Bio Facts: Salamander, Reticulated Flatwoods
Click for larger version
Common Name:
Reticulated Flatwoods Salamander
Scientific Name:
Ambystoma bishopi
Family:
Ambystomatidae
Order:
Caudata
Class:
Amphibia
Range:
The southeastern coastal plain in the western panhandle of Florida and extreme southwestern Georgia; it once occurred in portions of southern Alabama but is now considered extirpated there.
Habitat:
Seasonally wet pine flatwoods and pine savannas west of the Apalachicola River-Flint River system
Description:
Adult length: 3.5 – 5.3 in (9-13.5 cm); coloration: generally black to chocolate-black with fine, irregular, light gray lines and specks that form a cross-banded more net-like pattern across the back
Life Expectancy:
4 + years
Sexual Maturity:
Males: 1 – 2 years; females – 2 – 3 years
Diet:
In the wild, they feed on small invertebrates; in the Zoo, they are fed small to medium sized crickets, blackworms, earthworms, and fruit flies.
Status:
IUCN – Vulnerable; USFWS - Endangered
Behaviors:
The reticulated flatwoods salamander breeds in small, shallow, ephemeral ponds, generally characterized by an overstory of pond cypress (Taxodium ascendens) and black tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica var. biflora) and a diverse understory of native grasses and herbs. Adult salamanders spend most of the year underground in burrows, especially those of crayfish, where they feed on a variety of small invertebrates. From September through December, adults migrate from surrounding upland habitats to their natal wetlands during rainfall events associated with passing cold fronts. Courtship presumably occurs within dry pond basins or very shallow water, where the female accepts a spermatophore that has been deposited on the substrate by the male. Females lay eggs in small groups, usually within clumps of moist vegetation or in the entrances of crayfish burrows in the dry pond basin. The eggs hatch in response to inundation by rising water levels in the pond basins. The larval period lasts approximately 3 months, with metamorphs leaving the breeding ponds in late spring.
Special Interest:
Recent studies split the flatwoods salamander into two species - the frosted flatwoods salamander (Ambystoma cingulatum) and the reticulated flatwoods salamander (Ambystoma bishopi).
This species occurs on Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. They are considered extirpated in Alabama.
Prior to European settlement, it was most likely a common member of the fire-maintained longleaf pine (Pinus palustris)-wiregrass (Aristida spp.) community, which has since largely been replaced by urban development, agriculture, and pine silviculture. A recently published study documents the extirpation of a sizable breeding population as a result of a common silvicultural practice of converting natural pine forest to ditched and bedded slash pine plantation.
Conservation:
Listed as Vulnerable because of a population decline, estimated to be more than 30% over the last three generations, inferred from habitat destruction and degradation. Additionally, population size may be less than 10,000 mature individuals, a continuing decline of at least 10% may occur within three generations, and no subpopulation may include as many as 1,000 mature individuals. However, adequate population information is lacking, so application of these criteria must await further data. Declines may be continuing, area of occupancy is small (perhaps less than 310 sq mi or 500 sq km), and the distribution may qualify as severely fragmented; under these criteria the species would qualify as Endangered.
The principal threat is habitat destruction as a result of agriculture, silviculture, and residential and commercial development. Modern silvicultural methods rely on altering soil hydrology, suppressing fire, shortening timber rotations, and replacing widely-spaced longleaf pine with dense plantations of slash pine. Loss of groundcover vegetation due to mechanical soil preparation, fire suppression, and shading by overstories of slash pine has been implicated in the decline in north Florida.
Larvae are threatened in some wetlands by the harvest of crayfish as bait. Bait harvesters drag large hardware cloth buckets through inundated vegetation, dump the contents of the bucket on the ground, and then sort out the crayfish. Flatwoods salamander larvae taken in this manner are left to die or are collected as bait.
The effect of herbicide or fertilization application on flatwoods salamanders is unknown. However, fertilization of plantations often results in eutrophication of wetlands, promoting algal blooms. Larval flatwoods salamanders have not been observed in algal-choked wetlands.
Ditching or berming of small, isolated pond-cypress wetlands, a common practice when establishing slash pine plantations on mesic sites, results in lowered water levels and shortened hydroperiods. These hydrologic perturbations could prevent successful flatwoods salamander reproduction by preventing egg inundation or stranding larvae before they are capable of metamorphosis. Altered hydrology, in association with fire exclusion, results in a shift in dominance from pond-cypress to broad-leaved hardwoods that reduce herbaceous groundcover vegetation through shading. This may be detrimental since frosted flatwoods salamander (A. cingulatum) larvae take shelter in herbaceous vegetation during the day.
Ephemeral pond-cypress depressions are sometimes converted into permanent water bodies, rendering them unsuitable for flatwoods salamander reproduction.
Activities aimed at restoring/maintaining the ecological integrity of mesic longleaf pine-wiregrass flatwoods and associated ephemeral wetlands are needed to preserve extant populations of flatwoods salamanders. Recovery is directly linked with the ability to preserve existing habitat and restore degraded habitat.
Jacksonville Zoo History:
This highly protected species has only been part of our animal collection since 2010.
Last Revised:
3/11
