Eastern tiger salamander : North Carolina wildlife profiles

Eastern Tiger Salamander North Carolina Wildlife Profit NORTH CAROLINA RESOURCES COMMISSION Eastern Tiger Salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum) This salamander was named for its yellowish blotches running down its dorsum that can make it appear tiger-striped. Eastern tiger salamanders are a type of mole salamander that spend most of their lives underground and above-ground activity usually occurs at night. It is rarely seen outside of its breeding season. Description The Eastern tiger salamander is the largest salamander in the Ambystomatidac , or mole salamander family. Body color varies from a dark gray or gray- brown with yellowish blotches on the back, sides and belly. Males and females look much the same, except the female’s tail is shorter and does not flatten like the male’s during the breeding season. Tiger salamanders, like other mole salamanders, have five toes on each hind foot and four on each front foot. History and Status Before the late 1800s, Eastern tiger salamanders thrived in the sandhills and pine forests of the Southeast. N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences’ records show that this native species once was much more common and ranged from the eastern edge of the Piedmont through the upper Coastal Plain in a band from Virginia to South Carolina. Clay-based Carolina bays and longleaf pine forests, especially, made prime habitats for tiger salamanders. The bays provided rich breeding grounds with fertile vegetation; the forests brought protection, places to burrow' and food. By clearing forested land and draining ponds for farmland, beginning in the 1800s, humans altered living space for the tiger salamander. Without suitable habitat, tiger salamander populations declined rapidly. North Carolina declared the tiger salamander a threatened species in 1990. Habitats £r Habits Tiger salamanders need two types of habitat to survive — ponds for breeding and moist earth for burrowing. In North Carolina, they favor upland areas with sandy soils and sandhills or llatwoods vegetation. Breeding ponds are generally found with¬ in longleaf pine forests. Once a year, tiger salamanders migrate from their terrestrial homes to a breeding site as little as a few' yards or as far as a half mile away. They gen¬ erally choose clear, fish-free ponds that dr)’ up from time to time. These temporary, or ephemeral, ponds produce the lush vegetation tiger salamanders need for cover and egg-laying surfaces. Small farm ponds or large bays of up to 100 acres are frequently used as well, as long as these wetlands are relatively fish free. The Eastern tiger salamander is named for the yellowish blotches running down its back. Eastern tiger salamander (Photo: Jeff Hall) Range and Distribution Tiger salamanders can be found over much of the central and eastern United States and into Mexico. With most of the populations east of the Appalachian Mountains in de¬ cline, tiger salamanders are more commonly found in the Midwest, such as in Wisconsin and Colorado. Once widely scattered in the inner Coastal Plain, lower Piedmont, and in the Sandhills of North Carolina, the tiger salamander’s range is limited to Hoke, Scotland, Robeson, Moore and Wake counties. Only one breeding site remains in Wake County, and one in Moore County was discovered in 1993, the first time the tiger salamander had been seen there since 1893. Range Map ■ Eastern Tiger Salamander Range