|
 |
 |
 |
Adult, Santa Cruz County
|
Adult, Santa Cruz County |
|
 |
 |
|
Adult, Santa Cruz County |
Adult, Monterey County © Dave Feliz |
|
Habitat |
 |
 |
 |
Breeding pond, fall,
Santa Cruz County |
Breeding pond, winter,
Santa Cruz County |
Breeding pond, late winter
Santa Cruz County |
 |
 |
|
| Habitat, Monterey County © Dave Feliz |
Habitat, wildlife refuge,
Santa Cruz County |
|
|
Description |
Size |
| Adults are 1 3/5 - 3 1/2 inches long (4.1 - 8.9 cm) from snout to vent, 4 - 6 2/3 inches (10 - 17 cm) in total length. |
| Appearance |
A medium-sized salamander. The body is stout with 12 - 13 costal grooves and a broad rounded head, a blunt snout, small protuberant eyes, and no nasolabial grooves. Black above with an orange dorsal stripe, broken into spots and bars. The sides are sprinkled with whitish specks. The venter is grey or black. The tail is flattened from side to side to facilitate swimming.
Larvae have broad heads, three pairs of bushy gills and broad caudal fins that extend well onto the back. |
| Behavior and Natural History |
A member of the Mole Salamander family (Ambystomatidae) whose members are medium to large in size with heavy, stocky bodies. Adults spend much of their lives underground, often utilizing the tunnels of burrowing mammals such as moles and ground squirrels. Ambystomatid salamanders have two distinct life phases. Larvae are born in the water where they swim using an enlarged tail fin and breathe with filamentous external gills. Generally, these aquatic larvae transform into four-legged salamanders that live on the ground and breathe air with lungs.
Transformed adults are terrestrial and breathe with lungs but some gilled adults remain in the water and grow to a large size before transforming. However, neotenic adults have not been reported. Transformed adults are rarely found outside of the breeding season. They are mostly found under wood, logs, rocks, bark and other objects near breeding sites, or when they are breeding in the water. At other times of the year they stay in rotten logs or moist places underground such as animal burrows. Adults migrate to breeding sites, then return to terrestrial habitats. Adults live to about 10 years of age.
Young larvae feed by sitting and waiting for prey, while larger larvae also stalk and pursue prey.
Adults produce sticky skin secretions to deter predators, and they can vocalize with squeaks and clicks, which might startle predators who capture them. (Hossack, B. R. 2002. natural history notes: Ambystoma macrodactylum krausei (northern long-toed salamander). Vocalization. Herpetological Review 33:121.) |
| Sound |
| Adult Long-toed Salamanders can vocalize with squeaks and clicks, which might startle predators who capture them. (Hossack, B. R. 2002. natural history notes: Ambystoma macrodactylum krausei (northern long-toed salamander). Vocalization. Herpetological Review 33:121.) |
| Diet |
Carnivorous. Transformed adults eat small invertebrates, including worms, mollusks, insects, and spiders.
Larvae start by eating small crustaceans. As they increase in size, they gradually consume larger prey items, including crustaceans, worms, mollusks, and frog tadoles. Larger larvae may cannibalize smaller larvae. |
| Reproduction and Young |
Reproduction is aquatic. Adults become sexually mature at 1 - 3 years, and migrate overland to the breeding site during nights with heavy rain from October through February with breeding occuring in January and February. Males enter the ponds before females. Adults remain in the ponds from several days to more than a month.
Females lay from 90 - 400 eggs in clusters containing from 1 - 81 eggs in shallow water, attaching them singly or in loose clusters to the undersides of logs and branches, or leaving them unattached on the bottom. Eggs hatch in 2 - 5 weeks. Larvae may not transform the first season.
Drying of ponds triggers transformation.
Larvae transform in 4 - 5 months in temporary ponds. Young remain at the pond sites until the first rains in the fall. |
| Range |
| This subspecies is endemic to California, inhabiting a very limited range with scattered populations in a reported 11 locations around the coast of Monterey Bay in southern Santa Cruz County and the northern edge of Monterey County. |
| Habitat |
| Found in dense riparian vegetation such as willows, thick coastal scrub, and oak woodland. |
| Taxonomic Notes |
| Four subspecies of Ambysoma macrodactylum are recognized, two occur in California. |
| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| This subspecies is listed as federally endangered and heavily protected due to its limited range combined with loss of habitat to land development. |
|
|
Taxonomy |
| Family |
Ambystomatidae |
Mole Salamanders |
| Genus |
Ambystoma |
Mole Salamanders |
| Species |
macrodactylum |
Long-toed Salamander |
Subspecies
|
croceum |
Santa Cruz Long-toed Salamander |
|
Original Description |
Ambystoma macrodactylum - Baird, 1849 - Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Ser. 2, Vol. 1, p. 292
Ambystoma macrodactylum croceum - Russell and Anderson, 1956 - Herpetologica, Vol. 12, p. 137
from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
|
|
Meaning of the Scientific Name |
Ambystoma: anabystoma - to cram into the mouth. Possibly derived from Amblystoma: Greek - blunt mouth.
macrodactylum: Greek: long toe
croceum: Latin - saffron colored, referring to the dull orange dorsal stripe.
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
|
|
Alternate Names |
None
|
|
Related or Similar California Salamanders |
Southern Long-toed Salamander
California Tiger Salamander
|
|
More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
AmphibiaWeb
Thelander, Carl G., editor in chief. Life on the Edge - A Guide to California's Endangered Natural Resources - Wildlife. Berkeley: Bio Systems Books, 1994.
Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.
Behler, John L., and F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
Powell, Robert., Joseph T. Collins, and Errol D. Hooper Jr. A Key to Amphibians and Reptiles of the Continental United States and Canada. The University Press of Kansas, 1998.
Bartlett, R. D. & Patricia P. Bartlett. Guide and Reference to the Amphibians of Western North America (North of Mexico) and Hawaii. University Press of Florida, 2009.
Bishop, Sherman C. Handbook of Salamanders. Cornell University Press, 1943.
Lannoo, Michael (Editor). Amphibian Declines: The Conservation Status of United States Species. University of California Press, June 2005.
Petranka, James W. Salamanders of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Institution, 1998.
|
|
|
|
The following status listings come from the Special Animals List which is published several times each year by the California Department of Fish and Game.
|
Organization
|
Status Listing
|
| U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) |
FE |
Endangered |
| California Endangered Species Act (CESA) |
SE |
Endangered |
| California Department of Fish and Game |
DFG:FP |
Fully Protected |
| Bureau of Land Management |
None |
|
| USDA Forest Service |
None |
|
| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
G5 T1S1 |
Secure |
World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
|
VU |
|
|
|
|
