Range in California: Light Blue
Click the map for a key to
the other Ensatina subspecies
Dot-locality Range Map
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| Adult, 3,300 ft. Tejon Pass, Tehachapi Mountains, Kern County |
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| Underside of adult, Tejon Pass, Tehachapi Mountains, Kern County |
Adult, 3,300 ft. Tejon Pass, Tehachapi Mountains, Kern County |
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Adult, in defensive pose, 6,000 ft., Breckenridge Mountain, Kern County |
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Juvenile, 6,000 ft. Breckenridge Mtn.,
Kern County |
Juvenile, 3,300 ft. Tejon Pass, Tehachapi Mountains, Kern County |
Juvenile, (about 1.5 inches in length) Tejon Pass, 3,300 ft. Kern County |
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Adult, 1,800 ft. elevation, Kern County, from intergrade zone with E.e.platensis. |
Adult, 1,800 ft. elevation, Kern County, from intergrade zone with E.e.platensis. |
Adult, 4,500 ft., Tehachapi, Kern County.
This Ensatina with large blotches was discovered one night in late December on a back porch. It was 45 degrees and raining. © Terri Asher |
Habitat |
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Habitat, 3300 ft., Tehachapi Mountains,
Kern County
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Habitat, 3300 ft., Tehachapi Mountains,
Kern County |
Habitat, 3,500 ft., Tehachapi
Mountains, Kern County |
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Habitat, 6,000 ft., Breckenridge
Mountain, Kern County |
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| Short Video |
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An adult Yellow-blotched Ensatina crawls around on a fallen log trying to get back under cover. |
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Description |
Size |
| Adult Ensatina measure from 1 1/2 - 3 1/5 inches long ( 3.8 - 8.1 cm) from snout to vent, and 3 - 6 inches (7.5 - 15.5 cm) in total length. |
| Appearance |
A medium-sized salamander. The legs are long, and the body is relatively short, with 12 - 13 costal grooves. Nasolabial grooves are present. The tail is rounded and constricted at the base, which will differentiate this salamander from its neighbors. Males have longer, more slender tails than females, and a shorter snout with an enlarged upper lip, while the bodies of females are usually shorter and fatter than the bodies of males.
This subspecies has a black ground color is marked with large yellow or cream-colored blotches, with yellow or orange on the base of the limbs. |
| Behavior and Natural History |
A member of family Plethodontidae, the Plethodontid or Lungless Salamanders.
Lungless Salamanders breathe through their skin which requires them to live in damp environments on land and to move about on the ground only during times of high humidity. (In California, they do not inhabit streams or bodies of water, but they are capable of surviving for some time if they fall into water.)
Lungless salamanders are distinguished by their naso-labial grooves, which are vertical slits between the nostrils and upper lip that are lined with glands used in chemoreception. All California Lungless Salamanders lay eggs in moist places on land. The young hatch from the egg directly into a tiny terrestrial salamander with the same body form as an adult. (They do not hatch in the water and begin their lives as tiny swimming larvae breathing through gills, as occurs with other types of salamanders.)
Ensatina live in relatively cool moist places on land becoming most active on rainy or wet nights when temperatures are moderate. They stay underground during hot and dry periods where they are able to tolerate considerable dehydration. They may also continue to feed underground during the summer months. High-altitude populations are also inactive during severe winter cold. Longevity has been estimated at up to 15 years.
Adults have been observed marking and defending territories outside of the breeding season.
When severely threatened, an Ensatina may drop its tail to distract the attention of a predator towards the writhing tail so the animal can crawl away to safety. The tail can be re-grown. The tail also contains a high density of poison glands. When disturbed, an Ensatina will stand tall in a stiff-legged defensive posture with its back swayed and the tail raised up and secrete a milky white substance from the tail, swaying the it from side to side. This noxious substance repels predators, although some experienced predators learn to eat all but the tail. If a person gets the poison on their lips, they will experience some numbness for several hours.1 |
| Diet and Feeding |
| Ensatinas eat a wide variety of invertebrates, including worms, ants, beetles, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, millipedes, sow bugs, and snails. They expell a relatively long sticky tongue from the mouth to capture the prey and pull it back into the mouth where it is crushed and killed, then swallowed. Typically feeding is done using sit-and-wait ambush tactics, but sometimes Ensatinas will slowly stalk their prey. |
| Reproduction and Young |
Reproduction is terrestrial. Breeding takes place in Fall and Spring, but may also occur throughout the winter. Stebbins described an elaborate Ensatina courtship involving the male rubbing his body and head against the female eventually dropping a sperm capsule onto the ground which the female picks up with her cloaca. (A description and illustration of this courtship can be seen here.) The female can store the sperm until she determines the time is right to fertilize her eggs.
At the end of the rainy season, typically April or May, females retreat to their aestivation site under bark, in rotting logs, or in underground animal burrows, and lay 3 - 25 eggs, with 9 - 16 being average. Females remain with the eggs to guard them until they hatch. (You can see pictures of two Ensatinas with their eggs and hatchlings here.)
