The good folks at the Nature Conservancy are working hard to restore the population of flatwoods salamanders in the Florida Panhandle. We recently met with Apalachicola Restoration Specialist Jana Mott from the conservancy to get out in the field to take a closer look at their efforts. Just outside of the Apalachicola National Forest, we waded through breeding ponds that have been setup to help the species repopulate. While we may not have found one in the wild on this trip, the salamanders are very elusive so catching a glimpse of one is difficult.The flatwoods salamander was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1999.
Flatwoods salamanders are moderately-sized salamanders that are generally black to chocolate-black with fine, irregular, light gray lines and specks that form a cross-banded pattern across their backs. Adults are terrestrial and live underground most of the year. They breed in relatively small, isolated ephemeral ponds where the larvae develop until metamorphosis. Mature salamanders migrate out of the ponds and into uplands where they live until they move back to ponds to breed as adults.
Flatwoods salamanders are endemic to the lower Gulf and Atlantic coastal plains where they occur in what were historically longleaf pine-wiregrass flatwoods and savannas. Their habitat has been reduced to less than 20 percent of its original extent. Surviving populations of flatwoods salamanders are small, localized and highly vulnerable to habitat destruction, deterioration and fragmentation.
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