Why Monitor Red-Backed Salamanders?

What can a salamander tell us?

Many measures suggest that Eastern Red-Backed Salamanders are the most abundant vertebrate in Maine. Because of this, they are an ideal study organism for biologists interested in tracing the effects of climate change and land use on forest health, and they’re also an ideal study subject for citizen science!

But this also raises the stakes for their surrounding ecosystems: a declining red-back population could have significant effects across the state’s forests. Red-backs help control insect populations, thereby protecting the critical network of fungi in our forests, and also provide a plentiful source of energy for birds, mammals, and reptiles. They are an important species to keep tabs on. Further, scientists hypothesize that red-backed salamander populations will decline as climate change accelerates, as many other amphibian populations have begun to do. Anything we can learn about the resilience and adaptation of this species may become increasingly important to our ability to protect and preserve natural communities in the future.

And if that’s not enough, red-backed salamanders may also be what scientists call an “indicator species.” These are animals that, on a population scale, serve as a measure of environmental conditions in their habitat. The healthier the salamander population, the healthier the ecosystem. So - a tiny little salamander can tell us a whole lot!