- Sensitive – U.S. Forest Service
- Sensitive – Bureau of Land Management
- Watch List – California Department of Fish & Wildlife
The yellow-blotched salamander (also known as the yellow-blotched ensatina) is a medium-sized, brown to black nocturnal salamander that is found only in a very narrow range in South-Central California. It is one of seven subspecies of Ensatina eschscholtzii, each of which is found in a limited range in mountains and foothills encircling California’s Central Valley. The yellow-blotched ensatina occupies one of the smallest of these ranges; it’s limited only to the Tehachapi Mountains and extends into the Los Padres National Forest in the vicinity of Mt. Pinos, Frazier Mountain, Alamo Mountain, Pine Mountain, and Tecuya Ridge/San Emigdio Mountains. It is threatened by tree and vegetation removal in core habitat areas of Los Padres National Forest.
Behavior
As with many different salamanders and other amphibians, the yellow-blotched salamander prefers to inhabit cool, moist places, under the soil, under debris, or near water. It remains underground during hot and dry periods as well as during cold or very severe weather, and is most active during wet or rainy nights. The salamander breeds during the fall and spring and possibly throughout the winter, and lays its eggs underground or under debris, such as bark or rotting logs. The young salamanders are fully-formed when hatched.
On Alamo Mountain the yellow-blotched salamander inhabits a very narrow band of the forest, where the geology is such that there is an abundance of rock outcrops and springs, with corresponding moist soil and vegetation for cover. The salamander also thrives on the old growth nature of this forest, using fallen and rotting logs for hiding out in dry weather and laying its eggs.
Threatened by Logging
Two years after the 2006 Day Fire, the U.S. Forest Service proposed a salvage logging operation on Alamo Mountain without surveying for the locations of yellow-blotched salamanders or other vulnerable wildlife. Commercial salvage logging operations can disturb downed logs and soil that salamanders and other wildlife use for shelter. That project was withdrawn after a federal judge ruled that the Forest Service unlawfully approved the project without first preparing an environmental assessment.
Yellow-blotched ensatinas are also threatened on Tecuya Ridge, where the U.S. Forest Service approved a commercial timber sale around several known salamander sites. After the discovery of previously unknown yellow-blotched ensatina populations on Tecuya Ridge, the U.S. Forest Service declined requests to protect salamander sites in the project area. The heavy equipment used in the timber sale operation likely destroyed salamander habitat.
Another tree and vegetation removal project called the Wildfire Risk Reduction Project could nearly eliminate yellow-blotched ensatinas from Los Padres National Forest. The project, first proposed in 2022 and still under review, would eliminate many of the habitat characteristics that are essential for the survival of salamanders by removing downed logs, crushing burrows with heavy equipment, and exposing and drying out the forest floor.
More Information
- Read the yellow-blotched salamander’s species account.
- Read the species description from California Herps.
- Browse our online collection of books featuring our region’s amphibians.
