This is a typically marked adult ringed salamanderJake and I were recently back in southwestern Arkansas on, as might be expected, a herping foray. Ever since Jake had learned of this salamanders existence, he had told me time and again, he had been enamored of the beauty of the ringed salamander, Ambystoma annulatum, and although we had been in the region where they were found on previous trips, neither weather conditions nor season, had been conducive for these aptly named mole salamanders to have emerged from their burrows. So we had previously whiled away our time searching for and photographing some of the other Ozarkian caudatans.

But today, a cool autumn day, was different. It was raining and the rain was forecast to extend well into the coming hours of darkness. We had a few locales to check out before dark. All in all things were looking good. Necessary tedium first--motel, a bite to eat-- then into the mountains.

After bumping for several miles along a woodland dirt road we found ourselves in a land of rocks. This was definitely ringed salamander habitat—but there was a problem. Rock after rock, for as far as we could see, had been freshly turned out of its cradle and just left lying atop the leaves. We could only guess that this was the work of uncaring market hunters. For the first hour Jake and I rolled rocks back into their original positions. By then darkness was approaching and we discontinued the reconstruction efforts with hundreds of rocks still out of place. We did want to get a few minutes of salamander hunting in.

We walked a bit further to a small ephemeral pond and found after considerable searching Jake’s lifer ringed salamander and dozens (probably hundreds) of freshly laid eggs.

The rain continued making photographing difficult but not impossible and we were soon on the way back to the motel.

Once back to the paved road, the rain now barely a sprinkle, we were lucky enough to see another 4 ringed salamanders. Our trip was a resounding success.