All nature’s creatures join to express nature’s purpose. Somewhere in their mounting and mating, rutting and butting is the very secret of nature itself.

~Graham Swift

Rainy nights in January and February bring out the lust in our neighborhood…salamander lust that is. My last post highlighted the first major mating migration of the year for our neighborhood Spotted Salamanders (there had been a small one a couple of weeks before that). I had been on the road in Virginia two nights after that migration incident and missed most of the egg-laying activity that followed. But, Melissa was home and went out got a nice pic of a female “sallie” clinging to one of the branches I had placed in the water just for this purpose. The salamander was laying eggs!

Melissa and I were watching tv last night when I heard heavy rain hitting our metal roof…time to put on rain gear and head out to our two wildlife pools to see what might be happening. We walked out the front door and up to the driveway and started seeing salamanders on the move, headed to one of our pools.

-Spotted Salamander crossing our driveway to get to a breeding pool

They can move pretty fast and so we were careful as we walked, trying not to accidentally step on one. We saw 4 salamanders heading toward the pools and one small one headed away. That one had probably been in there from the earlier migrations and was done with its breeding (or maybe just intimidated by the larger size of all the others).

-One of four salamanders we saw on the move in our yard in just a few minutes during the rain

It really is a miracle to me that these critters can find their way back to a small pool of water to breed after spending months in burrows in the surrounding forest. Some have been shown to follow the same path back to their breeding pool year after year, even entering the pool in the same spot. How they do this is unknown, but chemical cues about the environment through taste and smell may be involved.

The highlight was seeing the “salamander swarm” (aka breeding congress). We went to our pool without the small waterfall first and could see lots of eggs masses from the last time they were feeling lusty along with numerous salamanders congregated and squirming about on the pool bottom. Occasionally, one would swim to the surface, break through to presumably gulp some air, and head back down. But visibility was limited due to vegetation in this pool so we went over to the other one that tends to be much clearer.

It was quite a sight with 15 or more salamanders bumping and nudging each other in one big writhing blob of black and yellow. Here’s a video clip of the action (the sounds are the pump for the waterfall and us occasionally gasping at what we saw).

–An amazing breeding congress of Spotted Salamanders in one of our wildlife pools.

It is incredible to witness this behavior (and right outside our front door). I think some of the female salamanders may be pulling spermatophores (those white blobs on the bottom) into their cloaca using their hind legs. Not sure if that is how it happens, but check out a couple of the salamanders toward the end of the clip with their hind legs cupped up underneath their bellies. I think that may be what is going on. Now, two nights from the rain (this Wednesday) should be more egg-laying (if only I can get home in time to witness it). Will let you know.