09/10/2024
The spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) is a species of mole salamander commonly found in the eastern United States and Canada. It is the state amphibian of both Ohio and South Carolina. As with most mole salamanders, spotted salamanders are fossorial, meaning that they spend much of their time as adults hiding in burrows and leaf litter. These elegant brown or black salamanders with bright yellow spots usually make their homes in hardwood forest areas containing the vernal ponds and pools that they require for breeding. They have been known to live longer than thirty years.
Annually between about March and May, spotted salamanders are known to migrate, often in unorganized groups, toward local breeding areas. These amphibians normally return to the same vernal pool every year.
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The photograph used in this post shows an adult spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) on yellow leaves. The photo was taken by John P. Clare and shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) license. The image was not altered for use in this post.
View license information here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
