Wildlife Watching Wednesday: The Spotted-Tail Cave Salamander

By: Tom Berg

Salamanders live in a variety of habitats, but almost all of them have one thing in common: water. One good example is the Spotted-Tail Cave Salamander. This long, slender salamander spends most of its life in or near caves – limestone caves in particular. And anyone who has done much exploring inside limestone caves knows that they can be very wet.

Water is important to spotted-tail cave salamanders (simply called cave salamanders), because they must lay their eggs in fresh water. Underground springs, pools and streams provide excellent breeding grounds for them. Salamanders also require plenty of moisture to keep their skin from drying out, and subterranean watercourses really fit the bill.

Surprisingly, spotted-tail cave salamanders do not have lungs for breathing air. Instead, they get their oxygen through cutaneous respiration, which means they breathe through their skin. They can only do this, though, if their skin remains wet or moist. They also use the wet mucous membranes in their mouth to breathe oxygen.

This particular species of cave salamander is usually bright orange in color, with lots of dark spots all over its body (not just on its tail). They have an extremely long tail, too, which helps them keep their balance when crawling around on slippery surfaces inside their home cave. This is helpful when evading dangerous predators that might enter the cave, like raccoons, snakes, and even birds.

Spotted-tail cave salamanders are called troglophiles, which is a fancy word for creatures that spend their entire lives inside cave systems. Even though they usually stay inside the cave itself, they often venture close enough to the cave entrance to use the dim light to their advantage.

This is where they do much of their hunting for food. Small insects like flies and beetles often enter the cave system through the cave mouth, and isopods like pillbugs live in this dimly-lit environment, too. Cave salamanders hunt all of these creatures. Worms and insect larvae on the cave floor are also quickly snapped up by these interesting salamanders.

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