Tiger Salamander Facts

Video Transcript

"So, this is a tiger salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum. And, it's a species of mole salamander. They're found in southern Connecticut, kind of through the southeastern United States, and west to the Rocky Mountains. So, they're pretty wide spread, but they're not found west of the Rocky Mountains. And, they're not found as high up as into the Appalachian Mountains. So they, they're found at the base, but not at the top of the Appalachian Mountains. And, as a mole salamander, they spend most of their time, in, upland, "whoop", upland burrows. But then, in the spring time, when the warm rains comes, they will emerge to gather together, and mate in spring pools, and in other bodies of water, puddles, and shallow streams. Their name comes from, well, a lot of different kind of ideas. One of course, is the striping on their body, which could resemble the stripes of a tiger, but are not orange. But also, because they are the largest of the mole salamanders in the world. They can reach lengths of up to sixteen inches, and so, being the largest, that might be one of the reasons why they are associated with tigers. And, they also have a voracious appetite. Another theory, as to why they may be called tiger salamanders, as you can see they have quite a wide mouth, and will eat readily anything that fits into it. Earthworms, slugs, smaller salamander species, frogs, a variety of insects, crickets, beetles. They will even, if they encounter them, eat small mammals, baby mice, hatchling birds, if they would "fal", you know, fell out of the nest, would be fair game. So they are, they are quite, quite an appetite, and are very voracious hunters. This particular specimen is a nice example of what is kind of known as a barred tiger salamander, with the sub species, mavortium. And they have a lot of different, kind of genotypes that you can see in the wild. Some of them are actually very olive green, some of them don't really look like they have bars at all. So, there are a lot of different colors that you can see, but this is a very nice example of a barred tiger salamander."