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Electronic Field Guide to the
Reptiles and Amphibians of
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Adult, Kern County |
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Adult, Mariposa County |
Adult, Kern County |
Adult, Kern County |
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Adult and large juvenile, Kern County |
Adult, 1,100 ft., Fresno County |
Juvenile, Tulare County |
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Adult underside, Kern County |
Adult, Fresno County (notice the defensive milking on tail.) © Tim Burkhardt |
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Adult, in defensive posture,
Mariposa County
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On August 2nd in Tulare County, Ricky Grubb photographed this adult Sierra Nevada Ensatina brooding approximately 10 eggs inside a rotting log of a fallen Giant Sequoia. © Ricky Grubb |
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| Small juvenile, Tulare County |
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Adult, Kern Plateau © 2003 Brad Alexander
The presence of Ensatina on the Kern Plateau in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains was confirmed in 2003 when Brad Alexander found several (including the orange and lilac salamander shown above) on a rainy night in an area where he had seen them many years previously. Because of its range and appearance, this animal is included with the subspecies E. e. platensis, although it is possible that research on this animal could prove otherwise. |
| Intergrades |
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| Adult, Shasta County, before and after excreting milky defensive fluids. |
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Adult and juvenile Intergrades, Shasta County |
Juvenile, Shasta County |
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This adult and juvenile were found near Twain Harte in Tuolumne County, which is in the contact or hybrid zone between E. e. xanthoptica and E. e. platensis.
© Taryn Horn |
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Habitat |
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Habitat, 5,900 ft., Kern County |
Habitat, Yosemite Valley, Mariposa County |
Habitat, Tulare County |
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Habitat, Shasta County
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Habitat, Fresno County |
Habitat, 5,900 ft., Kern County |
Short Video |
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A Sierra Nevada Ensatina in the mountains of Kern County. |
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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 is gray to dark brown above, with reddish to orange spots. The underside is pale gray to whitish. Yellow to orange coloring is present on the base of the limbs. The upper eyelids have yellow to orange spots. Juveniles are darker with fewer spots. |
| 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
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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 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 |
This subspecies of Ensatina, Ensatina eschscholtzii platensis - Sierra Nevada Ensatina, is endemic to California. Found in the Sierra Nevada mountains from the Greenhorn Mountains north to the area around Mt. Lassen where integrades with E. e. oregonensis (or E. e. picta) occur. Some individuals in the lower Kern River Canyon appear to be intergrades with E. e. croceater.
From around 1,000 ft. (305 m) to around 11,000 ft. (3,350 m).
In the central Sierra Nevadas, it occurs at higher elevations than E. e. xanthoptica.
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.
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| Habitat |
| Inhabits moist shaded evergreen and deciduous forests and oak woodlands. Found under rocks, logs, other debris, especially bark that has peeled off and fallen beside 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 |
Hybridizes with E. e. xanthoptica in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
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) |
| None. |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Plethodontidae |
Lungless Salamanders |
| Genus |
Ensatina |
Ensatinas |
| Species |
Eschscholtzii |
Ensatina |
Subspecies
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platensis |
Sierra Nevada Ensatina |
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Original Description |
Ensatina eschscholtzii - Gray, 1850 - Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad., p. 48
Ensatina eschscholtzii platensis - Jimenez de la Espada, 1875) - An. Soc. Espan. Hist. Nat. 4, p. 71, pl. 1
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.
platensis: Belonging to the Rio La Plata, Uruguay. Espada named this salamander Urotropis platensis because he thought
it came from Montevideo, Uruguay.The specimen was probably mis-labelled.
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
Yellow-eyed Ensatina
Yellow-blotched Ensatina
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More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
AmphibiaWeb
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.
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 Wildlife |
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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