The Amphibian Foundation's Frog Blog

Miranda Gulsby in Pettyjohns Cave with her first ever Cave Salamander ( Eurycea lucifuga ) — Also, she was sporting my Flatwoods Salamander design SEPARC shirt. Just a very salamandery shot. Drs Ensign and McNeal's KSU Biology course, with state Herpetologist and Amphibian Foundation Scientific Advisory Board member John Jensen. The professors let me enlist the students to help collect paedomorphic Mole Salamanders ( Ambystoma talpoideum ) for our captive breeding program @ #MetaMo @amphibianfound Mole Salamanders are both a species, and a family of salamanders. The family: Ambystomatidae is so named due to the fact that most species of this family are fossorial (spend the majority of the time underground). The chunkiest of the bunch is Ambystoma talpoideum , the Mole Salamander. These adorable ambystomatids, the Mole Salamanders ( Ambystoma talpoideum ) have large heads, and short, stocky bodies Mole Salamanders (the species) have an interesting reproductive stra...

The fall breeders take an exceptional risk by using ephemeral wetlands that can easily freeze or dessicate over the winter so their larvae can develop in these temporary pools at times when they are not occupied by other competitive species. When the other species show up to breed in the spring, the larvae of these fall breeders are large enough to consume them as they hatch - an added bonus for the risk they are taking. Some species, such as the Marbled Salamander and Flatwoods Salamander are depositing their eggs during this time of year in dry basins, that will (hopefully) be inundated with water during autumn rains. Pictured here is a Mole Salamander, Ambystoma talpoideum which is only predicted to occur in metro Atlanta. Hopefully, we will be able to confirm their presence through our monthly amphibian surveys and monitoring program. For more information on the program, please visit maamp.us #Ambystomatalpoideum #Ambystomatids #Ambystomatidae #EphemeralWetland #MAAMP

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