Fire Salamander Sightings

[apples]

Hello,

I had an unexpected encounter with the salamander kind on a diving trip to Spain. (No complaints here!) We came in on the tail end of a storm around 10PM and on the road there were literally hundreds of these quite lovely Salamandra looking up at us. We shuttled some off the road and photographed a few until midnight when tiredness took over.

Here are few photos, hope you enjoy them.

Interesting pattern

The one on the right looks gravid, no?

Not as exciting, but a very good poser, a common toad:

And of course, for Jen:

 

[franceschino]

Nice!
S. s. terrestris?
ciao

 

[dane_zu]

awesome shots, id love to make a trip to europe to go looking for caudates

 

[apples]

Hi Francesco,

I am not entirely sure. Would markings on the face and belly help?

 

[franceschino]

they look like terrestris to me. Where did you find them? (Don't give me the exact location, just the name of a city nearby)

 

[apples]

Edited out by John* Catalonia.

Yes, the migrating mass we saw seem to be s.s.terrestris, from the location of the CC guide as well as their markings. It is a pity I did not spend more time photographing the different variations, due to the unexpected nature of the encounter. I noticed a hint of red sometimes, which made me hopeful it might have been something else.

* Pin and everyone else, please refer to the Location Information Policy http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=48337 - there are many unscrupulous individuals around western Europe (and further afield too, who will solicit others in Europe) who would love to have such specific locality data as you have given here. Please help protect these animals by being more vague.

 

[franceschino]

Just checked out now. It's 100% terrestris as you can see from the picture taken from Garcia-Paris' article Dispersal of viviparity across contact zones in Iberian populations of fire salamanders (Salamandra) inferred from discordance of genetic and morphological traits. Evolution 57, 129-143.