Cheat Mountain Salamanders

[Kaysie]

I had to rush right home and post. Tonight at work, we did a night-time survey for the Cheat Mountain Salamander, Plethodon nettingi (by survey, I mean 3 biologists and 3 interns who are afraid of salamanders, snakes, slugs, snails, sticks, bugs, spiders, and anything that might possibly move). The survey is basically to see whether the Cheat Mountain sals are isolated to their micro-habitat due to out-competition by red-backs, or whether they occur out from the micro-habitat.

We found 3 cheat mountain sals, including one juvenile! The two adults were pretty near their micro-habitat, but the juvenile was at least 80 yards out. It was great. I'll post pictures soon. They're not great, as I was shooting at night, with headlamps, with a crappy camera. We probably also would have found more sals, but it has been pretty dry lately.

 

[Kaysie]

D'oh. I forgot to mention that P. nettingi is a Federally threatened species, and only occurs in West Virginia.

I'll post photos when I get home from work. Sadly, none of them are 'calender' quality. We may go out again after a rain, so we'll see.

 

[Kaysie]

As promised, here are some (bad) pictures.

 

[dane_zu]

Nice Kaysie, the diversity in lung less salamanders over there to the east is intense!

 

[i_love_necturus]

That's really cool Kaysie. I've always been interested in seeing pictures of animals with very limited ranges. You are very lucky to see such salamanders.

 

[oregon newt]

That is a cool find. I didn't realize how small some plethodons' ranges are.

 

[Kaysie]

Not only is it restricted to West Virginia, but it's restricted to less than a handful of mountains (5 maybe?)