Flatwoods Salamander
Ambystoma cingulatum

Wakulla Co., Florida.  March 22, 2006
 

breeding habitat
 

The breeding grounds of the Flatwoods Salamander didn't look like much - a low, wet place where water puddled around sedge tussocks and wire grass, on the edge of an old logging deck.  By this time of the year the eggs have been laid and hatched, with the larvae left to develop in the small pools of water, while the adults moved back to their somewhat drier homes in the pine flatwoods.  And yet, some adults were still hanging around the breeding pools, and we were able to find one under a log.

I had convinced myself that I was in Florida much too late in the season to easily see one of these salamanders, and so I was more than happy to be proven wrong.