Red Car Property Adjacent: "Squirmy"

Photo: Stephanie Bartron, January 2, 2017.  Recent rains bring Slender Salamanders out of hiding.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Bartron writes in an email, "I usually find them in the soil, while pulling out invasive grasses or just under a layer of rotting leaves."  

Red Car Canyon, as well as gardens with shady, moist areas seem to be favored neighborhood habitat for the tiny amphibians that are sometimes mistaken for worms. 

Bartron continued, "These guys are super wiggly, small and worm-like like when you first see them. Last time I found one, its tail came off, either from fear or my weeding spade.  So there were two crazy wiggling things for a few minutes. We named him 'Squirmy' and I let the kids make a habitat for him and keep him for a few days before releasing."

Photo: Stephanie Bartron, January 2, 2017.  Using a dime for scale really gives you an idea of just how slim the Slender Salamander really is.

Bartron, who co-authored LA County handbook, The Drought Tolerant Garden, added, "They are protected in Oregon, but not here.  They're not super common though, a great example of how Southern California is a biodynamic hotspot."

Learn more about all kinds of salamanders on California Herps

Click here for all our Slender Salamander posts.  

Red Car Property: Not Earthworms

Photos: Jonathan Vandiveer, January 25, 2015. Vandiveer's son found 2 Slender Salamanders (Batrachoseps) under a rock at the India Street entrance to the Red Car Property. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

There are 21 species of Slender Salamanders listed on California Herps, an excellent source for identifying & learning more about reptiles & amphibians found in California.  These are likely Garden Slender Salamanders.  Vandiveer found a pair hiding under a pot his backyard a few years ago.

Slender Salamanders are terrestrial salamanders found under rocks, logs & leaf litter.   A "lungless salamander," they breathe through their skin & mouth tissues.  They are nocturnal, most often found in the daytime hiding under rocks in moist areas.  It was surprising to find these guys at India St, where the environment is more dry year round.  Usually they turn up in Red Car Canyon where it tends to be moist year-round.

Photo enlarged from previous photo.  Those are little tiny legs (arrows).  Slender Salamanders are the only species in California to have 4 toes instead of 5 (if you can get that close to count toes).

Also hiding under the rock (in the lower left corner of same photo) was a tiny pale spider. 

Learn more about Slender Salamanders: California Herps

Corralitas Drive: Salamander

Photo: Diane Edwardson, January 12, 2012.  While moving plants in a shady part of the garden, a neighbor found a 3" salamander.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

This is most likely a Slender Salamander.  The neighbor thought it was a worm and picked up to place in the compost bin.  When the tail detached, she realized it was a salamander.  Note the tiny arms and legs.

The neighbor placed it in a votive holder so I could take photos.  She then released it into a  leafy potted plant in the shade. 

See a much better photo of Slender Salamanders found on Riverside Place in 2009.

 

Salamanders on Riverside Place

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, March 23, 2009. Slender Salamanders found on Riverside Place, near Red Car Canyon. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

This past weekend, Jonathan Vandiveer found two 5-inch long salamanders under pots in his Riverside Place garden. One was either hibernating or dead. After Jonathan shot some photos (with his work glove in the background for scale), he set them free in his garden. You may remember Jonathan's MOTHRA! discovery from last summer.

From a search of www.CaliforniaHerps.com, we narrowed it down to being a Slender Salamander (Batrachoseps), possibly a non-native to Los Angeles, California Slender Salamander (Batrachoseps attenuatus), who hitched a ride in from a nursery. However, it's more likely to be the native, Garden Slender Salamander (Batrachoseps major major).

There are 19 species of Slender Salamander on the California Herps website. Few are native to LA County. Both candidates seem suited to damp environmental conditions of Red Car Canyon near Riverside Place.

In January 2001, a neighbor's son showed me two smaller (likely juvenile) salamanders, just like the one in the photo above. He set them free where he found them in the damp, shady part of "the Meadow" on the Red Car Property.

Send us photos of your urban wildlife encounters in the Corralitas Red Car Neighborhood. Include your name, date and approximate time of photo and what the animal was doing at the time of observation: redcarproperty@gmail.com.