Tiger Salamander Season
Volunteers Survey For This Rare and Elusive NJ Salamander.
by: Larissa Smith, CWF Wildlife Biologist
On a cold December evening I met up with ENSP biologists and dedicated Tiger Salamander project volunteers to survey for Eastern Tiger Salamanders. The group had been out surveying all day in Atlantic County without spotting any tiger salamanders and were cold but still raring to go. The pool we surveyed has been a successful tiger salamander breeding pool, within a complex of enhanced vernal pools. We weren’t disappointed as we quickly found adult salamanders in the pool and egg masses.
Another great find was a neotenic (gilled adult). This was a larvae, most likely, from last season that didn’t metamorphose and still had external gills. It had not yet left the pool, whereas most larvae metamorphose and leave the pools in June to July of their hatching year.
We surveyed a second pool in the complex, but found no sign of adults or egg masses. We found fish in the pool, which is an indicator that there won’t be salamanders since the fish eat the eggs and larvae.
New Tiger Salamander breeding pools have been found by the TS volunteers, in Cape May and Cumberland Counties. It is encouraging to know that these salamanders continue to live and breed in New Jersey and that gives me hope for the future of all NJ wildlife.
Learn More
- Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Online Field Guide: Eastern Tiger Salamander
- Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Blog: Salamanders Arrive at Enhanced Vernal Pool Complex at Cape May
- Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Blog: Headstarted eastern tiger salamanders released in constructed pool in Cape May!
- Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Blog: Protecting Eastern Tiger Salamanders in New Jersey