Spotted Salamander

During the first warm rain of a spring night, hundreds to thousands of spotted salamander leave their forest leaf litter and head en masse for their breeding pond, usually the same pond they left, perhaps as much as 30 years ago.

They mate in the pond, leaving some 100 gelatinous eggs attached in clumps to underwater plants, then head on back to the forest. Depending upon the water temperature, the eggs hatch after one to two months into small fry, which after two months lose their gills and leave the pond for the forest. After one more spring, they will join in the spring rush to their pond.

Nocturnal, they eat worms insects, and slugs, and in turn are eaten by snakes, toads, and some turtles. Should a predator attempt to eat it, it will ooze a whitish poison from glands in its body in an attempt to deter predation. Should it lose a leg or other part, it will grow it back. Under our headlights we many times have watched this squirming mass of salamanders cross a country lane in obedience to its duty to its kind.