Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Located in the Eldorado National forest in California neer Sopiogo Creek. Any Ideas?

I would say that's an ensatina. Some morph or another.
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Paullywog

If it has scales or smooth wet skin... snatch it!!!

Nice specimen.

RUSS

The skin is verry smooth. By turning it over you see its belly is almost transparent and you can clearly make out the internal organs and viens, its actualy pretty neet looking.
My reptile collection and research

Excellent, Ensatinas are my favorite caudate. I would be interested in hearing about the conditions of when and where it was found. Habitat, weather, time of day, activity etc.

Randy

Keep in mind these are fragile captives and are very temperature sensative.

Habitat, Pine forest among un rotten wood on the ground level at about 400-600 feet above see level
weather, Cold, Rained all day the night before but the day it was collected it was in the 40's but sunny but mostly cloudy
time of day, Between 7-9am
activity I mwas out collecting 2 female fence lizards for my stidies and hapend apone this little thing under a piece of wood on the forest flore. I do not plan on keeping it. In fact I will most likly be reliesing it this comign weekend.
My reptile collection and research

I keep several of the subs of this species. I produced a few croceater this year. I have some platensis from the Greenhorn Mts that I hope breed this winter. One of the females has already started forming ova.

RUSS

I would like to acquire some of the Ensatinas in the future. Can you fill me in on husbandry requirements? I presently keep several species of Salamanders, but I have tried these.

Thanks,
Randy
Firehouse Herps

I keep mine in Tupperware shoeboxs on medium size landscaping pine bark. I feed them crickets and wax worms, with the crickets being dusted once a month with a supplement. I keep them at 65-75F in the summer and try to drop them to at least 50F in the winter. A little cooler in the winter would be even better if possible. I have a window in my herp room to they get a natural light cycle. You have to make sure that their containers are moist but not damp. If kept too damp for too long they develope an odd skin necrosis that is 100% lethal. They all seem to lay in May with this regiment. The eggs take ~80 days to hatch. If you go to www.caudata.org scroll down under photographs and there are some pics of the croceater I hatched and some Aneides lugubris too.

RUSS

Arboreals are another great salamander. I used to find both species in S Calif where I grew up but I never attempted to keep them because of the temperature issue. I now have a room I keep cool for my salamanders so I may try to get some. I was out last December but didn't find either species. Thanks for the information.

Randy
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Firehouse Herps

Make sure you check out caudata.org, it has a ton of info on salamanders.

RUSS