For years I led what I called "Salamander Love Night" night programs at
Camp Long in West Seattle after learning that the first salamander eggs
showed up on Valentine's day (or was it the day after? - either way I could
argue that the salamanders were romancing at the beginning of Valentine's
Day, at night after midnight or at the end of Valentine's Day, at night (I
would argue before midnight). There are two species that breed in the pond
at Camp Long, both Ambystoma macrodactylum - the Long-toed Salamander, and
Ambystoma gracile - the Northwestern Salamander, both of the genus
Ambystoma - the "mole salamanders", that tend to breed in quiet ponds
without fish. Both are active primarily at night. The Long-toed lays its
eggs first, so that is most likely what I saw on Valentine's day, or the
day after. (I haven't done that program for a couple of years since I have
gone fully independent as a naturalist, and would have to coordinate with
Camp Long to do night programs there.)

I later learned that the romancing actually came a day before the egg
laying, as there is a dance of sorts where the male rubs against the female
directing the female to a sperm packet that it had laid on the pond bottom.
The female then picks up the sperm packet with its cloaka, internally
fertilizes her eggs, then lays them wrapped around a stem of a plant, of an
appropriate thickness, and preferably a lax live stem, rather than a stiff
dead one that won't have the eggs above water if the water level goes too
low, but she'll take a stiff stem if no lax ones are available. So my
original story could have been off by a day and the romancing could have
been on February 13th.

As another Tweeter member mentioned in the time leading up to Valentine's
night, the salamanders are mobile, on their way to their breeding ponds,
generally where they were born. The one found in a house, was likely
trying to get to its natal pond, but somehow ended up in a house. At Camp
Long, West Seattle, Long-toed are the less common of the two pond breeders
there, but are not what I'd call "rare" there. That said, they are not
readily found except in the breeding pond around breeding time, plus or
minus a week or two. Both salamander species depend on two things: a large
contiguous habitat, which at Camp Long includes both its 68 acres and more
acreage along the Longfellow Creek greenbelt; and the second thing is an
appropriate breeding pond, which for the Long-toed species doesn't need to
be a permanent pond that maintains standing water through the dry season,
as they can lose their gills and become terrestrial before the dry season
dries up a breeding pond.

The Northwestern Salamanders seem to need a permanent pond and half of the
ones that hatch from the eggs in the pond at Camp Long, keep gills for life
and never leave the pond. Others of the Northwestern Salamanders seem to
leave after 1 1/2 years, losing their gills then, and dispersing into
surrounding forested areas, where they are usually below the ground
surface. I think they often use mole tunnels (I saw one in a mole tunnel
once), and I imagine the moles ignore them.

I don't know how common Long-toed Salamanders are in other parts of
Seattle, but I recently got a report of one from the Rainier Beach area
near the south end of Lk Washington. There is an article on my website on
our Six Seattle
Salamanders<http://www.stewardshipadventures.com/2012/02/10/six-seattle-salamanders/>
:

-Stewart
www.stewardshipadventures.com
206 932-7225
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