Species
Eastern tiger salamander
Ambystoma tigrinum
The largest land salamander in the East, blotched in yellow and olive, living in burrows near ponds.
Photo Matt Felperin (opens in a new tab) / iNaturalist, CC BY 4.0 (opens in a new tab)
At a glance
- Size
- Usually 18 to 21 cm long; up to about 33 cm
- Habitat
- Woods and fields near fishless ponds, often in sandy soil
- Diet
- Worms, insects, slugs and small animals
- In Georgia
- Scattered statewide; uncommon
- Rabies vector
- No
Identification
- Key marks
- Large and stout; dark with irregular yellow or olive blotches
- Told apart from
- Spotted salamander, which has neat rows of round spots
- Where to look
- Crossing roads on rainy winter nights; rarely seen otherwise
Behaviour
Tiger salamanders spend most of their lives in burrows and come to ponds in winter to breed.
Why they matter
They are large predators of soil invertebrates and their larvae are top predators in fishless ponds.
Reproduction and lifecycle
Eggs — Clumps attached to plants in ponds
Hatching — In several weeks
Larvae — Large; change in three to five months
Maturity — At a few years
Lifespan — Over 10 years
Migration — On rainy nights
Living around people
- Fishless ponds and the land around them are what it needs.
Misconceptions
- Salamanders are poisonous to touch. Their skin can irritate eyes, but they are harmless; handle them only to move them from a road, with wet hands.
Related species
Seasonal activity
When this species is breeding, and when there are nests on the ground. Mowing during the shaded months is how most nests are found.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breeding | Jan: no | Feb: no | Mar: no | Apr: no | May: no | Jun: no | Jul: no | Aug: no | Sep: no | Oct: no | Nov: no | Dec: no |
| Active nests | Jan: no | Feb: no | Mar: no | Apr: no | May: no | Jun: no | Jul: no | Aug: no | Sep: no | Oct: no | Nov: no | Dec: no |
| Notes | Breeding | Breeding | Larvae | Larvae | Larvae | Young leaving ponds | Underground | Underground | Underground | Underground | Moving on rainy nights | Breeding begins |
Where it lives
Recorded in 23 states and provinces. Each one links to the other animals there, and to the rehabilitators licensed for them.
United States
Canada
If you found one
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