Cincinnati Zoo

[Mark]

I probably picked the worst season to visit the US with regards to salamander hunting. I was in California for the bulk of my trip where it was the end of the dry season and very hot. I flipped logs wherever I had the chance but found nothing – either I was looking in the wrong place or the sals had dug themselves in to wait the summer out. I think the latter is the more likely because I was having luck finding frogs, snakes and plenty of lizards. I wasn’t overly upset because there was lots of wildlife to see, especially the sea life. Even the salamander free forests were fun to hike in - I discovered that bears can run quite fast and that humans can run even faster when a bear is running towards them .

The next destination was Ohio and I was hopeful for cooler weather and better opportunities to see some sals. No chance – it was even hotter in Ohio than it was in California. It seemed they’d been having a heat wave for the past 5 months... temperatures were in the low 90’s every day :supercool:.

So I gave up and decided to pop into Cincinnati zoo as I didn’t want to miss out on their giant salamanders before leaving. After scouting the zoo for a couple of hours it was clear the salamanders were not on exhibit or had gone altogether. After a few enquiries I found out they were off exhibit and was taken to see Mike and Len a couple of herp keepers at the zoo. Sadly Eric was on his day off so missed out on the chance of saying hello but Mike and Len very kindly gave me the full guided tour behind the scenes (they have a caudate room… my wife was worried we wouldn’t leave). If you read this Eric please pass on my thanks to them both.

Female Andrias davidianus

that camera looks edible...

Male Andrias davidianus

Where they live. 2 males, one female - apparently they have been courting.

Andrias japonicus

Some shots from the caudate room.

An out of focus Plethodon yonahlossee

Salamandra setups

Some tanks

I'm not sure who this is. He's some sort of water loving skink that was in with the amphibians. I thought he was pretty cool.

 

[t_summ]

Those are fantastic shots! I may have to get on one of those $10 flights to Ohio and check that room out.

I feel your pain about herping in California over the past few months. The salamanders have boarded a spaceship and left the planet! There is a lot of rain and cooler weather in the forecast so we will hopefully see their return soon. I've been hearing of all these great spots in Northern California that I plan on checking out, so hopefully the weather will bring everything out. Perhaps you can make a trip out here again during the spring season when it is caudate central... seeing as you seem to take the best pictures I have ever seen!

 

[robkeulers]

the Red-eyed animal is a Tribolonotus gracilis. They're rare in the wild, and information about how to keep them is still scarse.

 

[cheddarsox]

It may be politically incorrect to say so but...those giant salamanders are CUTE! Thanks for those pictures. If I ever get up that way, I will make a point of checking it out in person.

 

[tdimler]

Mark,

A great report.....and set of photos. It must be nice to see a room devoted to caudates! I was able to see the Andrias enclosure at the San Antonio zoo and those are some impressive beasties to see in person.

I can't help but asking....what types of Salamandra did they have on hand?

Travis

 

[freves]

Again nice photos Mark. I can share your disappointment regarding not finding any salamanders in California. Last fall I spent a long weekend visiting an old college buddy in San Francisco. We spent one day hiking through Muir woods. I was really hoping to spot something (I didn't really care which species) but every rock and log that I looked under was salamander free.
Chip

 

[Abrahm]

Excellent photos! I'm glad that you got to get a behind the scenes tour of the caudate room at the Cincinnati zoo to offset the lack of wild caudates. Must have been quite the experience and I envy you for it.

The Andrias are gorgeous! I love them and I will see them in person one day. I wish there was an amphibian zoo as I am awfully tired of seeing all the African megafauna and not much else at zoos.

 

[i_love_necturus]

Awesome Mark! These got to be some of the best Andrias pics I've seen. Looks like you had a good time! Andrias are such magnificent animals and your photos captured them in all there splendor! Two thumbs up for the other pics too.

 

[Otterwoman]

Hi Mark,
Did they say why they were off exhibit? What if someone comes to the zoo and wants to see them,
they can just ask and someone will bring them to see the herps?
thanks, I'm planning to go there myself in 2008.
Dawn

 

[Mark]

Travis, I didn’t take much notice of the salamandra I’m afraid. They have a great collection of US natives which was distracting me. I think they had S. s. bernardezi and S. s. gallaica. Someone was bearing live young as they had lots of tiny metamorphs. There were probably others but like I said I didn’t look too hard.

Dawn, the giant sals are off exhibit because their original enclosure was only temporary and eventually sprung a leak. I got the impression that the whole caudate collection was in indefinite “storage”, at least for the time being. Despite this they are having good success breeding Echinotriton and Cynops.

What if someone comes to the zoo and wants to see them,
they can just ask and someone will bring them to see the herps?

I'd speak to someone at the zoo before you visit. I was lucky because someone had time to show me around but I guess it’s not always possible.

 

[Jennewt]

I'm green with envy, Mark. I'm a native Cincinnatian and grew up going to that zoo, but I haven't seen any of their sals.

 

[rust]

Yes, you did hit the west coast at not just the worst time of year for caudates, but on probably one of the worst years in a while.

Nice consolation though getting to visit the Cincy zoo, great pics.

 

[uberkye]

Excellent photos, and I'm glad you got the chance to see everything they have behind the scenes there. They definitely have quite a few more amphibians than what is in their old herp building.

Just for the record, I'm 99.9% positive you have your identification on the Andrias switched around... the first ones, in the old hippo enclosure being kept together are the japonicus, and the last two pictured are davidianus. To be 100% sure, Erik will have to chime in, and he can tell you with complete accuracy.

It is an empressive bunch of caudates though for sure, Erik has done a wonderful job!