Salamanders

Last week we attended a ranger talk at the Oconoluftee Visitor Center in Cherokee, NC. Ranger Ann Kidd talked about salamanders and showed us pictures of some.

Here are things I learned:

1.     Hellbender - aquatic, can be 2 feet long, found in Deep Creek, like deep pools, eat crawfish, tadpoles, frogs, other salamander, none in Oconoluftee River, nocturnal

2.     Mud puppies - found anywhere, aquatic, red feathery gills, 16 inches

3.     Red spotted newt - olive green with yellow belly, 2 phases of life: aquatic, land, back to aquatic, land phase and changes to red and is called the red eft. Toxic in land stage. About 2 -3 inches. Found in Oconoluftee area

4.     Red cheeked or Jordan salamander found at 2800 feet elevation. Found at Kephart Prong trail. 3 - 7 inches., woodland species, not toxic but will secrete a sticky substance, blueish black with rounded snout, only in the GSMNP

5.     Imitator salamander looks a lot like the red cheeked.  Brown color with pointed snout. Above 2800 feet, only in the GSMNP

6.     Mole family -  around Cades Cove, burrows in the dirt

a.     Marbled below 2200 feet

b.     Spotted below 2200 feet

7.     Black chinned red- 4-6 inches, found in the water

8.     Southern Appalachian- black, little white spots,  big, woodlands , common,

9.     Dusky salamander family- common

a.     Seal salamander - in water,

b.     Blackbelly- 3-8 inches, can eat other salamander, found in both sides of the park

c.     Spotted dusky found the most of in Mingus Mill, 2-5 inches, color varies

Many found in Mingus mill and Collins creek area

Info about Salamanders in the Smokies

From The Salamander’s Point of View

(Today is a guest post by the Salamander we saw at Kings Creek Falls. Hope you enjoy it!)

Hey, what are all these people doing here? Where did they come from? I was having a great day just hanging out here in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall and all of a sudden this humongous group appears out of nowhere. Gee, it is fun to watch them cross that log! Maybe I will get to see someone fall in the water.

I see a group over on the side looking at the rocks. Hi there! That’s my friend Sammy the Snail that you are looking at. He likes when things are wet. I hope no one picks him up because he gets really scared when people do that. I bet he thought no one would come here so it would be safe to explore that rock.

That ranger over there is saying this is a spray cliff community. I didn’t know my subdivision had a name. Now I can tell people where to come visit me! Oh wait, that isn’t the name of my subdivision. I think that is the name of the type of place where I live; like some people live in the desert and some live in the mountains. I live in a spray cliff community! It sounds pretty impressive and I can’t wait to tell my friends.

I love where I live. There is plenty of cool running water. I also have lots of cool places to hide. There are different sizes of rocks and logs to hide under. I have to stay hidden so I don’t get eaten by all those things that think I’m a tasty morsel for dinner.

I peeked out at one time and these people were looking at the rocks right near me. One lady said that the rock they were looking at was feldspar with mica in it. Wow, I can’t wait to tell my friends what I know. They will think I’m so smart! I wonder if there is gold around me. Well, it wouldn’t matter because I couldn’t get rich from it and it would only bring in tons of people who would disturb my home. They would probably want to develop the area and really mess up the neighborhood.

There is another group over there looking at all the flowers. They like the alumroot, hemlock, and lobelia. I love when the flowers bloom around my home because I feel like I live in a fairyland. My favorite is the Joe Pye Weed because my friends the butterflies come to visit when it is blooming. Usually when they show up, we have a big party.

Whoa. Now this guy just put me in this plastic box! At least he put some water in it so I don’t get all dried out. Hey lady, be careful how you hold this box! Did you know I can see up your nose when you get this close. Man, you have big eyes!

No, I’m not the Geico gecko. I am a salamander! I'm a northern dusky salamander to be exact! (That isn't a picture of me but I thought it looked better than I do. I mean, haven't you ever wanted to use a picture of Julia Roberts or Brad Pitt instead of yourself?) I hate when people get me confused with that gecko though and think I’m in those stupid TV ads. Now, of course, I wouldn’t mind the perks and prestige so if you gave me an offer, I’d be glad to talk with you about it.

Well, after they passed me around and looked at me, that ranger guy decided to put me back in the water. What a relief! I was so afraid that someone would decide that they needed to take me home. I really didn’t want to relocate at this time and especially since no one had consulted me. I think I need to do a better job of hiding so this doesn’t happen to me again. Next time I might not be so lucky!

Well, it is time for me to go find my friends and share this all with them. They won’t believe the adventure that I had today!

(I had to write this post since my classmates and I had discussed what the salamander’s point of view would be. I thought it would be a great exercise in writing. I also think this would be a great writing exercise for our students. What if they wrote a conversation from the perspective of a tennis shoe, or a laptop, or their book bag, or their bathroom mirror? Or even better, let the students come up with an idea. This was just a thought for motivating writing skills. I think the students would like doing this because I know I did! What do you think?)

Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).

Original image: 'Red Eft, P6020048'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/61897811@N00/17472483 by: Anita