Listing
Dec 30, 1982
Dec 30, 1982 Listing
Review of Vertebrate Wildlife for Listing as End. or Thr. Species
- Publication type: CNOR
Item 1
FWS Focus
Overview
Characteristics
Overview
The Kern Canyon slender salamander belongs to the family Plethodontidae, known as the lungless salamanders. It has a narrow head and long and slim body, tail, and legs, measuring up to 2.2 inches, not including the tail. It's dark brown along the sides and ventral surfaces with a flecked bronze and reddish pattern. It lives in moist environments near water sources where it can avoid desiccation and spends most of its time under cover objects or in small burrows made by other animals.
The Kern Canyon slender salamander is found in the southern Sierra Nevada along the south side of the Lower Kern River Canyon from Stark Creek to Erskine Creek, 1,480 to 5,500 feet above sea level, mostly within the Sequoia National Forest. At lower elevation, they occur within the Lower Kern River Canyon. At higher elevation they occur in Erskine and Bodfish Creeks, tributaries to the Kern River.
Given their reliance on water and cool and humid habitat, the greatest threats to the salamanders include the impacts of climate change climate change
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.
Learn more about climate change , such as drought, and catastrophic wildfire.
Scientific Name
Batrachoseps simatus
Common Name
Kern Canyon Slender Salamander
FWS Category
Amphibians
Identification Numbers
Characteristics
Characteristic category
Life Cycle
Characteristics
Reproduction
They deposit their eggs on land in cool, damp crevices or beneath surface objects that are within the margins of water sources. Reproduction occurs entirely on land and eggs hatch as miniature adults.
Life Span
While the lifespans of the Kern Canyon slender salamander is unknown, the maximum age of the closely related species, the California slender salamander, is thought to be 8 to 10 years, reaching reproductive maturity after 2 to 4 years.
Characteristic category
Similar Species
Characteristics
Similar Species
Characteristic category
Physical Characteristics
Characteristics
Color & Pattern
The coloration is dark brown along the sides and ventral surfaces with a flecked bronze and reddish pattern, with 20 to 21 costal grooves.
Size & Shape
The Kern Canyon slender salamander has a common slender salamander body with a narrow head and long and slim body, tail and legs, measuring up to 2.2 inches, not including the tail.
Characteristic category
Behavior
Characteristics
Behavior
Kern Canyon slender salamanders are thought to have seasonally restricted surface activity, sheltering in underground burrows during unfavorable conditions. They have been found active on the surface from January to May in lower elevations and from March to early November in higher elevations. When the salamanders are active on the surface in winter and early spring, they are typically nocturnal and are found primarily under cover objects such as rocks, logs, bark, and leaf litter in moist environments.
They are highly sedentary and have high site fidelity, thought to rarely venture more than 50 feet from the shelter of cover objects. They depend on skin and buccopharyngeal respiration, which is when oxygen is taken up simply by diffusion or by the contraction and relaxation of the muscles of the cheeks or mouth and throat, and are therefore highly susceptible to water loss through their skin and desiccation.
Characteristic category
Food
Characteristics
Food
Like other slender salamanders, their diet is likely composed of small invertebrates, earthworms and slugs.
Characteristic category
Habitat
Characteristics
Habitat
Kern Canyon slender salamanders are known to inhabit north-facing riparian riparian
Definition of riparian habitat or riparian areas.
Learn more about riparian areas in narrow canyons shaded with willows and cottonwoods, as well as wooded hillsides supporting oaks and pines near wet creek margins, seeps, talus and exposed chaparral. They are most often found in crevices on talus slopes and under cover of woody material and ground cover objects. Kern Canyon Slender Salamanders burrow underground but forage above ground and can occupy small openings such as termite tunnels and earthworm burrows.
Geography
Characteristics
Range
Kern River Canyon area of Kern County, California.
Timeline
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