A salamander named Jeff

Jefferson's Salamanders are one of my favorite Ontario salamanders, for several reasons, the least of which is their "rare" factor as they can only be found in a small handful of locations in Ontario. The ROM's website says that they are found at 30 sites in the province. They are listed provincially as "Threatened" due to a number of reasons, including road mortality, loss of habitat, being at the northern extent of their range, and strangely enough, genetics.

Jefferson Salamander - Waterloo Region

The story behind the genetics of Jefferson Salamanders and a few other closely related species is a long and complicated one that still has unanswered questions. I'll try to summarize it as best and briefly as I can. In the past, a hybrid event occurred with this species as well as others, and unisexual female salamanders were the result. In this part of Ontario the unisexuals make up the majority of most populations in southern Ontario and contain the Blue-spotted Salamander alleles ("L", for Ambystoma laterale) and Jefferson Salamander alleles ("J", for A. jeffersonianum). Instead of having the usual 2 alleles, these unisexuals have 3 alleles (in other areas, up to 5 alleles have been noted). For instance, they could be LLJ, or LJJ. The offspring they produce are essentially clones of the mother. They don't reproduce parthenogenically - rather, they use the sperm from one of the parent species to stimulate egg development, though no genetic material is contributed. LLJ salamanders use the sperm from a male Blue-spotted Salamander to stimulate egg development, and LJJ salamanders use the sperm from a male Jefferson's Salamander. All of the unisexuals are female.

female "unisexual" salamander - April 7, 2010

Since all the unisexuals are female, any male salamander that is found is a pure diploid individual of the parent species. Females, however, are impossible to identify in the field - it can only be done definitively by looking at their genome in the lab.

In this southern Ontario population, there are male and female Jefferson Salamanders, male and female Blue-spotted Salamanders, female "LLJ" salamanders, and female "LJJ" salamanders as far as I am aware. What I would speculate is that the Jefferson Salamander males often fertilize these unisexual salamanders, leaving the female Jefferson Salamanders unable to reproduce that year. Over time, some populations only have the unisexuals, with one of the parent species (usually Jefferson Salamander) no longer present.

Jefferson (left) and Blue-spotted Salamanders

As you can see from the above photo, the Jefferson Salamander is a lighter gray colour with tiny blue flecks, is larger in size, has long limbs, a long tail, and a long snout. Blue-spotted Salamanders are generally darker with large blue spots, have short limbs, a shorter snout, shorter tail and are overall smaller. The unisexuals are intermediate but with a wide range of variation.

I have been fortunate to stumble across several sites over the years where I believe I have found pure Jefferson Salamanders. I think that they are more common than what they're given credit for, but at the same time I have only seen about 35 individuals in my life, compared to exactly 450 Blue-spotted and "unisexual" salamanders. Last night, while out herping with some close friends, Chris stumbled across a perfect example of a Jefferson Salamander. They're still holding on in my area!

male Jefferson Salamander - March 23, 2012

male Jefferson Salamander - March 23, 2012

male Jefferson Salamander - March 23, 2012

The salamanders are moving

Between midterms, papers, and St. Patrick's Day festivities, I have made it out to the ponds a couple of times to see what amphibians were around.

The first night was warm, but dry, and I was a little worried that we wouldn't see good numbers of amphibians. Every vernal pond was completely ice-free and it wasn't long before we saw the first of many newts on the evening.

Red-spotted Newt

Every pond we checked had decent numbers of Spotted and Blue-spotted Salamanders, but there were only a few frogs. Spring Peepers were only sporadically calling, as were Wood Frogs. A few more days of warm weather, especially if we get a good deluge of rain, and there will be huge numbers of several species. Even still, we did get a few Wood Frogs.

Wood Frog

Matt holding on to his woodie...hehe.

We did find a big ole Bullfrog just hanging out on the trail. Bullfrogs aren't very common on the site - in fact I have seen less than 20 of them over the years.

American Bullfrog

Reuven made a great find with a Northern Brownsnake under a log. This was, by over two weeks, the earliest Brownsnake I have had at the site.

Northern Brownsnake

Of course, several first-of-year Green Frogs were swimming along the edges of the vernal ponds, and tadpoles, which take over a year to metamorphisize and spend the winter in the ponds, were also easy to find in the larger vernal ponds.

Green Frog

Matt found a snake as well - this time a Northern Ribbonsnake. While they are easy to find in the day, I have only ever found two before at night during the early spring.

The entire evening we were being serenaded by several owls, including 7+ Eastern Screech-owls and 1 Great Horned Owl. A few packs of coyotes howled in the distance, and lightning danced on the horizon though rain never did arrive. Several of the screech-owls came to check us out.

Eastern Screech-Owl

The following night was more of the same - same weather conditions and same species observed. I managed to photograph several Spring Peepers, including this individual. Unfortunately they were a bit camera-shy and wouldn't call while we were photographing them. As the spring wears on, their boldness will increase!

