Clouded Salamander: The Lungless Salamander That Climbs Into the Forest Canopy

Most salamanders stay near creeks and under logs. The clouded salamander (Aneides ferreus) lives on the forest floor too — but also high in the trees. It is one of more than 275 species of lungless salamanders (family Plethodontidae), and it lives in old-growth coastal forests of northern California and Oregon.

What it looks like

Lanky legs and long fifth toes set it apart. It grows to nearly 10 cm (3.85 in) from nose to tail — a little longer than a deck of cards. The belly is gray with pale flecks; the back is a muted brown speckled with brass and clouded with gray, which gives the species its name. Males are slightly smaller than females and have a triangular head.

Where it lives

Until 1987 its range was thought to run from Sonoma County, California, north through Oregon to the Columbia River. Chromosome studies then showed the southernmost animals were a different species, the wandering salamander (Aneides vagrans), shrinking the clouded salamander's range to extreme northwest California, the Klamath Mountains, the West Cascades, the Willamette Valley and coastal Oregon.

It is common at the edges of coastal forests wherever there is cover and insect prey: fallen and rotting trees, bark litter and rock crevices. It also climbs as high as 40 m (130 ft) into the canopy, where it shares the warm, damp nests of red tree voles (Arborimus longicaudus) — sometimes living in a nest alongside the voles themselves.

Habits and diet

• Nocturnal. By day it hides under rocks, rotting logs and leaf litter.
• Territorial. Males fight over territory and mark it with droppings that other salamanders recognize by smell.
• Hunted and hunter. Birds, snakes and mammals eat it. It defends itself by freezing, camouflaged, or by darting and freezing in turn to throw a predator off. It eats small insects and other invertebrates such as beetles and ants, waiting motionless and snatching prey with its sticky tongue.
• Climber. Long limbs and a grasping, prehensile tail make it an extraordinary climber; it can cling to vertical surfaces and even leap short distances.
• Breathing. Having no lungs, it breathes through its moist skin and the lining of its mouth.

Breeding

Clouded salamanders are polygamous. Courtship starts in spring and egg-laying runs into early summer. The male rubs a pheromone from a gland on his chin onto the female's snout, and the pair then walk in a circle, the female close behind — the "tail straddle walk."

Unlike most salamanders, they lay their eggs on land, in clutches of 8 to 18 on moist surfaces under rotting logs or leaf litter; nests in trees have been found but are uncommon. Females are thought to do most of the guarding, though both sexes have been found at nests. The eggs hatch in early autumn. Hatchlings eat small mites and ants and move to larger prey as they grow; young ones have a brassy stripe from the neck to the tip of the tail, and their colour changes as they mature.

Conservation

The species is on the Sensitive Species List for western Oregon's ecoregions. Its greatest threat is loss of habitat: clear-cut logging, urban development and severe wildfire destroy the old-growth forest and deep woody debris it depends on.

Where to see it

In the Park Service's Klamath Network, it lives in Redwood National and State Parks and Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve.

Sources

• Maya Smith (Southern Oregon University intern), "Clouded Salamander," Featured Creature, NPS Klamath Inventory and Monitoring Network, July 2022. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/clouded-salamander.htm · PDF: https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/Reference/Profile/2293949
• California Herps, Aneides ferreus: http://www.californiaherps.com/salamanders/pages/a.ferreus.html
• Oregon Conservation Strategy, clouded salamander: https://oregonconservationstrategy.org/strategy-species/clouded-salamander/
• The page's photographs of the salamander (© Gary Nafis, CC BY-NC-ND) are not reproduced here.
• Words on this page from people and organisations outside the federal government are paraphrased; rewritten in hubnx's own words.