>>last try. best pic i got. what is this monster? >>

It is easier to say what it is not than what it is. It is not a California tiger salamander, or an Eastern tiger salamander. It is not a barred tiger salamander or an A. t. stebbinsi. The salamanders of the Great Basin, Rockies and Northwestern United States are highly variable in color pattern. R. C. Stebbins does not even give any description of the many subspecies of the tiger salamander in his latest field guide.

Complicating the identification of this species is that some populations tend to be neotenic (i.e. they retain gills, aquatic habits and they breed as larvae). Sometimes these larvae transform but they do not have the coloration of the normal adults. They often retain their larval coloration as transformed adults. Some of the neotenic larvae also become cannibalistic, and the cannibal morph have heads that are wider than the normal adults.

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