Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Found yesterday, in Upstate NY. Its the strangest herp I've seen in my 30 years in the field. Just amazingly odd and beautiful adult female leucistic yellow spotted salamander. What are the chances that this thing lived to adult hood! I guess its good eye sight helped. Enjoy.

Best,
Kenny

Awesome find!!
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Diego

Diego & Tiffany's Zoo:
SNAKES
1.2.0 Corn Snakes (Different morphs)
1.1.0 Hypo Everglades Rat Snakes
1.1.0 Trans-Pecos Rat Snakes
1.1.0 Salt and Pepper Bull Snakes
0.1.0 Amel Pacific Gopher Snake
2.1.0 Sonoran Gopher Snakes
0.1.0 Amel Sonoran Gopher Snake
1.1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnakes
1.0.0 Gray Banded Kingsnake
1.0.0 Hypermelanistic California Kingsnake
0.1.0 Albino High White California Kingsnake
0.1.0 California Kingsnake
1.1.0 Thayeri Kingsnake
4.1.0 Rosy Boas (Harquahala, Mexican, Temecula, & Mid Baja)
0.1.0 Kenyan Sand Boas
0.1.0 Indonesian Dwarf Pacific Boa
1.1.0 Cape York Spotted Pythons
1.1.0 Western Hognoses
1.1.0 Red Sided Garter Snakes

LIZARDS
1.0.0 Frilled Dragon
2.0.0 Bearded Dragons
0.1.0 Eastern Collared Lizard
1.0.0 African Fat-Tail Gecko
0.1.0 Merauke Blue Tongue Skink
1.4.0 Leopard Geckos
1.0.1 Yellow Niger Uromastyx
1.1.0 Chuckwalla
0.1.0 Banded Gecko
0.0.1 Gold Dust Day Gecko

FROGS
1.0.1 Green Tree Frogs
1.0.0 Bubbling Kassina
0.0.1 White's Tree Frog
0.0.2 Gold Frogs

I was wondering if you kept it? also what county was it found in I'm from oswego county NY. just curious, awesome find
wayne

Hi,
Sure, the salamander was found in Rensselaer County, NY- west of Saratoga County, North. I'm planning on going to the specific pond this female bred in each year....since there could be some others in this area. With the luecistic red backs, they sometimes occur as a morph in areas- suprised to read that. I can't find any reports of a leucistic yellow spot in the literature yet, but would expect I will.

So far found reports of leucistic A. mexicanum, P. cinereus, Wood rog, black Salamnder and marlbed salamander.

Kenny

Hi,yes I kept it and already submitted a possession permit to the NYSDEC under their new SC law. I want to get blood to Cornell to confirm that it is A. maculatum, and Kelly Zemudo there works on genetics with them. And I'd also like to see if I can get it to pick up a spermataphore (especially if I find a male in this pond). You can see the eggs right through its body wall.

Any ideas about if I could actually get it to lay eggs in captivity?

Best,
Kenny

I've heard of people breeding other ambystoma in captivity so I see why not. you should check the salamander forum, if you haven't.
wayne

VERY COOL FIND!!! I HOPE YOU FIND MORE IN THE AREA YOU FOUND THIS ONE. IF THERE IS ONE THERE COULD BE MORE

Update. I finally got good road info, and went right to where it was found tonight with my wife and daughter. The only wetland is a 1/8 mile ravine, that is really shallow, with only sparse water. There's nothing else for miles around. The salamander was found 400 feet from this water. This must be the vernal area it breeds in. I walked into it a bit but didnt' have my waders. Tomorrow night I'm going in with waders. I heard peepers there tonight, and our female spotties are late breeding (some have, some haven't) so I think timing will be perfect (with rain coming too). This white sally has doubled in girth almost and is really full of eggs. I made a hopper out of wire to put her and several males into on the advice of a friend so she gets spermataphores. I hope I see more white animals. Given the history of this area (farming, isolated by hills on all sides), I could find any number of mutations in these pools. Its the strangest spotted salamander spot I've seen. And just so this is on the table, I won't be positive this is a spotted salamander until I see the DNA run on it. I did take a sample. It looks morph wise, most like a spotted. But I want to make sure its not just a fat Jeff hybrid complex animal. To be honest, Petranka doesn't help much with leucistic animals....since the costal groove counts can vary. This has 11. Spotteds can have 11. It stocky, toes are short. SO if anything, the only other thing it can be is a true LL blue spot. The area is farmland, intensive, and then this one tiny wet ravine. Calling it a ravine is saying too much. Its really just a poor depression with some grass. This group could have been there for 200 years with no mixing from any other water ways.

If anyone has any input on clinching the ID of the animal JUST from the photos, let me know. I can email a higher resolution to you personally off list. At least this is fun.

Best,
Kenny