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- John Clare
On Sunday April 20th I had the pleasure of meeting a fellow (but far more experienced) herper named Scott in East Texas whilst on a visit to my in-laws. Scott and his lovely girlfriend Erica took me on a little adventure through some interesting habitats and I saw and learned a great deal. All of the following animals were found by Scott - I was just lucky enough to be there. Hopefully he can elaborate on some of the background to the photos I'm posting in this message. I should also add that we found quite a few reptiles along the way - this post is just about the salamanders.
The weather was in the late-ish 20s Celsius (about 80 F) and it had rained at least once in the previous few days. I regret that I didn't take enough habitat photos.
Scott is part of a research group that is surveying Necturus beyeri (Gulf Coast Waterdog) numbers in East Texas. This muddy, slow-moving waterway is located in protected forest and contains a number of research traps:
Nearly every trap Scott pulled yielded a specimen of N. beyeri. Here are two photos of one individual:
And another individual:
And another (all 3 were kindly held by Erica):
Going on what Scott has told me, they are common in that area and all three of these individuals are adult size.
Scott then took us to a man-made pond for amphibians elsewhere in the same forest:
Scott got his waders on and started dip netting. His first catch was this male Central Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens):
We spotted several other Notos and Scott later netted this individual, which on looking at the photo seems to be female?:
Scott's target species was Ambystoma talpoideum (the Mole Salamander), and whilst he wasn't able to turn up any adults, he did find a couple of larvae at slightly different stages. First this small one (starting to grow its back legs):
And then this larger individual which had ~fully developed hind legs:
We then moved on to marshy/swampy habitat elsewhere in the forest. Almost immediately Scott found this little beauty under a small fallen tree trunk on the swampy ground. For me personally this was the amphibian highlight of the afternoon, an adult Ambystoma texanum (Small-Mouthed Salamander):
As you can see from the following photo of the same individual something has had a go at the salamander's tail:
A few hundred meters away Scott rolled a log to find himself staring an Ambystoma opacum (Marbled Salamander) right in the face. Unfortunately the little blighter was mostly in his burrow and despite Scott's quick grab the little guy managed to get down his tunnel too quickly. I have to give Erica credit though - she really did try to get the little guy out but he had gone too far down.
All in all, an afternoon well spent. Thanks to Scott and Erica for showing me how it's done.
The weather was in the late-ish 20s Celsius (about 80 F) and it had rained at least once in the previous few days. I regret that I didn't take enough habitat photos.
Scott is part of a research group that is surveying Necturus beyeri (Gulf Coast Waterdog) numbers in East Texas. This muddy, slow-moving waterway is located in protected forest and contains a number of research traps:
Nearly every trap Scott pulled yielded a specimen of N. beyeri. Here are two photos of one individual:
And another individual:
And another (all 3 were kindly held by Erica):
Going on what Scott has told me, they are common in that area and all three of these individuals are adult size.
Scott then took us to a man-made pond for amphibians elsewhere in the same forest:
Scott got his waders on and started dip netting. His first catch was this male Central Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens):
We spotted several other Notos and Scott later netted this individual, which on looking at the photo seems to be female?:
Scott's target species was Ambystoma talpoideum (the Mole Salamander), and whilst he wasn't able to turn up any adults, he did find a couple of larvae at slightly different stages. First this small one (starting to grow its back legs):
And then this larger individual which had ~fully developed hind legs:
We then moved on to marshy/swampy habitat elsewhere in the forest. Almost immediately Scott found this little beauty under a small fallen tree trunk on the swampy ground. For me personally this was the amphibian highlight of the afternoon, an adult Ambystoma texanum (Small-Mouthed Salamander):
As you can see from the following photo of the same individual something has had a go at the salamander's tail:
A few hundred meters away Scott rolled a log to find himself staring an Ambystoma opacum (Marbled Salamander) right in the face. Unfortunately the little blighter was mostly in his burrow and despite Scott's quick grab the little guy managed to get down his tunnel too quickly. I have to give Erica credit though - she really did try to get the little guy out but he had gone too far down.
All in all, an afternoon well spent. Thanks to Scott and Erica for showing me how it's done.
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I'm sure you knew I was going to chime in on this thread.
