Eastern Tiger Salamander
What it looks like
The Eastern Tiger Salamander is a large salamander. It can grow to be 33 cm long. They are usually dark gray or black with green or yellow spots or stripes and a lighter coloured belly.
More PicturesLook-alikes
An Eastern Tiger Salamander looks a lot like a Gray Tiger Salamander. The two are very closely related and used to be called the same kind. Gray Tiger Salamanders usually have lighter coloured bodies with dark spots or patches. Eastern Tiger Salamanders usually have dark coloured bodies with light coloured spots or patches.
Tiger Salamander larvae (both kinds) can look like a Mudpuppy, but have rounder heads than a Mudpuppy and 5 toes on their hind feet. A Mudpuppy has only 4 toes.
Name
Tiger Salamanders gets their name because some of them have dark stripes like a tiger. The Eastern Tiger Salamander lives in eastern North America.
Scientific Name
The Eastern Tiger Salamander's scientific name is Ambystoma tigrinum. Learn what that means on this page: Scientific Names.
Where it lives
Tiger Salamanders live in forests and grasslands near ponds or wetlands. They can be found in the eastern central part North America. In Manitoba they live in the southeast corner of the province, east of the Red River Valley.
Where Eastern Tiger Salamanders live in North America.
Habits
Tiger Salamanders (both kinds) are most active at night. These salamanders like to dig. They can dig their own holes in soft earth or they will crawl down holes other animals dig. For winter they dig deep into the ground or go down a hole left by another animal. They may be active down below the frost line all winter. They cannot freeze and survive like some frogs and treefrogs.
Food Web
These salamanders eat insects and other small invertebrates such as spiders, worms and snails. Tiger Salamanders (both kinds) grow large enough that they might even eat small frogs. Young salamanders eat insects and other small aquatic invertebrates.
Tiger Salamanders (both kinds) taste bad to some birds and mammals. Snakes are probably their main predators. Salamander larvae are eaten by wading birds like herons, and by turtles and snakes.
Life Cycle
Eastern Tiger Salamanders mate and lay their eggs in deep ponds from late March into April. The female lays about 100 eggs. She lays them one at a time or in small groups on rocks, plants or sticks on the bottom of the pond. It takes 20 days for the eggs to hatch. The young can change to adult shape and leave the pond in late August or early September, about 60 days after hatching. They are about 10 to 15 cm long when they change to adult shape.
Sometimes the young salamanders take more than one summer to grow big enough to change to adult shape. They can stay in the pond over winter and keep growing through the next summer. It can take nearly 400 days to go from being an egg to changing to adult shape.
Numbers
Eastern Tiger Salamanders are not common in Manitoba. Because they spend most of their time burrowing underground they are hard to find. No one knows how many there might be in one hectare.
Special Things
Tiger Salamanders (both kinds) are the largest salamanders in the world that live on land! Some young Tiger Salamanders never grow up. They keep their gills and tail fin, and stay in the water all their lives.
Salamanders (most kinds) can regrow arms and legs if they get cut off!
An Eastern Tiger Salamander growing a new foot after it was bitten off!
How to Find Eastern Tiger Salamanders
In spring look for adults in and around ponds right after the ice melts, from late March to mid-April. By the time Wood Frogs are starting to call Eastern Tiger Salamanders will be breeding. Search the bottom of ponds with a flashlight after dark. They may not be visible during the day. Later on look in ponds for larvae. They look a bit like tadpoles, but are more slender and have feathery gills on the sides of their heads. In late August or early September watch for young adult salamanders leaving the ponds where they grew up. Sometimes many can be seen crossing roads near ponds.
Use by People
Some people use young Eastern Tiger Salamanders as bait to catch fish or keep adults as pets. Scientists study salamanders to find out how they can regrow lost body parts! Maybe one day people can regrow lost limbs, too?
| Next: Common Mudpuppy | Back to: Amphibians and Reptiles Front Page |
For more on Tiger Salamanders in NatureNorth.com follow these links:
Raising Tigers!| Salamander Cooperative | Tigers and Turbines!
