Creature Feature
Ensatina Salamanders
by Gary Winans
Picture this: crumbly old logs, woody debris, a scattering of half rotten leaves. Fungus, mold, millepedes. It's pitch black, but in the narrow cone of light from your flashlight you finally find one: a salamander, an Ensatina salamander, another cool native of our neighborhood watershed.
You may normally associate salamanders (and frogs) with tadpoles. But I have a surprise for you--not all salamanders have a tadpole stage. Some species of salamanders mate and lay their eggs in ponds; others breed in streams. Both of these kinds of salamanders have tadpoles. But there is a third type that breeds in moist woodland areas, and they don't have tadpole babies. These salamanders, such as Ensatina, lay their eggs in moist areas in or under logs or in a borrowed underground nest of a mouse. The female will watch the eggs all summer and keep them moist by rubbing her skin against them. With the start of the autumn rains, babies hatch from the soft-shelled eggs, not as tadpoles, but as miniature versions of their parents.
How do you distinguish an Ensatina from other salamanders? Adult Ensatinas grow to about 4" total length. The most distinctive characteristic of this species is its tail, which is pinched or constricted close to where it attaches to the body. Their color is as variable as an autumn forest: reddish, orangish, brown, or tan. The ones I saw were brownish with pale yellow blotches.
They are not quick animals and seem to be rather helpless creatures on the forest floor. How do they avoid being eaten by predators? In several ways. For example, when I first discovered a pair under a partially rotted log, they both remained motionless for almost 5 minutes. This was fine for me--it gave me more time to study them--but to a predator, it might be boring or confusing and eventually the predator might leave, seeking out more active prey. Like other salamanders, its tail will break off in some circumstances when attacked by a predator. What is really wild about this defense mechanism is that the popped-off tail will keep thrashing about--looking as delicious as ever to the predator--while Ma or Pa Ensatina scurries off to safety. Fortunately, a new tail will eventually grow back, though it may be a bit smaller. And finally, Ensatinas, if provoked enough, will also ooze out a milky poison from the back of their head or tail. Mighty unsavory.
If you ever lay down on a forest floor and study it, you will notice lots of life, lots of little critters. Apparently, this is what Ensatinas feed on: whatever squirms about, like worms, beetles, flies, springtails (oh, a great feature creature), and so on. So next time you visit the woods, take a look for salamanders. Maybe you'll find an Ensatina. Just remember to put back whatever you lift or turn over in the woods. It certainly is something else's home and backyard.
To learn more about such critters, I recommend "Amphibians of Washington and Oregon" (William Leonard et al.) as a good reference for these unusual animals. Can you identify the three other common salamanders in our neighborhood?