schwanzlurche
Jul. 24th, 2005 00:14![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
piranhagerman just sounds too funny sometimes.
a few weeks ... or rather, months ago, i took some bad pictures of a creature we saw during a walk at the nanaimo river. couldn't get close enough, or better light, so i never posted them, but identifying the newt/salamander remained on my todo list.
well, success! and woohoo, it's toxic! well, i wasn't gonna touch it right then and there.
and here are many much, much better pictures of it. i think i am gonna go back to see whether i can find these guys again. by now those large puddles are likely drying up though. (this was the steep swimming hole access off nanaimo river road, on the left, before the white rapids turnoff. same place we saw the fairy slippers.)
Rough-skinned Newt (Taricha granulosa)
Description: This salamander has a dry granul above, and bright orange below.
Sexes: Breeding males develop a swollen vent, high tail crest, smooth skin, and cornified, melanized nuptial pads. Nonbreeding males have a granulated skin as do females at all times. Sexes can be distinguished by anatomical details of the cloaca (Stebbins 1954:45), but this is difficult to do in the field.
Range: This species is found in the humid coastal forests from southeast Alaska to northern California, primarily west of the Cascade and Coast Range mountains.
Habitat: This species is found in permanent swamps, ponds, and lakes. Microhabitats in forest habitats have not been studied.
Reproduction: These salamanders lay a series of single eggs in ponds and small lakes in the spring. Larvae develop over the summer and transform by the end of August. At higher altitudes, some larvae may overwinter and transform the following summer. After metamorphosis, the young leave the water until they reach their 4th or 5th year when they become sexually mature and return to the pond to breed. On southern Vancouver Island, Oliver and McCurdy (1974) found that adult males normally remain permanently aquatic, but adult females migrate from breeding ponds to overwinter on land. However, at Marion Lake, B.C., which is on the mainland, Efford and Mathias (1969) reported that males as well as females left the water by mid-October and returned early in the spring. Mass migrations of newts to breeding ponds are limited to females only. Details of the activities and natural history of T. granulosa during the terrestrial phase are unknown.
Natural History: The skin of T. granulosa contains high concentrations of tetrodotoxin (TTX), a neurotoxin, which functions as a defense against predators. Thus, they are virtually immune to predation by fish, and unlike many other aquatic amphibians, are able to coexist with fresh water salmonids.
Status: Yellow list. Common.
References: Chandler (1918), Storm and Pimentel (1954); Pimentel (1960); Brodie (1968); Efford and Mathias (1969); Efford and Tsumura (1973); Oliver (1974); Oliver and McCurdy (1974); Macartney and Gregory (1981); Taylor (1984); Brodie and Brodie (1990, 1991); Bury et al. 1991.
text excerpted from http://srmwww.gov.bc.ca/risc/pubs/tebiodiv/pond/index.htm.
a few weeks ... or rather, months ago, i took some bad pictures of a creature we saw during a walk at the nanaimo river. couldn't get close enough, or better light, so i never posted them, but identifying the newt/salamander remained on my todo list.
well, success! and woohoo, it's toxic! well, i wasn't gonna touch it right then and there.
and here are many much, much better pictures of it. i think i am gonna go back to see whether i can find these guys again. by now those large puddles are likely drying up though. (this was the steep swimming hole access off nanaimo river road, on the left, before the white rapids turnoff. same place we saw the fairy slippers.)
Rough-skinned Newt (Taricha granulosa)
Description: This salamander has a dry granul above, and bright orange below.
Sexes: Breeding males develop a swollen vent, high tail crest, smooth skin, and cornified, melanized nuptial pads. Nonbreeding males have a granulated skin as do females at all times. Sexes can be distinguished by anatomical details of the cloaca (Stebbins 1954:45), but this is difficult to do in the field.
Range: This species is found in the humid coastal forests from southeast Alaska to northern California, primarily west of the Cascade and Coast Range mountains.
Habitat: This species is found in permanent swamps, ponds, and lakes. Microhabitats in forest habitats have not been studied.
Reproduction: These salamanders lay a series of single eggs in ponds and small lakes in the spring. Larvae develop over the summer and transform by the end of August. At higher altitudes, some larvae may overwinter and transform the following summer. After metamorphosis, the young leave the water until they reach their 4th or 5th year when they become sexually mature and return to the pond to breed. On southern Vancouver Island, Oliver and McCurdy (1974) found that adult males normally remain permanently aquatic, but adult females migrate from breeding ponds to overwinter on land. However, at Marion Lake, B.C., which is on the mainland, Efford and Mathias (1969) reported that males as well as females left the water by mid-October and returned early in the spring. Mass migrations of newts to breeding ponds are limited to females only. Details of the activities and natural history of T. granulosa during the terrestrial phase are unknown.
Natural History: The skin of T. granulosa contains high concentrations of tetrodotoxin (TTX), a neurotoxin, which functions as a defense against predators. Thus, they are virtually immune to predation by fish, and unlike many other aquatic amphibians, are able to coexist with fresh water salmonids.
Status: Yellow list. Common.
References: Chandler (1918), Storm and Pimentel (1954); Pimentel (1960); Brodie (1968); Efford and Mathias (1969); Efford and Tsumura (1973); Oliver (1974); Oliver and McCurdy (1974); Macartney and Gregory (1981); Taylor (1984); Brodie and Brodie (1990, 1991); Bury et al. 1991.
text excerpted from http://srmwww.gov.bc.ca/risc/pubs/tebiodiv/pond/index.htm.
no subject
on 2005-07-24 10:46 (UTC)no subject
on 2005-07-24 18:53 (UTC)no subject
on 2005-07-24 19:17 (UTC)P.
no subject
on 2005-07-24 20:36 (UTC)