Spring Salamanders

Learn:

Have you been lucky enough to find a salamander hiding in your yard? Students often mistake them for lizards, but salamanders are amphibians and are related to frogs and toads. They spend the beginning of their lives in water, move onto land as adults, have skin and a backbone, and lay eggs.

My favorite fact about salamanders is that they breathe through their skin! This is the main reason why they need to stay moist - if they dry out, they can suffocate.

In Wisconsin, we have seven kinds of salamanders and their related cousins, newts. It’s estimated that in a healthy forest with a lot of leaf litter, there could be as many as 1,500 salamanders per acre! All it takes to find them is a little digging in the leaves or poking under wet, downed logs.

This time of year, salamanders travel to vernal (temporary spring) pools to mate and lay their eggs. They often travel on the first warm, rainy night of the season, when temperatures are between 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit. In the eastern USA, this is called The Big Night. Thousands of amphibians go back to the same pools from which they hatched.

It can be dangerous though: many have to cross roads and are squished in the process. Volunteers take note of these salamander crossings and help the animals across during these dark, rainy nights.

Read:

The book that introduced me to The Big Night was Salamander Sky by Katy Farber and illustrated by Meg Sodano. It follows the story of a girl and her mother as they go out to help these animals back to their natal pools.

Do:

The Big Night doesn’t just happen out east: frogs, toads, and salamanders in the Midwest travel too! Keep an eye on the weather and also notice where there are small ponds on either side of a road. On a warm, rainy night, put on your brightest reflective clothing, grab a flashlight and your rain gear, and see if there are any amphibians that could use your help crossing the road safely! Take them in the direction that they’re headed, and make sure that your hands are free of lotions and soaps that could absorb into their skin. Pro tip: use a bucket for easy carrying!

In the daytime, return to those vernal pools and look for salamanders “dancing” in the water - or look for their eggs attached to plants beneath the surface!