Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Found this guy or gal in my driveway last night right before we got 4 inches of snow today here in northern colorado. It was raining hard all day. Kevin

Very nice! You are so lucky to have tiger salamanders wondering around your place. Here in Northern VA they are almost impossible to find.

Congrats! It seems to like driveways so I hope he/she doesn't get run over by a car. I hope you keep it and give it a nice home.
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1.0 Werner's Three-Horned Chameleon
1.1 Eastern Tiger Salamanders
0.0.3 Mexican Red-Knee Tarantulas

Very nice! You are so lucky to have tiger salamanders wondering around your place. Here in Northern VA they are almost impossible to find.

Congrats! It seems to like driveways so I hope he/she doesn't get run over by a car. I hope you keep it and give it a nice home.

I was very suprised to see this dude hanging out right in the middle of the driveway on a cold rainy night. This is only the second one I've seen here in six years. It just seemed to have popped up out of no where? I plan on keeping him or her. Kevin

>>I was very suprised to see this dude hanging out right in the middle of the driveway on a cold rainy night. This is only the second one I've seen here in six years. It just seemed to have popped up out of no where? I plan on keeping him or her. Kevin

Normally these salamanders live underground in burrows made by other animals, such as ground squirrels, prairie dogs, etc. During the wet season, they can be found under surface objects like rocks, logs, boards, or old fence posts during the day. During rains at night, they often wander about on roadways. I believe they are attracted to roads because these surfaces often hold tiny puddles of water, in which they soak to absorb moisture through their skin. They do not drink with their mouths. I have often seen them sitting motionless on road surfaces on rainy nights. When they move, they move very slowly. As a result, many of them get run over by automobiles.

Normally these salamanders live underground in burrows made by other animals, such as ground squirrels, prairie dogs, etc. During the wet season, they can be found under surface objects like rocks, logs, boards, or old fence posts during the day. During rains at night, they often wander about on roadways. I believe they are attracted to roads because these surfaces often hold tiny puddles of water, in which they soak to absorb moisture through their skin. They do not drink with their mouths. I have often seen them sitting motionless on road surfaces on rainy nights. When they move, they move very slowly. As a result, many of them get run over by automobiles.

Cool info on the salamander,thanks. I'm mostly a snake guy,but these salamanders are neat! There is one acre of land right behind my house with a small shallow pond and plenty of rodent holes,prairie dogs are common here as well. I'm defineteley going to keep an eye out for more of these this year. This one is already taking mealworms from forceps. Kevin

Thats a really nice looking one, lots of yellow. I had a different experience today, I looked down the street by my driveway and saw something smashed, when I went up to it, I figured it would be a toad, but it was a beautiful tiger salamander flat as a pancake, what a shame. I hope someone didn't intentionally hit it, that would be even more of a shame.
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You got your regius's to the wall, man!
1.0 pastel Python regius
0.1 mojave Python regius
0.1 normal Python regius
0.2 Terrapene carolina thriunguis
2.3 Terrapene carolina carolina
4.1 Kinosternon baurii
1.1 Malaclemys terrapin terrapin
2.1 Ambystoma tigrinum
1.1 Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.0 anerythristic Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.1 Iowa snow Thamnophis radix
1.1 heterozygous for amelanistic,carmel, and stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 anerythristic motley Pantherophis guttatus

wow! that's a nice one!

Thanks!!! Kevin

>>Found this guy or gal in my driveway last night right before we got 4 inches of snow today here in northern colorado. It was raining hard all day. Kevin
>>

Looks like a female to me. Males generally have longer tails and, during the breeding season, a swollen cloacal region. Very nice looking specimen. Color photographs of tiger salamanders in the Great Basin and Rocky Mountain areas were very scarce in the past, and it was kind of frustrating to look at Stebbins' field guide and try to guess what the salamanders may look like in life from the black and white drawings. Thanks for sharing.

Looks like a female to me. Males generally have longer tails and, during the breeding season, a swollen cloacal region. Very nice looking specimen. Color photographs of tiger salamanders in the Great Basin and Rocky Mountain areas were very scarce in the past, and it was kind of frustrating to look at Stebbins' field guide and try to guess what the salamanders may look like in life from the black and white drawings. Thanks for sharing.

I was wondering if this is a female and lays a bunch of eggs what I should do? Is there any chance of succesfully raising the babies? Thanks,Kevin

>>I was wondering if this is a female and lays a bunch of eggs what I should do? Is there any chance of succesfully raising the babies? Thanks,Kevin>>

These salamanders will not lay eggs unless they are in a pond. The male will do a courtship dance in front of the female. If she is receptive, he will eventually lay a packet of sperms on the tip of a spermatophore on the ground. Then he will lead the female to the sperm so she can pick up the sperm with her cloaca. Fertilization is internal. The eggs are laid in water after mating. I don't believe the female you have has mated. She may be on her way to the breeding pond when you picked her up or she may be just wandering about when it is raining at night. The eggs hatch out in water and the larvae are too tiny to eat anything but recently hatched brine shrimp or similar size life prey. The larvae will grow in the water until they are ready to transform. When they do transform, they will lose their external gills and look a little bit like the miniature of the adults, but not as pretty.

You may try looking for eggs and larvae in the pond near your house. Good luck.

Thanks again! Kevin