Range: Found Texas, eastern New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and eastern Wyoming, and Colorado. Introduced to parts of Arizona and isolated parts of California.
Habitat: Ponds, reservoirs, and vernal ponds in deserts, grasslands and woodlands.
Description: The second largest terrestrial salamander found in North America, after the giant salamanders of the Pacific Northwest Dicamptodon. This salamander may reach over six inches from snout to vent length (SVL). The color pattern for this subspecies tends to be a grayish green/olive background color with black spots or bars. Tubercles may be found on the tips of the toes. Larval salamanders have external gills, which they lose after they transform to the terrestrial stage.
Adaptations/Habitat: Tiger salamanders are often referred to as mole salamanders because they spend most of their time burrowing underground. Sometimes in dry years when vernal pools that hold larval aquatic stage tiger salamanders, stress from the drying pool may induce cannibalism in some larval individuals. The cannibalistic individual will grow more rapidly and be morphologically distinct (larger body size and jaws) from non-cannibalistic individuals.
Breeding/Growth: Migrates from its underground burrows at the onset of the wet season to breeding ponds where it may remain for over a month. After breeding season adults migrate back to their underground burrows. Larval salamanders remain in ponds until the complete metamorphosis (where they transform to the terrestrial stage), which may take over a year. Some larval salamanders never complete metamorphosis, retaining larval characteristics as adults and developing gonads, which is referred to as paedomorphosis.
Diet: Invertebrates and occasionally small vertebrates.
Exhibit: Eeeww!
Notes: This subspecies has been introduced into California through the use of the larval salamanders as fishing bait. It competes and hybridizes with the local California tiger salamanders (Ambystoma californiense), which are already threatened from habitat loss and introduced predators such as the Bullfrog (Rana catesbiana).
