More eggs

On our first Herpetology class field trip we made our way to Indian Creek Wildlife Preserve Metro Park in Riley, Ohio. On this trip we caught a great deal of Spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) and a massive amount of Spotted salamander eggs.

Pictured above is just a small sampling of the sheer number of eggs that we found. As you can see, Spotted salamanders lay their eggs in large gelatinous blobs of 1-200 eggs, so judging by just this picture it is clear that there were very many Spotted salamanders in this pond. These salamanders most often lay their eggs on some type of underwater structure such as these branches and rarely ever on the bottom of the pond. This particular pond is perfect habitat for Spotted salamanders as they require woodland ponds and prefer mature deciduous forest such as the one found at the Indian Creek Wildlife Preserve. The breeding period for these salamanders lasts only about a week and the eggs hatch a few weeks after breeding so our trip on March 18th was perfectly timed!

(Jill Steinbach)