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How to View a Salamander Migration

Spotted salamanders are common to the eastern United States. Once a year, a mass of them make a migratory trip from the forest floor to temporary vernal pools to mate. Several environmental factors trigger the move, including the temperature of the air and ground, the humidity and barometric pressure. When all these fall into a preferred range, the salamanders take off at nightfall. If you know the right conditions for a migration, and a migration path, you could see plenty of salamanders in migration in at one site.

Things You'll Need

Flashlight

Instructions

- 1
  Investigate a wooded area for vernal pool locations. These are depressions in the forest floor that will fill with rain in the spring and create temporary pools.
- 2
  Check weather reports after the ground has thawed for predictions of rain and temperatures above 45 degrees. When this happens in early spring, it creates the ideal condition for the salamander migration. Go to the vernal pool area that night.
- 3
  Shine your flashlight around the vernal pool and look for movement. If you see one salamander, you will almost certainly see others. In optimum conditions, hundreds if not thousands in a region are in migration and dozens will flock to each vernal pool.

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