Salamandra-atra_1

Description:

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.