California Tiger Salamander
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| California Tiger Salamander | ||||||||||||||
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| Ambystoma californiense Gray, 1853 |
The California Tiger Salamander (Ambystoma californiense) is an endangered amphibian native to Northern California. Previously considered to be a Tiger Salamander subspecies, the California was recently designated a separate species.
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[edit] Description
The California Tiger Salamander is a relatively large, secretive amphibian. Adults can grow to a length of about 8–10 inches (20–25 cm). It has a stocky body and a broad rounded snout. Adults are black and have yellow or cream spots; larvae are greenish-grey in color. The California Tiger Salamander has brown protruding eyes with black pupils.
[edit] Habitat and range
The California Tiger Salamander is endemic to California. Because it depends on water for reproduction, its habitat is limited to the vicinity of large, fishless vernal pools or similar water bodies. It occurs at elevations up to 1000 m (3200 ft).
It occurs throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, but is primarily found in Sonoma County, especially in the Laguna de Santa Rosa (outside the flood plain), and Santa Barbara County, in vernal pool complexes and isolated ponds along the Central Valley from Colusa County to Kern County, and in sag ponds in the coastal range. Both the Sonoma and Santa Barbara populations are listed as endangered since 2000 and 2003, respectively. On 8/4/04, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service listed the CA tiger salamander as threatened throughout its range. In doing so, the status of the Santa Barbara and Sonoma county populations was changed from endangered to threatened. However, the Santa Barbara and Sonoma County populations were returned to Endangered status on 8/19/05. The main threat to the salamanders is habitat destruction through human interaction.
[edit] Life cycle
Adults spend the majority of their lives underground, in burrows created by other animals such as ground squirrels: the salamanders themselves are poorly equipped for burrowing. Little is known about their underground life. This underground phase has often been referred to as estivation (the summertime equivalent of hibernation), but estivation has never been observed, and fiber optic cameras in burrows have allowed researchers to witness salamanders actively foraging.
Breeding takes place in December, when the wet season allows the salamanders to migrate to the nearest pond, a journey that may be as far as a mile and take several days. The eggs, which the female lays in small clusters or singly, hatch after some 10 to 14 days.
The larval period lasts for three to six months. The larvae feed on other small invertebrates, including tadpoles. When their pond dries, they resorb their gills, develop lungs, and then the metamorphs leave the pond in search of a burrow. California Tiger Salamanders never exhibit neoteny, unlike other species such as the Eastern Tiger Salamander.
California Tiger Salamanders are believed to have relatively long life spans, ten years or more.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Hammerson (2004). Ambystoma californiense. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a range map, a brief justification of why this species is vulnerable, and the criteria used
- California Natural Diversity Database California Natural Diversity Database
and others
[edit] External links
- Santa Rosa Plain Conservation Strategy Santa Rosa Plain Conservation Strategy
- Description from the California Department of Fish and Game.
- USGS Field Guide
- Michael van Hattem from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on the California Tiger Salamander. (PDF file, 826 kB)
- Species account & Federal Records from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