Spring Peeper

A Blue-spotted Salamander crossing the road to reach its vernal pond. Fortunately car traffic on this road is quite light so only a few individuals get killed annually. In other areas road mortality is a huge problem.

Blue-spotted Salamander

Natasha with a Blue-spotted Salamander

And finally, one of the many dozens of Spotted Salamanders that breed in these vernal ponds. We also saw a single male Four-toed Salamander crossing the trail (not photographed by me), the first of the year.

Spotted Salamander

Coming up - I will be traveling to Point Pelee and area for a few days this week. Hoping for some record early spring migrants!

First snakes of the year

With the blazing hot weather yesterday, I couldn't resist spending the afternoon looking for some early season snakes at one of my favorite spots. I headed down with Pauline and Chris, first stopping at Mountsburg to see what waterfowl were in. Not a whole lot was around compared to yesterday, maybe 10 species of the common things, so we headed west to check out Puslinch. On the way we paused to watch the antics of a few Eastern Meadowlarks.

Eastern Meadowlark

I really like this shot for some reason...its a little bit different. What do you think? Being limited to a 300 mm lens, about equivalent to 6 or 8 x zoom, means I have a lot more of these types of photos and less of the full frame, close-ups of birds. Even the meadowlark shot above was cropped a fair bit.

Eastern Meadowlark

A few roadside ponds had turtles basking - all Midland Painted Turtles of course. 

Midland Painted Turtle

We eventually made it to our spot and started looking for snakes. As I was walking a hillside I heard Chris yell that he had a snake - the first Northern Ribbonsnake of the year. 

Northern Ribbonsnake

It was great to get reacquainted with this beautiful species as I've spent hundreds of hours with it in the past. Without a doubt it is my favorite Ontario snake, though the Massasauga and Queen Snake aren't far behind.

Early in the season ribbonsnakes are quite approachable as they bask quietly in the sun. With any quick movement they take off, but if one exercises a bit of stealth it is possible to get quite close. In the past I have had ribbonsnakes that I was photographing crawl over my hands or my camera. This photo I took yesterday was from a snake I had crept up to. Full-frame.

Northern Ribbonsnake 

As we walked through the woodland signs of spring were apparent. Skunk cabbage were well on they way through the wet soil, chickadees attempted to outdo each other with their "fee-beee" song, and four species of woodpeckers were making a racket as they chased each other around and drilled cavities into trees. By turning over a few stones we found our first Ambystoma of the year - a young Blue-spotted Salamander.

Blue-spotted Salamander

Eastern Redback Salamanders were also plentiful under every other stone. This species occurs in 2 general colour morphs, with the occasional intermediate individual. This one is of the more common "redback" form, while some individuals have no red strip and are a coal gray/black colour on their dorsum. Over the years at this location, 74.9%  of the Eastern Redback Salamanders I have classified as "red-backed", 25.1% have been "lead-backed" (n=606). 

"redback" phase Eastern Redback Salamander

We heard several choruses of Spring Peepers as well as one or two lone Western Chorus Frogs. W. Chorus Frogs have been decreasing steadily in Ontario over the past number of decades and they are a candidate to be a Species at Risk. This part of Ontario still has strong populations, but it was a little disconcerting to only hear a couple of them mixed in with the peepers. Normally they readily sing in the daytime early in the season while the peepers have their loudest choruses at night. Hopefully the lack of W. Chorus Frogs was due to the early date and not a decline in their numbers. Here is a photo of one from a previous spring...

Western Chorus Frog

Chris keeping a wary eye out for snakes

Pauline - herper extraordinaire

Anyways, as the afternoon wore on we kept seeing good numbers of both N. Ribbonsnakes (Thamnophis sauritus septentrionalis) as well as the slightly less numerous Eastern Gartersnake (T. sirtalis sirtalis). These are the two earliest snakes I see at this site, with my first snake of the year usually a N. Ribbonsnake. Within a week or two Northern Brownsnakes, followed shortly by Redbelly Snakes should appear. Northern Watersnakes will be out any day, and the remaining snakes at the site (Smooth Greensnake, Eastern Milksnake, N. Ringneck Snake) don't usually appear until mid or late April. Most of the gartersnakes and ribbonsnakes we saw on the day were very close to known hibernacula, and I didn't see any in areas where I suspect there are no hibernacula. To me this means that they had recently emerged and within a few days they will probably disperse over all the hillsides.

Northern Ribbonsnake

I would elaborate more on Northern Ribbonsnakes, their hibernacula, and other things, but I've already made this long-winded enough. They are a fascinating species though, and its good to see several populations in the Cambridge/Guelph area that are doing very strong as they are a Species of Special Concern in Ontario.