Spotted Salamander on the Move

In my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, there is a park system that has thousands of acres of untouched land.  It's the perfect location to find all types of herps.  It was documented within the last few weeks that amphibians have started to migrate at night to breeding ponds from surrounding forests.  This is a good sign that spring is in the air.  The spotted salamander, Ambystoma maculatum, was amongst the species migrating.  While I didn't witness it personally, there were many pictures to document the event.

The spotted salamander can be found in eastern North America, with a wide range along the coast.  The salamander likes to stay in moist areas under logs and leaf litter.  Females of this species tend to be larger than the males.  They are pretty easy to identify by their long, slender body with a dark gray or black color with round yellow or orange spots going down the body in a line.  The spotted salamander has a metamorphic life history, and the one in the picture is an adult.  When it is time to breed, the spotted salamander will try to return to the pond that it hatched in, even if there are other ponds that are closer.  The spotted salamander, if it survives past metamorphosis to a juvenile, can live anywhere from 20-30 years.  I find that very interesting because I never thought they could live that long.  It's kind of hard to tell from the picture whether the spotted salamander is a male or female, but it seems rather large so I would say it is a female.  It's amazing that such a little organism can have such a large impact on the environment.