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Adult, Del Norte County |
Adult (in defensive stance with defensive secretions on head and tail) and juvenile, Del Norte County |
Juvenile, Del Norte County |
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Adult, Del Norte County |
Adult, Del Norte County |
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Adult, Del Norte County |
Adult, Del Norte County |
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Adult, 5200 ft elevation on Young's Peak in far eastern Del Norte County © Alan Barron |
Adult, Del Norte County |
Underside, Del Norte County
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Adult, inland, 2,500 ft. Del Norte County © Alan Barron |
Adults, Lowland Redwoods, Del Norte County © Alan Barron |
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Adults, Lowland Redwoods, Del Norte County © Alan Barron |
Adults, Lowland Redwoods, Del Norte County © Alan Barron |
Adult, near sea level, Del Norte County © Alan Barron |
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Adult from Whaler Island, Del Norte County © Alan Barron |
Adult from Whaler Island, Del Norte County © Alan Barron |
Juvenile from Whaler Island, Del Norte County © Alan Barron |
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An unusual yellow adult from coastal sand dune forest, Del Norte County
© Alan Barron |
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Habitat |
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Habitat, Del Norte County
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Habitat, Del Norte County |
Habitat, Del Norte County |
Short Video |
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Adult and juvenile painted Painted Ensatina roam the redwood forest. One climbs up to the edge of a large downed log then jumps way down to the ground showing off its acrobatic skills. |
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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. The Painted Ensatina subspecies is smaller than other Ensatina subspecies - averaging about 2/3 their size. |
| Appearance |
A medium-sized plethodontid salamander which breathes through its smooth moist thin skin. 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.
This subspecies is dark tan to brown above, with dark blotching along the upper sides, and yellow to orange blotching on the lower sides. The underside is pale orange or pinkish and the tail is mottled with black and yellow. |
| Behavior and Natural History |
Ensatina live in relatively cool moist places on land, and stay underground during hot and dry periods where they are able to tolerate considerable dehydration. They are most active on rainy or wet nights when temperatures are moderate. High-altitude populations are also inactive during severe winter cold.
Adults have been observed marking and defending territories outside of the breeding season.
Typically feeding is done using sit-and-wait ambush tactics, catching the prey with a sticky tongue, but sometimes Ensatina will slowly stalk their prey.
Longevity has been estimated at up to 15 years.
When disturbed, Ensatina will stand tall in a stiff-legged defensive posture with its back swayed and the tail raised up. Often they secrete a milky white substance from the top of the tail. This noxious substance repels potential predators and sticks to the mouth of a predator that is trying to swallow them. When severely threatened, an Ensatina may drop its tail to distract a predator. The tail can be re-grown.
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| Sound |
| Rarely, Ensatina make a hissing sound, similar to the hissing of a snake, when threatened. (Stebbins 1951; Brodie, 1978.) |
| Diet |
| Eats a wide variety of invertebrates, including spiders, beetles, crickets, sowbugs, centipedes, millipedes, worms, snails, and termites. |
| Reproduction and Young |
Reproduction is terrestrial. Breeding takes place in Fall and Spring, but may also occur throughout the winter. 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 their eggs, remaining with them until they hatch. Females lay from 3 - 25 eggs, with 9 - 16 being average. In labs, eggs have hatched in 113 - 177 days. Young hatch fully formed and probably emerge with the Fall rains.
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| Range |
The Painted Ensatina subspecies occurs in a small range along the Pacific coast from extreme northwest California in Del Norte County, to extreme southwest Oregon in Curry County.
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. |
| Habitat |
| Inhabits moist shaded evergreen and deciduous forests. Found under rocks, logs, other debris, especially bark that has peeled off and fallen alongside logs and trees. Most common where there is a lot of coarse woody debris on the forest foor. In dry or very cold weather, stays inside moist logs, animal burrows, under roots, woodrat nests, under rocks. |
| Taxonomic Notes |
Robert Stebbins eliminated the range of the subspecies E. e. oregonensis (which he calls a "morphotype" not a subspecies) in California, showing a very large area of intergradation in California between E. e.picta and E. e. xanthoptica and E. e.picta and E.e. platensis. (Stebbins 2003)
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, and E. e. xanthoptica, which ring the Central Valley, but do not interbreed where the rings overlap in Southern California (and possibly in the central Sierra Nevada.)
Some researchers consider Ensatina eschscholtzii to be comprised of 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. |
| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| None. |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Plethodontidae |
Lungless Salamanders |
| Genus |
Ensatina |
Ensatinas |
| Species |
Eschscholtzii |
Ensatina |
Subspecies
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picta |
Painted Ensatina |
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Original Description |
Ensatina eschscholtzii - Gray, 1850 - Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad., p. 48
Ensatina eschscholtzii picta - Wood, 1940 - Univ. California Publ. Zool., Vol. 42, No. 10, p. 425
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.
picta: Latin - painted or embroidered, referring to bright dorsal coloration.
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
Sierra Nevada Ensatina
Yellow-eyed Ensatina
Yellow-blotched Ensatina
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More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
AmphibiaWeb
Speciation in Progress
Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.
Behler, John L., & F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
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.
Corkran, Charlotte & Chris Thoms. Amphibians of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Lone Pine Publishing, 1996.
Jones, Lawrence L. C. , William P. Leonard, Deanna H. Olson, editors. Amphibians of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle Audubon Society, 2005.
Leonard et. al. Amphibians of Washington and Oregon. Seattle Audubon Society, 1993.
Nussbaum, R. A., E. D. Brodie Jr., and R. M. Storm. Amphibians and Reptiles of the Pacific Northwest. Moscow, Idaho: University Press of Idaho, 1983.
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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.
This salamander is not included on the Special Animals List, which indicates that there are no significant conservation concerns for it in California.
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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 Game |
None |
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| Bureau of Land Management |
None |
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| USDA Forest Service |
None |
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| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
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World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
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