Montana salamander

[dynny]

my six year old flipped over a little pile of raked leaves and found a little black salamander about a week ago, just today i noticed he has little yellowish speckles. We don't live close to any body of water, and our snow just started to melt. I'm thinking he's an aboreal salamander(the closest i've found to what he looks like...however he's very black)...and i haven't been able to find refrences to any montana species...they all seem to like coastal places...any ideas how he ended up in my yard?

 

[nate]

Hi dynny, here are the possibilities:

1) It's a Coure De'Alene salamander (Plethodon idahoensis)

2)It's a long-toed salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum) without a distinct dorsal stripe

3) It's a young tiger salamander (Ambystoma mavortium subspecies)

Arboreal salamanders are no where near your area.

 

[(unregistered]

thank you, that was helpful, after examining the three species, i'm going to go with the long toed salamander, i found a picture that looks like him...or her When i was younger, we used to catch them i guess, but they had a very distinct stripe down their back.

Gosh, there seems to be so much i want to know about them, he's a charming little thing.

 

[nate]

Glad I could help. They get quite tame and are a lot of fun to keep.

 

[zeb]

Hey, I live in Montana too....

I've done a search on Montana native herps before, and as you can imagine it's a pretty small list.

The Tiger Sally is the only one I ever found listed, and the only I've personally seen. But I have heard of another specie near glacier...