Large Great Basin Utah Salamander

[bretticus]

This evening, as we were looking into our backyard pond with a flashlight, we noticed a salamander of some type, submerged. Excited to find info about it on the Internet, we looked at pictures of salamanders indigenious to our area, but found nothing that resembled it very closely (Doesn't really resemble any pictures on the Internet for Tiger Salamanders.) It was about 12 in. long from head to tail. Looked non-glossy even scaly lizard-like. It has dark gray strips on both sides to a white or paler-gray underside. Dorsal-type tail had a beige-to-yellow line to tip of the tail (tail seemed thin and quite long. Might have been just a change in color due to a narrow crest or dorsal fin on top of the tail.) Head was very broad with a broad snout. Also, our polywogs seems to be non-existant this year. Can anyone help us identify this amphibian? Maybe we can post a picture at some later date.

Thanks in advance.

 

[russ]

It is a tiger. I use to live in UT and the tigers there are quite variable. I found them from the color you described to solid forest green. And he may have eaten your tadpoles this year!

RUSS