Rough Skinned Newts

[tyjorg]

Hello question for you guys? Our biggest salamander the one that has lost most his gills has disappeared. We are 99% sure he is not in the water hiding and he must be on land. Do they burrow in the mud where we would not be able to see it? I have attached a picture of the land so you can see what it looks like, thanks.

 

[Sith the turtle]

They do burrow, but they should be fairly easy to find on the surface. Look underneath rocks and logs and other décor in there, but if you need to be, just look underneath the ground and lift some of the dirt and such

 

[sde]

Do you have a good fitting lid? Newly metamorphosed caudates are very good at escaping.

If so, then he is probably just buried in the soil or under some surface objects, like Xavier said.

 

[tyjorg]

Thanks guys, I see no way that something could crawl out, but I guess I never know.

 

[tyjorg]

Just an update, we have three that have made it to the land. They love to burrow in the mud and we will see a tail or head sticking out sometimes. Today we got a really good picture of one completely out of the mud. Thanks for all your help. We are 99.9% positive they are Northwest Salamander now.

 

[Sith the turtle]

Yes, they are lovely Northwestern salamanders! You can tell from the poison gland on their necks

 

[tyjorg]

We now have four on land now. We are wondering now how many square feet each one needs? We still have 7 tadpoles a few look close to coming on land so we are trying to decide how many to keep in our classroom and what to do with the rest. Thank you all for your help.

 

[tyjorg]

Update picture of our northwest salamanders.