Philadelphia Zoo and false information

Just need to vent something. I went to the Philadelphia Zoo yesterday after not having gone for 2 years. I went to the Reptile and Amphibian house and they had a few enclosures for salamanders and newts. The first was a fire salamander and there was man standing next to the enclosure acting as some sort of zoo keeper. He actually told people fire salamanders have poison in their bellies that they are able to spit up to 6 feet when threatened.
This man repeated this to multiple people checking out the salamanders. Do they let just anyone work at these places?
Also, they had an enclosure for some Kaiser newts. I was wondering if the setup they have is a proper setup and the description above them says that these newts court on land. I could be wrong since I have not been able to breed these, but to my knowledge courtship takes place in the water like most other newts. How is this sort of thing able to be published?

The kaiseri info is wrong. Fire salamanders can shoot poison but not out of their belly. It is from glands on their backs.

They forgot to add that the Emperor newts rule all the other newts.

Shooting poison any distance let alone 6 feet? That made me laugh.
Maybe you should write to the zoo and let them know after all we learn from each other.
I loved Philly zoo especially the giraffe.

Otterwoman said:

They forgot to add that the Emperor newts rule all the other newts.

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Here is your majesty

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Fire salamanders have been recorded spraying venom up to 2 metres, according to this paper:
The Antipredator Arsenal of Fire Salamanders: Spraying of Secretions from Highly Pressurized Dorsal Skin Glands on JSTOR

There's even a photo of one mid-squirt, which is attached.

(I posted this previously here: http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1173-...us-family-discussions/101084-salamanders.html )

Three cheers to Philly Zoo. Maybe I don't squeeze their tails hard enough!

They need to be very threatened or stressed to shoot the poison.