Salamandra atra atra - habitat

[paul]

Hi,

at the end of August I made a trip to "Salamandra atra country" (the Alps in Austria, Vorarlberg, Great Walser valley, Raggal) with my youngest daughter.
Already at the first day we found our first Alps Salamander direct at the "main street" to Raggal. Main street here means, that two cars (coming towards) are able to pass - if they drive slow.

A female with a juvenile:

When my daughter took the salamanders, the female splashed out here salamandrin (some cm).

The juvenile:

And the very inconspicuously Habitat – very wet place:

Greetings Paul

 

[mark]

Very nice set of photos Paul

Greetings
~Mark

 

[paul]

Near our campsite we found this S. a. atra male (1000 m NN). He showed a typical defence behaviour – making stiff and great, presenting its parotids:

At adequate places, S.a. is not rare here.
But also other interesting animals can be seen. So only some metres away from this S.a. we found a lizard - Lacerta agilis. While trying to catch it for making photos we saw this Triturus alpestris:

And its belly:

Or this tiny Bufo bufo bufo (1 cm):

And a leg less, vivipare lizard – Anguis fragilis – which I found very often while looking for Salamandra atra:

All this animals with their different claims, we found at a distance of approximate 10 or 15 m.

Greetings Paul

 

[jesse]

THere is a pet shop near my college that had a reall gigantic male salamandra atra.

 

[sergé]

Hee, Jesse...still waiting for the pictures!!!

 

[TJ]

Nice series, Paul. Sounds like you and your daughters were in salamander heaven! That's a really odd skin texture those S.atra have.

 

[francesco]

Hi Paul
what were the weather conditions when you found the salamanders?

 

[paul]

Hi Francesco,

no matter if rain or sun!
But they were always under stones.

Paul

 

[paul]

You want to see "salamander heaven", Tim?
Here it is. Luenersee, at approximate 2000 m NN.
On the mountains round the lake we found a lot of Salamanda atra. Surely the most frequent vertebrates in this area. Sun was shining and it was good warm. But the rocks remain cold. When sun disappeared behind a cloud, it was rather cold within one minute.

Paul

 

[paul]

Some more photos from this fantastic habitat!
Under the rocks of this heath land we found the S.atra. It is always cold there. But the bushes all in blossom!

And only approximately 200 m away (also 2000 m NN) we could see rest of snow in a depression over the scree. By the way – the kind young man in front of the picture is a Homo sapiens salamandrasearchicus.

And here a S. atra on a rock – same place:

In this high, the offspring needs three years to be born.

Paul

 

[joeri]

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Paul Bachhausen (Paul_b) wrote on Monday, September 13, 2004 - 14:52 :</font>

"the kind young man in front of the picture is a Homo sapiens salamandrasearchicus. "<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

Nice set of pictures and texts Paul
Thank you

 

[jesse]

i forget whom it was that asked me for pictures but i dont have a digital camera, and i dont anything about those disposable ones that someone else mentioned, nor do i know were to look for them.

 

[dot]

Jesse --

Try CVS or any drugstore in the film section. You can get a disposable camera there, and Kodak has a disposable which, when you develop your film, you will also get a CD with your pictures on it.

 

[paul]

An other juvenile near Fontanella, 1100 m NN:

And here you see, why this species must be independent from open water.
A lot of water everywhere, but with such strong stream, that no urodela larvae is able to live in it:

Paul