Herpedex: All the Herps I Have Seen In The Wild: Herping in Champaign County, Illinois

Small-mouth Salamander: PC Yatin Kalki

Date:
March 20th 2015

Species Found:

Small-mouth Salamander (Ambystoma texanum)

Background:

We had gone to Busey Woods on March 13th but didn't find anything because the ground was frozen solid. Tristan and I decided to go again on March 20th and the ground was nice and muddy, perfect for finding salamanders.

The Trip:

First we decided to look near a pond near which Tristan had found loads of Small-mouth Salamanders in the Fall. The 3rd log we flipped had a large gravid female Small-mouth Salamander under it. It was bluish-black and a little plain looking. This was the first Small-mouth Salamander that I had seen so I wasn't aware of how colorful they could be. Either way, I was happy that I had a model to photograph with my new camera.

Gravid Female Small-mouth Salamander: PC Yatin Kalki

2 minutes later I found 2 juvenile Small-mouth Salamanders under 2 mossy rocks right next to each other. These were prettier with light blue lichenous markings on their sides and bellies. They were both metamorphs, which were a little less than a year old.

Juvenile Small-mouth Salamander: PC Yatin Kalki

Juvenile Small-mouth Salamanders: PC Yatin Kalki

We moved to a different pond to see what we might find there. Tristan found some egg masses in the water and I found another large Small-mouth Salamander. It was as big as the female but we couldn't tell the gender of this one. When we were photographing it, it released a sticky substance that reminded me of the slime released by Slimy Salamanders.