Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It has been very dry and hot here in Colorado for the past several days. Last night, we had a good thunderstorm, with lots of rain, a short interval of hail, etc. About an hour after the rain stopped, I went outside in front of my house, and was confronted by a big tiger salamander standing there in the middle of my sidewalk. I grabbed a flashlight, and within a few minutes, discovered three others, including one that was about ten inches long stomping across my lawn! I have one as a pet inside my house which was discovered inside my mailbox last August, and was quite thrilled to see so many others!

I was fascinated to note that all of the ones running around outside last night were dark colored and mottled, while the one I have has very pronounced big yellow spots all over him.

Do their coats change with the seasons?

The following photo is my pet. I didn't think fast enough to get out the camera last night.

Wow! that is awesome!
I have red on many postings and books that the different color changes were due to different species from different parts of North America. I did see on one posting where three differnet sub-species
were found in Colorado due to overlapping habitats.
Looks really cool! What section of Colorado are you? Denver? South-west, south-east. hmmm, my guess is somewhere south?

Actually, I live about fifteen miles north of Denver! There is open space right behind my house, with a large nature preserve/swampy area. I assume they just migrate outward from there, and take up residency wherever they can.

The tiger that I have as a pet was found in exactly the same place that I saw the four last night, and their bodies were shaped almost exactly like mine's - just bigger! They even looked up at me the same way that mine does - "hmm, do you think I can digest that?" All four had very similar coloration.

The biggest one, prowling through the lawn was very reminiscent of Jurassic Park. Scared the heck out of me when I first saw it!

i live in southern colorado-in colorado springs -where 2 different subspecies clash (barred and blotched), it is interesting you saw so many at once-you must be on a migratory pathway. its amazing -in some areas a few blocks are the only ares i can locate tigers at night-you move off one road and you'll be lucky to see even one-i think they have this stuff worked out allong time ago before houses were built. we have a problem out there (its where my sister lives in black forest) that when the new morphs leave the ponds in the fall they have a habit of falling in window wells and either living there the rest of their lives (burrowing down into the area between the foundation and the dirt ) or dieing in the wells. the ones you found that were mottled and dark sound like new morphs -they will take a while to come into their adult colours. since we have had so little rain many of the ponds a drying up-this will encourage cannibalism and force maturation and morphing at a much earlier time-that my be why you are seeing them now during a rain and not in the fall.

Here's the pic I was talking about. Is this you Paris that took this of the overlapping subspecies?
extremely cool.

http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Ambystoma/A_tigrinum.shtml

Image

yeah thats me -i live in colorado springs. there are 2 subspecies here -the blotched and the barred. since i live in an area where they meet -you get blends between the two-plus the influence of former bait that is let loose to mix the gene pool up.

COOL!!!!!!!
Are those the same kind you can get as a pet? You should try and find and raise some babies