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Cave Salamander

Eurycea lucifuga

Description:

Bright orange to red, it has irregular black spots on the dorsum. The underside is white to yellowish with no markings. The body is elongated and slender with the prehensile tail making up more than 60 percent of the body length. The head is large and flattened and the eyes bulge out of the head. These salamanders range in size from 10 to 20 cm. Cave salamanders may produce a noxious secretion from the tail if bothered, and when attacked they will coil their body around and tuck their head underneath the base of the tail, then wriggle the tail to distract the predator. Using this common defensive strategy for many species, the cave salamander can regenerate the tail if part of it is broken off.

Habitat:

One of our more colorful salamanders, the cave salamander is found in karst habitat throughout the eastern two-thirds of Tennessee.

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13 Comments

LisaPowers
LisaPowers 12 years ago

Thanks everyone!

WilliamCrain - salamanders are suffering declines in many regions...they live in such specialized habitats and are so sensitive to environmental pollution and climate change.

Darwin26
Darwin26 12 years ago

you do nice work with salamanders - fun little critters. are they on the increase ?

Saarbrigger
Saarbrigger 12 years ago

I like the second pic most.

GeoLeo42
GeoLeo42 12 years ago

No wonder why you earned the "Spotting of the day" award....congrats!!!

Harsha Singh
Harsha Singh 12 years ago

Awesome!

Wild Things
Wild Things 12 years ago

Wonderful creature Lisa and congratulations.

DrlalitGupta
DrlalitGupta 12 years ago

nice pic

Charly Ortega Rangel
Charly Ortega Rangel 12 years ago

congratulations it´s wonderfull pic from a marvelous animal

Charly Ortega Rangel
Charly Ortega Rangel 12 years ago

cobgratulations it´s wonderfull pic froma marvelous animal

Nice picture, congratulations

textless
textless 12 years ago

What a beautiful animal! And congratulations on the spotting of the day. :)

peter
peter 12 years ago

Spotting of the Day!

"The amphibious Cave salamander is an excellent climber whose scientific name means "avoid light” referring to its cave environment."

http://facebook.com/projectnoah/posts/28...
http://twitter.com/projectnoah/status/11...

marylou.wildlife
marylou.wildlife 12 years ago

Awesome find!! I must say I am pretty jealous :) Great photos as well, I always love the face shots!

LisaPowers
Spotted by
LisaPowers

Tennessee, USA

Spotted on Aug 19, 2011
Submitted on Aug 27, 2011

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