Some Eastern Kentucky Salamanders

Hey guys,

Since I haven't posted in a while, I though I should post some photos from a recent trip I made to a waterfall in Eastern Kentucky, with some very diverse habitats for salamanders. Below the waterfall is a small stream running through a steep valley with moist deciduous forests. The stream runs through layers of shale. Because of the way shale chips, this creates many flat rocks in the stream under which one can find salamanders. The edges of the valley consist of tall cliffs, with limestone in the lower layers, and sandstone in the upper layers. So far we have found red, spring, cave, longtail, two-lined, seal, northern dusky, black mountain dusky, green, and slimy salamanders at this location, as well as red efts.

1. A spotted salamander found very nearby. Above the waterfall, there may potentially be spotted salamanders, due to the presence of small vernal pools near the stream. There we found a hatched egg mass which resembled a spotted salamander egg mass, although we aren't sure.
2. The base of the waterfall. Each time we come here, we see hundreds of seal salamanders in crevices and under pebbles in the splash zone.
3. Seal salamanders in the crevices below the waterfall. These are by far the most common salamander at this site.
4. A green salamander found in the cliffs near the waterfall. The are fairly common in slightly moist, sandstone crevices, but are absent from shale and limestone.
5. A northern dusky salamander. Although they are fairly common, they are nowhere near as common as seal salamander in Eastern Kentucky.
6. A black mountain dusky salamander. This is a somewhat uncommon species restricted to Eastern Kentucky and neighboring areas. It prefers small, steep, shaded creeks. They can get much larger than the other dusky salamanders in the region. Note the thick jaws in the photo.
7. A cave salamander found in a small cave enterance in the limestone layers near the waterfall. Longtail and slimy salamanders are also common in this habitat.
8. A two-lined salamander found in the stream.

-Ananth.

Awesome pics very nice finds!

Impressive

Love the Green Salamander. Has always been on my wish list to observe and photograph... I live too far north though... Are they common in Kentucky? I see your screen name is an homage to this species... Enjoyed the pics and the diverse habit... TY for sharing!

JBear

Thanks for the replies everyone. Green salamanders are reasonably common in Eastern Kentucky - we are almost always able to find one given about half an hour of searching in their habitat (thin, slightly moist sandstone crevices).

Here are some more salamanders from another excusion to Eastern Kentucky. This spot is a very thin, deep sandstone gorge containing a large stream with many small tributaries and cool, moist hemlock and rhododendron forests (photo 1).

Along the stream it's self, longtail salamanders (photo 2) were the only salamanders seen, although we also found pickerel and green frogs, and water snakes. In most places the rhododendron formed an impenetrable thicket, but we managed to find an old logging road which led us into the forest. There we found a slimy salamander (photo 3), and several very pretty efts (photo 4). We then headed down the main stream until we reached a nice tributary, and followed it up into a hollow. Along this stream, there were small outcrops of limestone dripping with water (photo 5). Here we found our target - the mountain dusky salamander. In Eastern Kentucky, it is only common in 2 or 3 counties, and elsewhere, it is restricted to scattered cool, moist hollows. Photo 6 shows two mountain dusky salamanders and one northern dusky salamander found nearby - the mountain dusky salamanders can be identified by their round tail. Photo 7 shows a nice red specimen found nearby - their coloration is extremely variable.

We spent quite a bit of time exploring around this hollow, finding many more longtail and mountain dusky salamanders, as well as several seal salamanders, a spring salamander, a northern dusky salamander, a two-lined salamander, and some green salamanders in a huge sandstone boulder (photo 8). It was amazing to find such a diversity of salamanders in a small area - the kind of thing you usually see only in the southern appalachians. At this spot, cumberland plateau salamanders and black mountain dusky salamanders are probably also present, but uncommon, and we found none.

-Ananth.

That is one awesome rock outcrop (or seep?)! Always jealous of seeing A. aeneus. Maybe this summer I'll stop being lazy to drive around up there and find some. Nice habitat shots as well. What camera are you using?

I love the variations of mountain duskies. It is usually what keeps me looking at them. They (and Plethodon montaus) litter the trails at night down here.

Thanks for the trip!

-Brad

I think that the salamander above the other 2 in pic 6 is an E. bislineata. I know dusky salamanders are great at mimicking, but the face tells me that it is a true 2 lined salamander. Also, pic 7 looks to be P. cinereus, again, by looking at the shape of the face. Figured I'd mention it...

Love the pics!

JBear

nice red eft found!!! love those guys!! :happy:

Thanks for the comments guys!

The green salamanders are always a treat to see, and are not hard to find once you have practice (It took us a couple of years to find our first one, then they started popping up everywhere). That rock outcrop/seep was indeed a great spot for mountain dusky salamanders. Oddly enough, on the flat rock below the outcrop/seep, despite the very cool, moist conditions, we found a hognose snake. I use some kind of panasonic camera, not sure about anything more specific (I'm away from home right now and without my camera, I'll have to check when I get back). Unfortunately, my photos are too big to upload to caudata.org as they are, and decreasing the size of course lowers the quality.

Unfortunately, my photos of the mountain dusky salamanders are kind of misleading for identification purposes. The photos do not show the thick back legs and stocky body shape, which were the basis of our ID. The salamanders in question had predominantly dark bellies, which is not true of two-lined salamanders. There are no redback salamanders in range, or any other plethodon with a red stripe. The head shape is certainly different from most other desmognathus - apparently mountain dusky salamanders (as well as pygmy and seepage salamanders) are the link between dusky salamanders and other plethodontids, which may explain the slightly more plethodon-like traits (such as the round tail, and perhaps the odd face). Thanks for the comment anyway, I would certainly love to know if I get any IDs wrong.

-Ananth.