Help: Daughter wants to see a salamander in Georgia

Hello:

Newbie here in need of some help. I found a salamander in my back yard in Atlanta a few days ago...my young daughter loved it and wants to see more.

I am an avid stream fisherman and know most of the Wildlife Mgmt. Areas in North Georgia...and a lot of good spots in middle GA.

If I want to find salamanders at this time of year -- and I best heading North to mountains -- or heading south toward Flint River or something like that?

Any tips on where I should concentrate my efforts (small streams? under rocks near streams, moist habitat, etc.).

I appreciate any tips or specifics...promise we won't steal a spot, tell others, or harvest anything...just hoping to get my daughter on a salamander.

Happy to trade a good fly fishing spot!

Thanks,
srichens

Re: Help: Daughter wants to see a salamander in Georiga

if you look at your native species pages here ... http://www.caudata.org/cc/

there is a lot of information there about their preferred habitats.

Re: Help: Daughter wants to see a salamander in Georiga

Shouldn't be hard at all to find salamanders in Georgia this time of year. Any of the habitat types you listed should be rife with them.

Pick up a good field guide (I recommend the Peterson series guide by Conant and Collins), and that'll have all the info you need.

Good luck!

Re: Help: Daughter wants to see a salamander in Georiga

I thought I woud put a quick note here regarding locality information - PMs may also have been sent. Caudata.org has a policy against disclosing exact locality information. This is to prevent the information being exploited by less reputable people who wish to collect larger numbers of animals commercially, or otherwise damage sites. This is not to say that Srichens would do this, but there are people who trawl forums etc looking for this sort of information. The best thing to do is gather as much info (from sources like the ones mentioned in the relies above) about the habitat and range of species you want to see, and then look for suitable localities yourself.

This rule is mentioned in bold at the top of this sub-section of the forum.

Thanks Chris

Re: Help: Daughter wants to see a salamander in Georiga

Just a quick note to add to the last one - the above statement was not to question the ethics of people who may have given info out, but just to remind of forum policy, and the reason for it - I am questioning the ethics of commercial collectors who will use well-intentioned locality data to over-collect species.

Sorry this post has gotten a little mod-ish towards the end!

Chris

Try flipping cover on the ground at any of those fly fishing spots and you should see quite a few. We were just up north yesterday, the streams were a little high covering most of the rocks in the stream beds, but we still saw quite a few species under logs and bark.

I agree with the last post just check under some logs in a heavily shaded forest near water and you will find some goodies.

The salamanders and newts you could find would vary from a stream to mountains. But, I suggest just going to the closest wooded area (after a rain is good) and turning over some logs (rotted works best) until you find some salamanders. You would most likely find Red-backs (if they are or a variation of them that have gray backs sometimes called "lead-backs". Remember always return the logs you flip over or move to how you found them in case anything was living there. The same would apply for if you go north to the mountains, but you may find Mountain Dusky Salamanders along with red-backs. If you go to the creek, find a slow moving section of it and turn over rocks on the shore. This might reveal Two-lined salamanders which will try to squirm away as fast as they can into the water. You could also turn over rocks in the stream which might reveal salamander larvae which will have feathery gills.
Hope this helps!

Sean