California Tiger Salamander- Sarah Sebor

California Tiger Salamander Ambystoma californiense

                                                                                                  California tiger salamander at Jepson Prairie, Solano County. Photograph by Adam Clause

Characteristics

The California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense) is an amphibian in the family Ambystomatidae. This is a large, stocky salamander, with a broad, rounded snout. Its small eyes, with black irises, protrude from its head.


"Tiger" comes from the white or yellow bars on California tiger salamanders. The background color is black. The belly varies from almost uniform white or pale yellow to a variegated pattern of white or pale yellow and black.

Female

Adult males are about 20 cm (about 8 in) long. Females are about 17 cm (about 7 in). Males can be distinguished from females, especially during the breeding season, by their swollen cloacae, a common chamber into which the intestinal, urinary, and reproductive canals discharge. They also have more developed tail fins.

Male

Map By: US Fish and Wildlife Service

Geographic Range 

The California Tiger Salamander is endemic to California.  Their range is not only geographically restricted to the state but isolated from any other salamander species. 

Today, California Tiger Salamander distribution is concentrated in the northern part of their historical range and their populations exist in disjunct vernal pool complexes. The limited distribution is due primarily to human induced habitat loss.  
The Central California tiger salamander occurs in the following counties: Alameda, Amador, Calaveras, Contra Costa, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Monterey, Sacramento, San Benito, San Mateo, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Stanislaus, Solano, Tulare, Tuolumne, and Yolo.

Ecology

Breeding Pond

The tiger salamander is restricted to grasslands and low foothills with pools or ponds that are necessary for breeding. Adults mostly eat insects. Larvae eat things like algae, mosquito larvae, tadpoles and insects.
Natural breeding areas, mostly vernal pools (a seasonal body of standing water), are being destroyed. Ranch stock ponds that are allowed to go dry help take the place of vernal pools for breeding. A California tiger salamander spends most of its life on land. Actually, "in the land" - it lives underground, using burrows made by squirrels and other burrowing mammals.

Larvae swimming in natal pond
Mark Gary

Maturing eggs in breeding pond
Mark Gary

Females lay their eggs in the water, attaching them to twigs, grass stems, or other vegetation or debris. Hatching time for eggs ranges from 10 to 28 days. The larval stage lasts 3 to 6 months, with metamorphosis beginning in late spring/early summer. Once metamorphosis occurs, juveniles will leave their natal ponds at night and enter their terrestrial habitat in search of underground burrows.

Listing Status

The Central California DPS of the California tiger salamander (Central California tiger salamander) was listed as threatened on August 4, 2004. The State of California listed the California tiger salamander as a single entity throughout its range as a threatened species in 2010 (California Fish and Game Commission 2010). The Service published a final rule designating critical habitat for the Central California tiger salamander on August 23, 2005. The first 5-year status review for this species was completed on October 21, 2014.

Recovery

The critical habitat designation for the central California population — made in 2005 under political influence — illegally slashed critical habitat in half, and in the same year, the Sonoma County population's critical habitat was completely eliminated. The Center submitted a notice of intent to sue the Bush administration over these and 53 other wrongfully made Endangered Species Act decisions in 2007. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to designate 50,855 acres of critical habitat for the Sonoma County salamanders — leaving out some important areas, but making a crucial step toward salamander recovery.

Still, none of the California tiger salamander populations had recovery plans. Later that year the program, Center for Biological Diversity, secured a court-approved settlement requiring the Service to develop recovery plans for all three populations of California tiger salamanders within the next five years. The Santa Barbara County population received a draft plan in 2015 and the central California population received a draft recovery plan in March 2016. In June 2016 the Sonoma County population received a final recovery plan and in June 2017 the central California population received a final recovery plan.

Threats

PC: Chris Brown, USGS

The primary cause of the decline of California tiger salamander populations is the loss and fragmentation of habitat from urban development and farming. This includes the encroachment of nonnative predators such as bullfrogs, which kill larvae and nonnative salamanders that have been imported for use as fish bait and may out-compete the California tiger salamanders.

PC: Alan Vernon

Reduction of ground squirrel populations to low levels through widespread rodent control programs may reduce availability of burrows and adversely affect the California tiger salamander. In addition, poison typically used on ground squirrels is likely to have an adverse effect on California tiger salamanders, which are smaller than the target species and have permeable skins.

A deformity-causing infection, possibly caused by a parasite in the presence of other factors, has affected pond-breeding amphibians at known California tiger salamander breeding sites. Use of pesticides, such as methoprene, in mosquito abatement may have an indirect adverse effect on the California tiger salamander by reducing the availability of prey.

PC: Jerry Dodrill

Automobiles and off-road vehicles kill a significant number of migrating California tiger salamanders, and contaminated runoff from roads, highways and agriculture may adversely affect them.

What can you do?

See What You Can Do to Help Wildlife and Plants for ideas about how to help threatened and endangered species.

Need more specifics? Download the California Tiger Salamander scientific species account.

Resources Used:

More information can be found at the following sources:
 
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/amphibians/California_tiger_salamander/index.html

https://www.fws.gov/sacramento/es_species/Accounts/Amphibians-Reptiles/ca_tiger_salamander/ http://online.sfsu.edu/bholzman/courses/Fall%2003%20project/CAtigersalamander.htm
https://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/Signed%20Central%20CTS%20Recovery%20Plan.pdf