Fire Salamander

Description:

About 20cm in length, conspicuously coloured and easy to recognize amphibian. Coloured like this, with yellow spots roughly organised in two parallel lines, give away the subspecies - S. s. terrestris, the most common one in France. In spite of these striking colours, they camouflage with ease (pics N°4 & 5) on the forest floor, hiding among fallen leaves, branches and dead logs.

Habitat:

Found on the edge of forest, creeping towards the asphalt road running through that forest. Forest itself is a lowland oak amd beech forest, located in Geneva lake valley. This particular forest is protected as recognized and important habitat of Fire Salamanders, containing an important population of them - few years ago, about 600 of salamanders were counted there during the transect walk.

Notes:

It is that time of the year - the breeding season for these salamanders, and the local community is currently undertaking protection activities. The idea behind this action is to prevent salamanders being squashed by cars - normally discreet and shy, during the mating season, they look for clearings and meadows for their games, and as roads offer sort of clear spot, they often end up there... So, whenever the weather is favourable for their mating games (humid weather, with moderate rain and temperature between 6 and 10-12°C) volunteers gather around these spots, capture adults and bring them back inside the forest. In the past years, a French conservation organisation LPO led these activities in this spot, and long line of nets were installed between their habitats and nearby road to help prevent salamanders from accessing this road. Moreover, when salamanders would be captured, we would measure and photograph them and enter these information in a national database. Unfortunately, as the funds became limited, LPO had to scale down and this spot is no longer monitored, but for a small group of hard-core volunteers who patrols every night during this season - and I'm seriously thinking to write an entry to PN blog about this action and how it is continued by local community.