Tiger Salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum)

Adult Size: 6" to 13 3/8"

Description: World's largest land dwelling salamander. Stoutly built, with a broad head and small eyes. Color and pattern extremely variable - large light spots, bars, or blotches on a dark background or network of spots on a lighter background. There are tubercles on the soles of the feet. Costal grooves, 11 to 14 (usually 12 to 13).

Habitat: Varied: arid sagebrush plains, pine barrens, mountain forests, and damp meadows where ground is easily burrowed, also in mammal and invertebrate burrows. Found from sea level to 11,000 feet.

Breeding: Prompted by rain, in the North and higher elevations, egg are laid in March to June, in the South December to February,in the southwest, July to August. Mates in temporary pools, fishless ponds, stream backwaters, and lakes soom after the ice is out. Egg masses adhere to submerged debris. Hatchling larvae are 9/16" long and transform in June to August at about 4" long.

Range: WideSpread! Found from central Alberta and Saskatchewan Canada, south to Florida and Mexico, but absent from New England, the Appalachian Mountains and the far west.

Diet: They are voracious consumers of earthworms, large insects, small mice, and amphibians.

Behavior: Often seen at night after heavy rains, especially during breeding season, they live beneath debris near water or in crayfish or mammal burrows. In the West, Tigers are often neotenic, some reach more than 13" in length.

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Conservation Status:

Additonal Notes:

Subspecies: Six in our range.

Eastern Tiger Salamander (A.t. tigrinum) - dark with olive spots. Found on the east coast, also in central Ohio to northwestern Minnesota and south to the Gulf. Photo...

Barred Tiger Salamander (A.t. mavortium) - dark with yellow crossbars or blotches. Found in northeastern Nebraska to extreme southeastern Wyoming south to south-central Texas and New Mexico. Photo...

Arizona Tiger Salamander (A.t. nebulosum) - gray with small dark marks. Found in western Colorado and Utah to south-central New Mexico and central Arizona. Photo...

Blotched Tiger Salamander (A.t. melanostictum) - dark with yellow to olive blotches or netlike lines. Found in extreme southern British Columbia, eastern Washington and central Alberta southeast to southern Wyoming and northwestern Nebraska. Photo...

Gray Tiger Salamander (A.t. diaboli) - light olive to dark brown with small dark spots. Found in southern Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba to Minnestoa. Photo...

Sonora Tiger Salamander (A.t. stebbinsi) - yellowish spots and the underside is brown with a few yellow spots. Found in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. Photo...