1
A SALAMANDER SPRING
A truly amazing thing recently occurred at Pine Lake. All year long, they have
been patiently waiting: primordial creatures lurking deep in the soil under logs and
rocks, waiting for the daylight to lengthen and for the temperature to go up. Finally the
moment arrived, and you know when that moment comes because it is the first rain where
you feel like you could go out in it with a tee-shirt and shorts and not mind getting wet.
It is a MacBeth sort of rain that leaves everything soaking and raises a mist on the black
roads at night. The moment arrived for an event that has repeated itself around here for
millions of years, long before we Homo sapiens made our appearance on earth. I am
talking about the Great Annual Amphibian Migration!
Numerous species of amphibians pour out of the dark wet woods, hopping and
wriggling through the wet leaves and dirt, across hill and dale and through the muck and,
unfortunately, across the occasional road: Red-spotted newts, wood frogs, red-backed
salamanders, peepers, toads, tree frogs, and of course the big lumbering yellow-spotted
salamanders. During such a spring rain, if the conditions are just right, you may find me,
and perhaps some companions, car with lights flashing parked along the side of Charlotte
Creek Road near Pine Lake. We run along the road “rescuing” the amphibians (help a
toad across the road). Cars often stop to see what we’re doing, and then drive off with an
oblivious squish-squish-squish, as they smash amphibians beneath their tires.
Why do they do it (the amphibians, I mean)? They are heading for breeding
grounds: ponds, swamps, and ditches. Most of them are "explosive breeders", breeding
only once per year when the conditions are just right. The male spotted salamanders and
wood frogs arrive at the breeding sites first, sometimes before the ice has completely
melted, and they are very excited by the time the first females arrive! The male frogs
frantically call, sounding a little like a bunch of nocturnal ducks gone wild
(quackquackquackquack), and will grab anything that even resembles a female frog (even
2
your finger!). Once they grab a female, a male wood frog holds on tightly, riding her out
to the middle of the pond where all the females (males still on board) dump their eggs
together in a single humongous pile. It is thought that laying the eggs altogether like this
can protect some of the eggs from freezing should the temperature suddenly drop, as it is
prone to do around here.
The salamanders are quieter, but just as frantic, as each male slithers around
trying to attract a female and, if successful, the female with follow that male to a "special
place" where the male will deposit a packet of sperm (called a spermatophore) on a
submerged leaf. The female then picks up the sperm and wanders off by herself to lay
eggs over the next few days. She usually finds a submerged stick and wraps her eggs
around it. In a few days all the ponds in the forests around here will contain round
clusters of Spotted Salamander eggs, and the adults will have wandered back to their
hiding places in the woods. Each egg cluster, which may be transparent or milky, is
about the size of a tennis ball and contains 50 or so dark brown embryos.
Over the next couple of weeks the frog and salamander embryos will develop to
hatching, and then spend the next three months as aquatic larvae, feeding on nature's
bounty of algae (for the frogs) or aquatic insects and worms (for the salamanders). Then,
at the end of summer, the larvae metamorphose into tiny little froglets or miniature
salamanders that wriggle out of the water and into the woods where they will search for a
suitable burrow to spend the winter, eating arthopods and worms, not to emerge again
until they have grown into sexually mature adults and start the process over again. Each
frog can live for several years, and each adult salamander can live for 20 or more years!
It is a truly remarkable fact that a total of 15 species of amphibians live in and
around Pine Lake, depending on its clean waters and intact forests for survival. Hemlock
Swamp at Pine Lake is particularly important, serving as a natural breeding ground and
hatchery for at least seven of these species. Currently, amphibians around the world are
disappearing faster than ever before, mostly because of environmental damage caused by
humans. As owners and users of Pine Lake, it is our awesome responsibility to protect
the ecosystems there for the sake of amphibians and all the other creatures that depend on
it for their survival.
Stan Sessions
Professor of Biology
3
Red backed salamander
Dusky salamander
Four-toed salamander
Slimy salamander
Two-lined salamander
Spring salamander
4
Spotted salamander
Red-spotted newt adult
Red-spotted newt juvenile (red eft)
5
Wood frog
Pickerel frog
Green frog
Bull frog
Spring Peeper
American toad
6
7
8
9
10