T. granulosa.. male & female how to tell em apart?

[ester]

I picked up my 2nd taricha granulosa yesterday. Its tail is clearly longer (1.5 times body length) than my other taricha (1.1 times body length). It's also slimmer around the hips, my first taricha has the nice pear shape you'd expect of a female. I read the cc pages but I don't see any defining characteristics for males and females.

Does anyone know how to tell a male from a female?

 

[joan]

As far as I can tell, tail length, and female plumpness and male swollen cloaca during breeding season are the best indicators.

 

[pin-pin]

Hey Ester,

It's very hard to tell the sex of Tarichas unless they are in their "mating dress." Once they are in their breeding dress, you can tell the males apart from the females by their enlarged cloaca and much smoother (read: slimy) skin.

There was a good discussion on this with Tim (which means excellent photographs) here: http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/13/23069.html

 

[ester]

The male(?) finally cooperated some.. it sat still long enough for my camera to focus somewhat!

 

[ester]

Btw, I read the posts in the link you gave me Pin-Pin, thanks!

 

[pin-pin]

He looks handsome, Ester. I hope you have breeding success this year!

 

[tara]

I also find that there is a difference in head shape of male T granulosa. The male has a flatter, more square head, the female's head (or more specifically snout) is rounder. I should post some pictures to illustrate this.
Tara

 

[jeff]

That looks like a female more then a male to me ester, but I can't see it that clearly