Leave Me in the Woods

Do you remember the story, Put Me in the Zoo? (by Robert Lopshire) that was part of the Dr. Suess reading series?  The story had a very impressive bear with spots, which ironically was trying to get itself committed to the zoo.  I always think of that misguided bear this time of year when the spotted salamanders start to move.  Spotted salamanders are impressive enough to be shown off at the zoo, although seeing those little polka dots on the move in nature as hundreds or thousands begin the race toward the pond where they very likely started out as eggs is even more impressive.

Today is a nice rainy, chilly day in February.  The weather has been warm enough during the last week that I am starting to contemplate planting flowers, which is a sure sign that the salamanders have noticed that change is afoot too.  In February or March, our spotted salamanders make their yearly debut when the temperature has warmed up and the days are getting longer.  My guess is that tonight spotted salamanders all over the county will crawl out of their underground burrows and will start migrating through the forest toward the pond that they were born in, some 500-1500 meters away.  (The graduate students in my lab are going out to look for them, but they are predicting that it’s a week or more off since the rain is supposed to turn to snow.  And they could well be correct!!)  This species is very common in the area and people often find them in their yards or window wells during late winter migrations.  They are often quite large, 6-8 inches, and they have a nice chunky girth (about the size of your thumb, or at least, my thumb).  Then they have the shocking yellow to orange spots that make you wonder if they have spent their winter underground messily oil painting portraits. 

If all the world is a stage, the salamander theater is the pond and the rest of the year is just preparation for the performance.  Usually the males arrive first (you can tell the males from the females based on the swollen cloaca of the males) and the females will arrive with the next good weather event a few days or week later.  And once the females show up, the play begins.  While the moving colored spots may look like a slow-motion fireworks display beneath the water’s surface as the courtship rituals unfold, there is not a lot of formal romance unless you consider a nosey nudge from a male romantic.  What males lack in refinement, they make up for in sheer enthusiasm.  The males compete for females with their nudges and a bit of nuptial dancing, which will be interspersed with laying down packets of sperm called spermatophore that the females may pick up, if so inclined.  High quality males can lay dozens of spermatophores, a high energy activity that may represent their whole reproductive effort for the year.  So, males have a few strategies to try to increase their odds of producing offspring.  To beat out the competition, they can lay their own spermatophore on top of another male’s spermatophore, a phenomenon called sperm capping.  Females can discriminately choose spermatophore from attractive males, or they can go with a lottery and pick up a few spermatophore.  Over a day or two, all the adults will breed and then they’ll leave the pond to migrate back into the forest to feed and grow.  Just like that, the show is over.  Behind, the females will leave a gelatinous clutch of eggs which over the next couple of months will develop and hatch. 

A male spotted salamander--note swollen cloaca.     

      People go to the zoo to see all sorts of interesting creatures, but we sometimes overlook those lurking in our own backyards and local parks.  One of the wonderful things about nature is that with every season there is some new sight to see and some amazing spectacle to behold, which may not be new but it may be new to you.  To look for a spotted salamander pond near you, find a wooded fishless pond.  If you see their egg masses, that means you may have missed the adults, but you will know where to take a romantic moonlit walk next year when the weather warms just a little and the rain starts to fall.

(Spotted salamander eggs lifted out of the water that were attached to a branch--

a lovely underwater chandelier!)