Semender

January 30 is pretty much dead of winter around Western New York state here in the U. S., but nonetheless after 2 days of 50 degree temperatures and rain, it was pretty easy to find Spring Salamanders creekside this afternoon. Flipping a few surface stones is all it took to see what I've been missing since October!

The SPring salamanders are very active in these last few warmer days of autumn! The creek is full of 'em.

The SPring salamanders are very active in these last few warmer days of autumn! The creek is full of 'em.

Spring Salamanders can be easily distinguished by the canthus rostralis--the light ridges on the nose visible in this photo.

Houghton Creek, Allegany County, NY (USA)

Houghton Creek, Allegany County, NY (USA)

Huge adult from northwestern Georgia.

Late season Spring Salamander activity in Dusky Ravine, Houghton Creek, Allegany County, NY USA

Still working at figuring out how to use my Panasonic Lumix underwater camera. Hougthon Creek, Allegany County, NY (USA)

Late season Spring Salamander activity in Dusky Ravine, Houghton Creek, Allegany County, NY USA

January 30 is pretty much dead of winter around Western New York state here in the U. S., but nonetheless after 2 days of 50 degree temperatures and rain, it was pretty easy to find Spring Salamanders creekside this afternoon. Flipping a few surface stones is all it took to see what I've been missing since October!

Houghton Creek, Allegany County, NY (USA)

Still working at figuring out how to use my Panasonic Lumix underwater camera. Hougthon Creek, Allegany County, NY (USA)

Large larva from northern Georgia

Salamandra atra ssp. atraAlpine SalamanderSlo.: planinski moerad, rni moeradDat.: July 7. 2013Lat.: 46.44206 Long.: 13.64447 Code: Bot_730/2013_DSC7024Habitat: cool, damp alpine meadow, stony pasture, moderately east inclined mountain slope, calcareous ground, humid but sunny place, exposed to direct precipitations, average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 0-2 deg C, elevation 1.980 m (6.500 feet), alpine phytogeographical region. Place: Mt. Mangart's flats, near central snow valley west of the peak of the mountain, East Julian Alps, Posoje, Slovenia EC Comment: A fully terrestrial amphibia. Can be found only in the European Alps with isolated populations in the Balkan Dinaric Mountains. It usually occurs at elevations between 900 and 2,100 m and is relatively hard to be spotted because it is active only in bad weather, most often after rain. Usually they are hidden below stones and vegetation. Several strange facts are characteristic for this animal apart of their ovi-viviparous method of reproduction by which it gives birth on land to an average of two fully metamorphosed offspring. This species doesn't need water in the reproduction process. The newly born animals are sometimes almost one-half of size in length on the parents. Their life expectancy is over ten years, and pregnancy last three years (at the elevation of this observation). They spend their full life on a very small territory, in a circle of only a few tens of meters. Enlisted in the Slovene Red List of rare and endangered species, marked by "O1" representing a potentially endangered species. Pravilnik o uvrstitvi ogroenih rastlinskih in ivalskih vrst v rdei seznam, Uradni list RS, t. 82 (2002), priloga t.6.Ref.:(1) Fauna Europas, Bestimmungslexikon, George Westermann Velag, Brounschweig (1997), translated to Slovenian, Mladinaka Knjiga, Ljubljana (1981), pp261.

Salamandra atra ssp. atraAlpine SalamanderSlo.: planinski moerad, rni moeradDat.: July 7. 2013Lat.: 46.44206 Long.: 13.64447Code: Bot_730/2013_DSC7024Habitat: cool, damp alpine meadow, stony pasture, moderately east inclined mountain slope, calcareous ground, humid but sunny place, exposed to direct precipitations, average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 0-2 deg C, elevation 1.980 m (6.500 feet), alpine phytogeographical region. Place: Mt. Mangart's flats, near central snow valley west of the peak of the mountain, East Julian Alps, Posoje, Slovenia EC Comment: A fully terrestrial amphibia. Can be found only in the European Alps with isolated populations in the Balkan Dinaric Mountains. It usually occurs at elevations between 900 and 2,100 m and is relatively hard to be spotted because it is active only in bad weather, most often after rain. Usually they are hidden below stones and vegetation. Several strange facts are characteristic for this animal apart of their ovi-viviparous method of reproduction by which it gives birth on land to an average of two fully metamorphosed offspring. This species doesn't need water in the reproduction process. The newly born animals are sometimes almost one-half of size in length on the parents. Their life expectancy is over ten years, and pregnancy last three years (at the elevation of this observation). They spend their full life on a very small territory, in a circle of only a few tens of meters. Enlisted in the Slovene Red List of rare and endangered species, marked by "O1" representing a potentially endangered species. Pravilnik o uvrstitvi ogroenih rastlinskih in ivalskih vrst v rdei seznam, Uradni list RS, t. 82 (2002), priloga t.6.Ref.:(1) Fauna Europas, Bestimmungslexikon, George Westermann Velag, Brounschweig (1997), translated to Slovenian, Mladinaka Knjiga, Ljubljana (1981), pp261.

