Tiger Salamanders: Fierce Subterranean Amphibians - Long Island Press

-

Tigers are one of the planet’s most ferocious predators. The largest of all the big cats, these animals are at the top of the food chain in their domain, which once spread across Asia and India.

Unfortunately, human population growth caused a loss of habitat and now these felines are on the verge of extinction. But another tiger lurks here on Long Island: a predator that rules its domain making a meal of anything that can fit into its powerful jaws lined with sharp teeth that snap down on its unsuspecting prey with incredible speed and ferocity.

That predator is the tiger salamander. It’s an amphibian, related to newts, not big furry cats. It is a monster though, growing to lengths of eight inches. It got its name from both its striped coloration and its attitude.

Big cats are known for the ability to hunt using stealth, camouflage, strength and quickness to overpower unsuspecting prey. Tiger salamanders do the same but from a different angle in the stealth and camouflage categories.

They are seldom seen, rarely venturing above the ground. These tigers spend 50 weeks a year underground. They are in a family of amphibians known as mole salamanders, which live like the moles in your yard. Although they are seen occasionally on warm rainy nights in the summer, they usually emerge in early February.

Often there is snow on the ground, but that does not deter these cold-blooded animals. Driven by the urge to pass on their genetics, they amass on the edges of ponds looking for suitable mates, romantically just in time for Valentine’s Day. Once mating is accomplished, they make a hasty retreat underground where they hunt all kinds of prey from earthworms and insects to small rodents, reptiles and other amphibians.

Sadly, tiger salamanders on LI are suffering the same fate as the big Asian cats. Many building projects that were undertaken here never gave a second thought to what lives under the soil. This suburban sprawl not only ruined their habitat, it entombed the mole salamander under parking lots, amusement parks and malls.

Tiger salamanders are still found in small pockets, mostly on the East End, the last stand for this amazing creature in our area. Environmentalists have given the tiger salamander a voice and many builders now have to understand that just because a deer is bounding across a field, doesn’t mean there isn’t wildlife present.

There are tigers in fact! Another amazing animal living a peaceful coexistence on this wild Long Island.  

Jungle Bob’s Reptile World is located at 984 Middle Country Rd. in Selden. It can be reached at junglebobsreptileworld.com 631-737-6474.



http://bit.ly/2HVOSTY

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All In The Family: Maine Mother & Son Charged in Massive Drug Bust

-
Image
corso dog :: Article Creator Woman Hospitalized After Attack By 2 Dogs At Same Edmonton Home Where Boy Died: Lawyer UPDATE: On April 15, 2024, the City of Edmonton provided an update on the fatal attack. It said that prior to the deadly incident on April 1, "the city had no lawful basis to remove the dogs from the home." The city added that "all prior complaints about the dogs involved in this incident were investigated thoroughly and appropriate action was taken in accordance with the applicable legislation." The city also said a review found that its staff "acted appropriately in accordance with our standard practices and in compliance with the relevant legal constraints given the nature of past complaints and reports." A woman was hospitalized after being attacked in February by two large Cane Corso dogs at the same home where an 11-year-old boy was killed last week, the woman's lawyer told Global News. "I...
Read more

Rare Frogs And Illegal Drugs - Palisades Hudson Financial Group

-
Image
Colombian conservationist Ivan Lozano has hit on a brilliantly promising strategy to protect his country’s rare and endangered amphibians. His plan: Flood the market with them. Lozano is not hunting rare frogs in Colombia’s Andean forests. He is raising them himself and selling them at prices designed to undercut poachers and smugglers. If he can raise the frogs cheaply enough, and in large enough numbers, he might manage to drive down the market price to the point that poachers no longer find it worthwhile to harvest and smuggle the creatures onto the black markets. Lozano told The Associated Press that his company also encourages collectors to breed their own frogs. Picture yourself as a poacher. If the government toughens the legal penalties and steps up enforcement, you will shrug your shoulders; legal risks are a basic cost of doing business. Since the demand for your product already exists among foreign collectors and other buyers, tougher enforcement merely reduces supply a...
Read more

Burn scars, winter storms threaten rare and endangered species in San Gabriel Mountains - The Bakersfield Californian

-
Image
LOS ANGELES — Up until a few weeks ago, the West Fork of the San Gabriel River was one of the most abundant wildlife habitats in Los Angeles County, a secluded and rugged area defined by its steep peaks, lush canyons and mixture of rare and endangered species. Recently however, a team of federal biologists and forest rangers was aghast when it visited the stream following the Bobcat fire, which has burned more than 115,000 acres in the heart of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. Terrain that once resembled a High Sierra granite gorge now looked like ground zero after a nuclear explosion, and the usually clean mountain air was sharp with the stench of smoke. Particularly unsettling were the bare and ashen slopes that were now primed to dissolve under pounding winter storms. A heavy mudslide, experts said, could reverse decades of conservation efforts by inundating the last outposts for such federally protected species as the Santa Ana sucker fish and Southern California m...
Read more