Wildlife Watching Wednesday: Marbled Salamanders Love Forest Habitats

By: Tom Berg

Salamanders are one of the less frequently seen types of amphibians in the USA. For example, there are 23 species of salamanders living just in the state of Indiana, yet most people never see any of them. One of the most interesting species is the marbled salamander. These relatively large salamanders are usually black and marked with bands of white or silver. Thus, some people call them banded salamanders.

When we say marbled salamanders are fairly large, it’s a relative description. Compared to many other salamander species they are somewhat large, but adults are often only about four inches long. Females are larger than the males and have less brightly-colored bands.

Marbled salamanders are found throughout most of the eastern United States, although they are absent from higher elevations of the Appalachians. They prefer hardwood forests and bottomlands that are seasonally flooded or wet. Forests with adjacent marshland are ideal.

Unlike some other salamanders, marbled salamanders breed in the fall. Starting as early as September and often extending into November, these stout-bodied salamanders search for mates and breed on dry land. Afterwards, the females lay single eggs (up to 100) under leaf litter, and stay with them until fall or early winter rains come and trigger the eggs to hatch. If the rains don’t arrive, the eggs will remain dormant over the winter and hatch with the first rains of spring.

Baby marbled salamanders are aquatic and look like tiny tadpoles, and they are called efts. At first they eat zooplankton, but as they grow they consume larger food like insect larvae, other amphibian larvae and the eggs of insects and amphibians. They go through metamorphosis and become juvenile salamanders. The adults eat small invertebrates like insects, worms, snails and spiders.

An interesting fact about marbled salamanders is they have a poison gland in their tail which helps protect them from predators.  Don’t worry, though, the poison is very mild and humans are not affected by it.

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