Fire salamander (Salamander salamander)

Fire Salamander – Salamandra salamandra

Scientific classification:

Distribution and habitat:

Salamandra salamandra occurs in Central and Southern Europe and North Africa / Algiers. Morocco / and Western Asia / Asia Minor, Syria /. Primarily living between 400 and 1000 meters altitude. In Hungary, especially in wet mountains, deciduous forests, valleys. Larger numbers were observed in the Northern Mountain Range, the Aggtelek Karst, the Börzsöny, Bükk, Matra, Cserhát the Zemplén Mountains and the „Feet of the Alps”. The appearence of salamander indicates the presence of clean surface waters − streams, springs. Likes the dense vegetation, moss-covered bushes and shrubs interspersed with rocks and slopes, as well as the old decidious forests with a lot of fallen trees and logs.

Appearance (morphology):

Main features: body elongated, 15−20 cm long, squat head, flat, large eyes. Brilliant black color, which is decorated with large, irregular, yellow or orange spots. Short stout limbs. First legs have 4, rear ones have 5 fingers. Tail is shorter than the length of the body, almost cylindrical, rounded at the end. S-shaped wave passes through the body from head to tail.Parotid gland in the neck of two highly developed. 
Surface of the skin is landular. It produces salamandarin, which causes mammals twitching, shortness of breath and high blood pressure, and is lethal to smaller animals. It can cause inflammation in humans if touched.

Diet:

The adult salamander eats various insects, slugs, worms living int he soil. It only consumes live animals.

Behaviour:

From their winter shelters, the animals come out in early spring (frost-free natural holes), where they sometimes stay in groups to survive the winter. Monitoring is difficult because during the day they only come out just after rainy, wet weather, it is mainly active during the night.His movements are slow. They are amphibians, being equally at home in moving water.
The salamanders although often live together, but we can not say about them, that they are social creatures − one hardly cares about the other. They just look for each other during the mating, and after the mating, they leave each other.

Reproduction:

In the breeding season the males are particularly active and agile. They respond to each movement quickly, but only recognise males and females after smelling them, and wathing their reactions. During the mating the male crawls under the female, and hugs the parter strong, because the female initially tries to resist. After the female accepted the male, the male does a snake-like movement, rubbing its body agains the female. After a short time the female replies with the same movement. The male then releases a spermatophore and tries to move to females cloaca into contact with it. This entire process takes 15-30 minutes. 
The fertilized females in the spring of next year – from around March lay their larvae into water, usually about 40 in number. These have two pairs of limbs, and well-developed and well-developed tufts of gills. They are transparent while young.Their bodies are covered with dark spots. They can easly merge into the creek bed environment. Their prey are tiny crustaceans, worms. Transformation. lasts for 5 months, and in autumn (September or October) they leave the water.If transformation does not happen, even during the winter may remain in the water and even grow from 6.5 to 7 cm. At 4 years of age they reach sexual maturity.

Role in the ecosystem:

The salamander’s occurrence, indicates the waters present −  streams, springs − are clean. 
It is assumed that the occurrence of slamanders on treeless mountain pastures and meadows, indicates the location past forests.

The salamander and the soil:

The animals survive the winter in frost-free hollows int he ground. 
They are particularly sensitive to pollution of soil, which cause microclimate changes, therefore the salamnder is a sort of indicator species.
It is an integral part of the food chain, it eats soil-dwelling molluscs, and insects.

Vulnerability: 
In several European countries − including Hungary as well −  it is considered an endangered species, with a conservation value of 10.000 Forints (in Hungary). It is potentially threatened by water pollution because of their larvae. Uncontrolled deforestation is also a danger, significantly changing the microclimate of the environment.
The fire salamander is listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.