somewhere.

what did you do to it to get bit? there are pics of the heads in the other post-i have a pic of the smaller male from below but i CANT see the gland! look for yourself...

I've never been bet, but I had a female that used to squawk a lot.

RUSS

Yeah, can't see a gland. Basically I reached in a "hole" in a log to extract a piece of garbage and I guess one was in their since it had been raining the week before.

My guess is they'll defend themselves from smaller things, but not bother with huge things typically. Also, I think I remember hearing that lugubris is less agonistic at least towards each other then other Aneides. Maybe because the jaws can potentially damage another salamander more.