Salamanders

Did you know:

Salamanders are one of the three orders (groups) of Amphibians—cold-blooded animals, that usually start out as plant-eating larvae in water, and metamorphose (change) into animal-eating (e.g. insects, slugs, worms) adults that breath air—sort of like how caterpillars turn into butterflies. Salamanders live in and near streams and ponds.

There are about 400 species (different kinds) of salamanders in the world, and 127 of those live in the U.S. and Canada.

The southeastern part of the U.S. has the highest density (the most for its size) of salamanders in the world—over 75 species.

There are usually more salamanders than other vertebrates (animals that have backbones) on forest floors.

The largest salamanders belong to the genus (a group of similar species) called Andrias, that live in central China and Japan, and grow as long as 1.5 meters (about 5 feet).

In our area (the central-eastern Willamette Valley) we have the northern rough-skinned newt, which lives along the Pacific from SE Alaska to San Francisco, CA.