Earlier in the semester our class ventured to Francis Marion National Forest, an area with acres and acres of swamp land, large trees, and of course lots of plant life. We pulled the vans off onto the side of the road only to wonder into what seemed like miles of swamp land. Our waders were on, our buckets were in hand and I was anxious to check traps and find amphibians! The whole checking traps thing came as a surprise—it was harder than it looked. You had to somehow pinch two things together in order to open the top part of the trap just to discover that there was a) nothing in it or b) you caught anything but what you wanted (fish, invertebrates, etc.) As the day moseyed on and the sun began to go down it seemed as though this particular trip would be anything but successful. We’d caught a fair share of fish (minnows, a small Chain Pickerel (Esox niger)) and even a few crawdads but nothing that blew our minds. Just when we’d about given up amphibians begin coming out of nowhere! We’d found a Southern Cricket Frog (Acris gryllus) and possibly the cutest thing I’d ever seen—a salamander. From what I can remember we identified this particular salamander as a Mole Salamander (Ambystoma talpoideum). About 4 inches long, this little guy was found in a trap. He was shiny black with evidence of some speckling (it’s hard to tell in the pictures provided). These salamanders spend their lives in moist lowland areas, areas that are fit for burrowing and because they are usually never seen due to this fossorial lifestyle, when they are out it is usually mating season. This makes sense considering their mating season falls between December and February—February was around the time we were out at Francis Marion and because they tend to breed in pools of shallow water or flooded areas, the exact habitat we were in. Mole salamanders tend to exhibit paedomorphosis, where an adult of a species retains traits that were previously only seen in juveniles of that particular species—pretty cool if you ask me. Not only do they exhibit pretty cool changes throughout stages in their life, these little guys are known to return back to the same area where they hatched! Cute AND smart—my kind of animal;)
(Samantha Reeves, Charleston SC)