Fun Facts About Red-Backs
Red-backs are only 2-5 inches long and weigh just a few ounces, but they pack a punch! These slippery forest friends are plentiful in the Maine woods, living on or below the forest floor in numbers so great that their total biomass outweighs the biomass of any of the state’s other vertebrate species. Check out this page to get better acquainted with the new friends you didn’t know were all around you!
Introducing the red-back
Red-backed salamanders are a species of terrestrial salamander in the family of lungless salamanders called Plethodontidae. They live in moist hardwood forests throughout Maine and the northeast, with a range extending east from Minnesota to North Carolina and north to Nova Scotia and southern Quebec. They get oxygen through cutaneous respiration, meaning they breathe through their skin. Because of this, they require moist, cool conditions and spend the majority of their time in the protection of decaying logs, under rocks, and among the leaf litter on the forest floor. When conditions are moist and cool enough, they forage for small invertebrates on the forest floor, eating things like mites, ticks, ants, and snails. The species exhibits color polymorphism, meaning they are found in several distinct color schemes, or morphotypes. The most common, the red-back, has a wide, rust-colored stripe running the length of its back and tail, while the second most abundant lead-back is uniformly gray with occasional white speckling.
How do they do that?
Eastern red-backed salamanders have some pretty cool adaptations to help them evade predators and thrive in the Maine woods. Check it out:
Eastern red-backed salamanders have a long tail that stores fat and nutrients. When conditions are bad and food is scarce, they can draw on these reserves for weeks to avoid going hungry.
That tail serves an even greater purpose, too; eastern red-backed salamanders can escape predators by dropping all or part of their tail when they’re attacked. In its place, a new tail will eventually grow, usually lighter in color. One second the hungry predator has its meal; the next, all it has left is a tail!
Red-backs occur in many different rare color schemes, known as morphotypes. The erythristic morphotype is nearly all red, and scientists think the species developed this morphotype in mimicry of the red eft, a poisonous salamander that inhabits similar environments. Predators expect that the salamander will make them sick, so they leave them alone!
Red-backed salamanders are hardier than some of their amphibian kin. They have been found not only in deep woods, but also in backyard wood piles, suburban forests, and even urban parks.
Due to their lack of lungs, eastern red-backed salamanders breathe through their skin. But the skin needs to stay moist for breathing to function properly. Because of this, red-backs tend to spend their time in damp habitats - in or under logs, leaf-litter and burrows of deciduous forests. They come out when it rains and at night, when they aren’t at risk of drying out. In colder months, they disappear under the frozen ground. With a low tolerance for acidic soil, they cannot live in areas with high acidity.
Mothers aggressively defend their eggs against predators for a full month until their young hatch. They keep away hungry animals and also keep their eggs moist while they incubate. This level of parental attention is rare among amphibians.