Tiger salamander resting on split log.
Tiger salamander Ask any salamander, and it'll tell you: we need our Indiana wetlands! © Trevor Edmonson/TNC

Stories in Indiana

Indiana Nature Notes for March

Alyssa Nyberg.
Alyssa Nyberg Restoration Ecologist

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The March of the Salamanders

At Kankakee Sands, our wetlands have a great awakening in March. During the day, the tender bright-green leaves of moist soil-loving plants begin to grow, and the many aquatic insects—such as fairy shrimp, dragonfly larva and damselfly larva—swim in the cool waters. Wetlands attract turtles and frogs, not to mention several species of ducks. In the damp mud are distinct tracks of deer, raccoons, weasels and cranes.

And at night, there is the slow methodical march of salamanders making their way to the wetland after their long winter slumber. What’s a wetland, you ask? Wetlands are places filled with water (seasonally, year-round or intermittently). Bogs, swamps, fens and marshes are all wetlands.

Wetlands are safe havens for a lot of wildlife, and our salamanders rely on them for survival.

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If you’ve never seen an adult salamander, you are in for a treat! Salamanders are cute: they look a bit like a chunky, short-limbed, broad-headed lizard. But before you consider touching one, know that they are slimy. Salamanders rely on moist skin to avoid desiccation and death. It’s no wonder that salamanders like to live in moist places, such as under leaves, rocks and fallen logs, and in underground burrows and tunnels. It is this time of the year, March, that they are crawling out from under those places as they emerge from their winter hibernation locations.

The adult salamanders are making the march to wetlands to breed. After mating, females attach fertilized egg masses to submerged vegetation, sticks and logs, and then the females return to land. The larvae are left to their own devices to develop and hatch.

Young salamanders are fully aquatic. They have long, strong tails for swimming and shortened appendages. They have gills on either side of their head that assist with breathing. As they age, they develop lungs for living on land and eventually lose the gills.

Salamanders, regardless of their age, are carnivorous. Adult salamanders feed on things that you might expect to find in wet places: slugs and snails, worms, spiders and a wide variety of insects. Young salamanders feed on aquatic invertebrates, small tadpoles and sometimes even small salamanders!

Ephemeral wetlands, which fill in the spring and dry up in the summer, are of most benefit to the salamanders. Ephemeral wetlands are typically devoid of fish, allowing a greater chance of survival for the salamander, whose predators include fish and birds. But wetlands that are present all year long are also beneficial.

A salamander common to the Kankakee Sands is the Eastern tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum). They are typically seven to 10 inches in length and dark in color with yellow spots of varying shapes and sizes. Eastern tigers are some of the most common salamanders in Indiana and all across the United States. They can be found in forests, prairies, meadows and even urban areas as long as there is a wetland where they can breed.

Salamanders are one of the many good reasons to protect our wetlands. Wetlands once covered 25% of Indiana, but sadly we're down to just 3.5%. Even small, isolated wetlands are important, often serving as the only refuge for several species of amphibians, such as salamanders, as well as nesting locations and migratory stopovers for birds. In fact, according to the U.S. EPA, approximately 50% of migratory bird species depend on wetlands!

The Indiana Land Protection Alliance’s (ILPA) Indiana Wetlands Challenge invites you, your friends and family to visit and learn about Indiana wetlands. By visiting these special places, you can learn how you can help land trusts and partners protect them. Learn more about this fun Indiana Wetlands Challenge.

As part of the wetlands challenge, we have one of ILPA’s photo frame boards here at Kankakee Sands. Stop by this March and take a photo at the photo frame board with a Kankakee Sands wetland off in the distance. You can show the world that you love wetlands and all the amazing creatures, including salamanders, in them!

Alyssa Nyberg.

Alyssa Nyberg is restoration ecologist for The Nature Conservancy's Kankakee Sands project in Newton County, Indiana.