First a bit of background; our salamander exhibit in our cave habitat has always been a challenging piece of work for the herpetology department. Home to Atlantic coast slimy salamanders, cave salamanders and a particularly large dusky salamander, the salamander exhibit has required almost constant upkeep to maintain light levels, temperature, water flow and cleanliness. After years of dealing with the headache, we finally buckled down and did a complete overhaul of the exhibit, adding more standing pools, hiding spaces and improving the filtration systems and overall lighting. The results of the renovation compared to the original are like night and day; almost immediately the salamanders became more active, spending more of their time roaming around the exhibit, swimming in the various pools and climbing the walls. In addition to the increase in activity, the salamanders also began breeding and laying eggs...something they never did in the old exhibit. Since the overhaul, our slimy salamanders have laid several clutches of eggs and we have successfully raised a few babies to be introduced as they mature. This morning, during our daily check in, we discovered that one of our female cave salamanders was completely loaded with eggs that could be seen through her skin!
Apologies for low quality! It's hard enough to take good photos of such a small active animal, especially with a terrible cellphone camera!
We will be monitoring the exhibit closely as the salamander should lay her eggs any day now. Some salamanders are very protective of their nests so we will have to be vigilant for any increased aggression or nest guarding once the eggs are laid. Hopefully in mid to late fall we will have some baby cave salamanders (if we do, I will use a better camera!)!
