Notes from a Naturalist: The Jefferson: A complex salamander

Every spring, on the first warm, rainy nights of the season, hundreds of salamanders and frogs make their way over land to vernal pools. Any evening with steady rainfall and temperatures over 40 degrees will coax salamanders such as the common spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) to leave their underground winter burrows in search of these pools to breed. On the same nights that the salamanders move, wood frogs (Rana septentrionalis) will also hop their way toward vernal pools in search of mates.

Spotted salamander males usually arrive first and deposit packets of sperm known as spermatophores along the bottom of the flooded pool, often atop a dead leaf. The next rainy night often brings the females, who will engage in a mating dance with a male of their choosing before engulfing the spermatophore of the chosen mate, fertilizing her eggs before she lays them on a stick or other surface within the pool. The whole scene is often accompanied by the frenzied clucking sounds of dozens of wood frogs.