Salamandra atra ssp. atraAlpine SalamanderSlo.: planinski moerad, rni moeradDat.: July 7. 2013Lat.: 46.44206 Long.: 13.64447Code: Bot_730/2013_DSC7024Habitat: cool, damp alpine meadow, stony pasture, moderately east inclined mountain slope, calcareous ground, humid but sunny place, exposed to direct precipitations, average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 0-2 deg C, elevation 1.980 m (6.500 feet), alpine phytogeographical region. Place: Mt. Mangart's flats, near central snow valley west of the peak of the mountain, East Julian Alps, Posoje, Slovenia EC Comment: A fully terrestrial amphibia. Can be found only in the European Alps with isolated populations in the Balkan Dinaric Mountains. It usually occurs at elevations between 900 and 2,100 m and is relatively hard to be spotted because it is active only in bad weather, most often after rain. Usually they are hidden below stones and vegetation. Several strange facts are characteristic for this animal apart of their ovi-viviparous method of reproduction by which it gives birth on land to an average of two fully metamorphosed offspring. This species doesn't need water in the reproduction process. The newly born animals are sometimes almost one-half of size in length on the parents. Their life expectancy is over ten years, and pregnancy last three years (at the elevation of this observation). They spend their full life on a very small territory, in a circle of only a few tens of meters. Enlisted in the Slovene Red List of rare and endangered species, marked by "O1" representing a potentially endangered species. Pravilnik o uvrstitvi ogroenih rastlinskih in ivalskih vrst v rdei seznam, Uradni list RS, t. 82 (2002), priloga t.6.Ref.:(1) Fauna Europas, Bestimmungslexikon, George Westermann Velag, Brounschweig (1997), translated to Slovenian, Mladinaka Knjiga, Ljubljana (1981), pp261.

Salamandra atra ssp. atraAlpine SalamanderSlo.: planinski moerad, rni moeradDat.: July 7. 2013Lat.: 46.44206 Long.: 13.64447Code: Bot_730/2013_DSC7024Habitat: cool, damp alpine meadow, stony pasture, moderately east inclined mountain slope, calcareous ground, humid but sunny place, exposed to direct precipitations, average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 0-2 deg C, elevation 1.980 m (6.500 feet), alpine phytogeographical region. Place: Mt. Mangart's flats, near central snow valley west of the peak of the mountain, East Julian Alps, Posoje, Slovenia EC Comment: A fully terrestrial amphibia. Can be found only in the European Alps with isolated populations in the Balkan Dinaric Mountains. It usually occurs at elevations between 900 and 2,100 m and is relatively hard to be spotted because it is active only in bad weather, most often after rain. Usually they are hidden below stones and vegetation. Several strange facts are characteristic for this animal apart of their ovi-viviparous method of reproduction by which it gives birth on land to an average of two fully metamorphosed offspring. This species doesn't need water in the reproduction process. The newly born animals are sometimes almost one-half of size in length on the parents. Their life expectancy is over ten years, and pregnancy lasts three years (at the elevation of this observation). They spend their full life on a very small territory, in a circle of only a few tens of meters. Enlisted in the Slovene Red List of rare and endangered species, marked by "O1" representing a potentially endangered species. Pravilnik o uvrstitvi ogroenih rastlinskih in ivalskih vrst v rdei seznam, Uradni list RS, t. 82 (2002), priloga t.6.Ref.:(1) Fauna Europas, Bestimmungslexikon, George Westermann Velag, Brounschweig (1997), translated to Slovenian, Mladinaka Knjiga, Ljubljana (1981), pp261.

Salamandra atra ssp. atraAlpine SalamanderSlo.: planinski moerad, rni moeradDat.: July 7. 2013Lat.: 46.44206 Long.: 13.64447Code: Bot_730/2013_DSC7024Habitat: cool, damp alpine meadow, stony pasture, moderately east inclined mountain slope, calcareous ground, humid but sunny place, exposed to direct precipitations, average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 0-2 deg C, elevation 1.980 m (6.500 feet), alpine phytogeographical region. Place: Mt. Mangart's flats, near central snow valley west of the peak of the mountain, East Julian Alps, Posoje, Slovenia EC Comment: A fully terrestrial amphibia. Can be found only in the European Alps with isolated populations in the Balkan Dinaric Mountains. It usually occurs at elevations between 900 and 2,100 m and is relatively hard to be spotted because it is active only in bad weather, most often after rain. Usually they are hidden below stones and vegetation. Several strange facts are characteristic for this animal apart of their ovi-viviparous method of reproduction by which it gives birth on land to an average of two fully metamorphosed offspring. This species doesn't need water in the reproduction process. The newly born animals are sometimes almost one-half of size in length on the parents. Their life expectancy is over ten years, and pregnancy last three years (at the elevation of this observation). They spend their full life on a very small territory, in a circle of only a few tens of meters. Enlisted in the Slovene Red List of rare and endangered species, marked by "O1" representing a potentially endangered species. Pravilnik o uvrstitvi ogroenih rastlinskih in ivalskih vrst v rdei seznam, Uradni list RS, t. 82 (2002), priloga t.6.Ref.:(1) Fauna Europas, Bestimmungslexikon, George Westermann Velag, Brounschweig (1997), translated to Slovenian, Mladinaka Knjiga, Ljubljana (1981), pp261.