In labs, eggs have hatched in 113 - 177 days. The young hatch fully formed and probably leave the nesting site with the first saturating Fall rains, or, at higher elevations, after the snow melts. |
| Range |
The Yellow-blotched Ensatina subspecies is endemic to California. It occurs in the lower Kern River Canyon, the Paiute Mountains, Breckenridge Mountain, the Tehachapi mountains, on Mt. Pinos, near Fort Tejon, and near Frazier-Alamo mountain. Some individuals in the lower Kern River Canyon appear to be intergrades with E. e. platensis. Intergrades with E. e. klauberi are found in the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains.
Ensatina is the most widely-distributed plethodontid salamander in the West, ranging from an isolated location in the mountains of Baja California north along the extreme northwest coast of Baja California, through most of California excluding the deserts, the central valley, and high elevations in the mountains, continuing north into Oregon and Washington west of the Cascades Mountains, and farther north into Canada along the coast of southern British Columbia. Also found on Vancouver Island.
The Ensatina range maps shown here are based on the map from the following paper, which is based on Stebbins' distribution map but with borders based on molecular markers rather than morphological traits:
Joao Alexandrino, Stuart J. E. Baird, Lucinda Lawson, J. Robert Macey, Craig Moritz, and David B. Wake. Strong Selection Against Hybrids at a Hybrid Zone in the Ensatina Ring Species Complex and Its Evolutionary Implications. Evolution, 59(6), 2005, pp. 1334–1347. |
| Habitat |
| Found in evergreen and deciduous forests, under rocks, logs, and other surface debris, especially bark that has peeled off and fallen beside decaying logs. Shaded north-facing areas seem to be favored, especially near creeks or streams. Most common where there is a lot of woody debris on the forest foor. In dry or very cold weather, stays inside moist logs, animal burrows, under roots, woodrat nests, and under rocks. |
| Taxonomic Notes |
Ensatina eschscholtzii is typically treated as a "ring" species, consisting of 7 subspecies:
E. e. croceater
E. e. eschscholtzii
E. e. klauberi
E. e. oregonensis
E. e. picta
E. e. platensis
E. e. xanthoptica
These subspecies
ring the Central Valley but do not interbreed where the rings overlap in Southern California (and possibly in the central Sierra Nevada.) These contact zones are still under study.
Some researchers see Ensatina eschscholtzii as two or more species forming a superspecies complex, recognizing E. e. klauberi, found at the southern end of the ring, as a separate species - Ensatina klauberi.
E. e. eschscholtzii has been found to hybridize with intergrades of E. e. croceator and E. e. klauberi.
Charles W. Brown explains the taxonomy of the Ensatina complex in detail, describing it as "a classical example of Darwinian evolution by gradualism; an accumulation of micro mutations that is now leading to the formation of a new species."
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| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| This subspecies is a species of special concern. |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Plethodontidae |
Lungless Salamanders |
| Genus |
Ensatina |
Ensatinas |
| Species |
Eschscholtzii |
Ensatina |
Subspecies
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croceater |
Yellow-blotched Ensatina |
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Original Description |
Ensatina eschscholtzii - Gray, 1850 - Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad., p. 48
Ensatina eschscholtzii croceater - Cope, "1867" 1868 - Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Vol. 19, p. 210
from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
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Meaning of the Scientific Name |
Ensatina: Latin - sword shaped/similar to, possibly referring to the teeth.
eschscholtzii: honors Johann F. Eschscholtz.
croceater: Latin - saffron colored & black, referring to the color pattern.
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Alternate Names |
None
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Related California Salamanders |
Large-blotched Ensatina
Monterey Ensatina
Oregon Ensatina
Painted Ensatina
Sierra Nevada Ensatina
Yellow-blotched Ensatina
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More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
AmphibiaWeb
1 Charles W. Brown's Ensatina Web Site
Hansen, Robert W. Kern River Research Area Field Notes Spring 1997 Vol. 6, No. 2
Stebbins, Robert C., and McGinnis, Samuel M. Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of California: Revised Edition (California Natural History Guides) University of California Press, 2012.
Stebbins, Robert C. California Amphibians and Reptiles. The University of California Press, 1972.
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.
Joao Alexandrino, Stuart J. E. Baird, Lucinda Lawson, J. Robert Macey, Craig Moritz, and David B. Wake. Strong Selection Against Hybrids at a Hybrid Zone in the Ensatina Ring Species Complex and Its Evolutionary Implications. Evolution, 59(6), 2005, pp. 1334–1347.
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The following status listings come from the Special Animals List which is published by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
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Organization
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Status Listing
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| U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) |
None |
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| California Endangered Species Act (CESA) |
None |
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| California Department of Fish and Wildlife |
DFG:SSC |
California Species of Special Concern |
| Bureau of Land Management |
BLM:S |
Sensitive |
| USDA Forest Service |
USFS:S |
Sensitive |
| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
G5T2T3S2S3 |
Secure |
World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
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IUCN:LC |
Least Concern |
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