Shovelnose salamander facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Shovelnose salamander |
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The shovelnose salamander (Desmognathus marmoratus) is a type of salamander that belongs to the family Plethodontidae. These salamanders are called "lungless" because they breathe through their skin and the lining of their mouths, not with lungs! This special salamander is found only in the United States. When an animal or plant is found only in one specific area, it is called endemic to that place.
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What Does It Look Like?
The shovelnose salamander is a strong, sturdy animal. It has a wide body and a tail that is fairly short. It gets its name from its snout, which looks a bit like a shovel. This snout is more square-shaped compared to other salamanders in its group.
Its body color can be a dark brown, gray, or black. It often has two long rows of lighter, small patches along its back. You might also see many tiny, pale speckles all over its body. The underside of the salamander is usually gray.
Where Does It Live?
The shovelnose salamander lives in the Appalachian Mountains in the southeastern part of the United States. These mountains are a large chain of peaks and valleys. You can find this salamander at heights from about 300 to 1,680 meters above sea level.
Its home range includes several states: West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. It prefers to live in shallow, moving water, like fast-flowing streams, rapids, and riffles. It likes places with gravel and rocky bottoms, which are called substrates. However, it does not like streams that are "silted." Silted streams have a lot of fine dirt and mud settled at the bottom, which makes the water cloudy.
How Does It Behave?
The shovelnose salamander is an aquatic species, which means it lives and finds its food mostly in water. It prefers streams that flow at a medium speed. Another salamander, the blackbelly salamander (Desmognathus quadramaculatus), lives in the same areas. However, these two species do not interact much. The blackbelly salamander often stays partly out of the water and hunts for food on land.
Unlike some other animals, the shovelnose salamander does not have a specific "home" area that it protects. It does not show territorial behavior, meaning it does not try to keep other salamanders out of a certain space.
Life Cycle and Reproduction
Shovelnose salamanders usually breed in the late spring and early summer. The female salamander lays her eggs one by one, or in small groups. She attaches them to the underside of a rock in moving water.
The eggs take about eleven weeks to hatch. Once they hatch, the young salamanders are called larvae. These larvae hide among the gravel and small rocks in the stream. They eat tiny aquatic invertebrates, which are small creatures without backbones, like insect larvae. The larvae grow and change into adult salamanders through a process called metamorphosis. This change takes about two to three years. They become old enough to reproduce themselves when they are about five years old.
What Is Its Status?
The shovelnose salamander is listed as "Least Concern" by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. This means that experts believe its population is large, and its numbers are not dropping quickly.
However, there are still some things that can affect them. When streams become "silted" due to things like logging, farming, or building dams, it can harm their habitat. Even though their numbers can be reduced by these activities, they live in several protected areas. Sometimes, fishermen also use these salamanders as bait, which can also reduce their numbers.
