Tiger Salamander

Overview

The tiger salamander is one of the largest land-dwelling salamanders in North America, named for the yellow or olive blotches and stripes marking its dark body. Most of its life is spent hidden underground in burrows, either ones it digs itself or ones abandoned by other animals, only emerging at night or during its brief breeding season.

Appearance

It has a stout, thick body with a broad head and small eyes, and coloring that ranges from olive-yellow blotches on black to more uniform dark brown depending on the population. Adults typically grow 15 to 33cm long, making them noticeably larger and bulkier than most other salamander species.

Habitat & Distribution

The tiger salamander is found in forest, grassland, wetlands habitats.

Diet & Behavior

Diet: Carnivore — Meat-eating animals that hunt, scavenge, or fish for prey, ranging from big cats to snakes and birds of prey.

Tiger salamanders are almost entirely nocturnal and fossorial, spending the vast majority of their lives in underground burrows and surfacing mainly to breed in temporary ponds after heavy rain. Some populations of tiger salamander larvae develop into permanently aquatic, gilled adults instead of the typical land-dwelling form, a rare condition called neoteny that lets them stay and reproduce in the water where they hatched.

Interesting Facts

• 1

  Tiger salamanders can live for over a decade, spending nearly all of that time hidden underground in burrows.

• 2

  Some individuals never fully metamorphose into land-dwelling adults, instead keeping their gills and staying aquatic for life -- a condition called neoteny.

• 3

  They are one of the largest terrestrial salamander species in North America, reaching up to 33cm in length.

• 4

  Tiger salamanders can use their own burrows or take over burrows dug by other animals like gophers.

• 5

  They breed explosively after spring rains, sometimes migrating to breeding ponds in large numbers on a single rainy night.

Gallery

Tiger Salamander FAQs