High yellow S. terrestris

[henk]

Here's a male of the high yellow Salamandra salamandra terrestris from Germany

 

[paul]

Hi Henk,

I think it is a Solling terrestris?
Do you know why these are so yellow?
I heard, that in the past there was a monastery, where the monks collected Salamandra from different parts of Europe. This escaped by a war and mixed with the terrestris. But I don't know if this is only a nice legend.

Paul

 

[david]

Beautiful animal Henk

 

[jesper]

Yeah, really beautiful.

 

[benjamin]

Just out of interest, why were monks collecting salamanders?

 

[javier]

Nice pic Henk. And interesting story.

Xavier.

 

[henk]

I don't think you can have such a large & pronounced gene flow over some decades only... I would expect this to be rather wishfull thinking for us ... creating new strain of a species

Anyway .. it is indeed Solling I'm (again) wrong.I think I owe you a pint for that.

 

[paul]

"I don't think you can have such a large & pronounced gene flow over some decades only... I would expect this to be rather wishfull thinking for us ... creating new strain of a species"

I agree, but it was such a nice story.

In Gersfeld I will ask the salamandra friend, who should have found that out.

"Anyway .. it is indeed Solling I'm (again) wrong.I think I owe you a pint for that."
No problem, Henk. I drink wheat beer.

Paul

 

[sergé]

I think the origin of this high-yellow phenomonon has much more to do with something called 'founder-effect'. It means that the first Salamandra's who entered this area probably were more yellow and passed this on to their kins. Especially in Salamandra you can see that populations can be very different from each other even when there is just a few kilometers between them.