Nose to nose with a California Giant Salamander.
California has it all. Well almost all. Except for what they don’t have. But if its caudatan diversity you’re interested in, California is definitely a state you should consider visiting. Newts, Lunged salamanders and Lungless salamanders all may be found there. Some are colorful, some are drab. Some are tiny, some are comparatively large. All are interesting.

One of the groups that I find of great interest are the Giant Salamanders of the genus Dicamptodon (family Dicamptodontidae). Of the 4 species 2 dwell in California’s cool, moist forestlands. These are The California and the Pacific Giant Salamanders, D. ensatus and D. tenebrosus, respectively. Both are hefty, and both top out at just about a foot in length, with tenebrosus perhaps being a bit more slender, a tiny bit shorter, having a proportionately smaller head and shorter limbs. This latter is also a bit darker in color. The former, the California Giant, is the southernmore of the 2, ranging southward in the Coast Range from southern Mendocino County to western Glenn County. The Pacific Giant ranges northward from Glenn County to southwest British Columbia, Canada.

Populations of both of these big nocturnal salamanders are adversely affected by foresting practices that leave stream banks unprotected, subject to drying, and the streams themselves subject to warming. Although both of these salamanders are variably colored, neither is brightly colored. Ground color of both is tan to light brown with well-defined reticulations and spots of reddish brown to dark brown. They breed in streams and creeks and the aquatic larvae may take several years to metamorphose.

Prey includes invertebrates such as worms and slugs as well as vertebrate prey such as smaller salamanders.

Fer-de-Lance are everywhere and nowhere. Walk carefully--especially at night.When I sit down to write these blogs, I try to discuss any herps mentioned in a positive way. Such is the case now. I’m writing about the Fer-de-Lance and I’m positive that this, the Fer-de-Lance, Terciopelo, or Her-gon) are the sneakiest snakes alive. I’m equally positive that there far more of them within a Baseball Pitcher’s throw than I can even begin to guess at.

I know that about 10 of us walked across a clearing between the tambos (rustic rooms) to look at a frog brought in by a guide, and when we turned to amble back there sat all coiled and ready for meanness if necessary was an adult Fer-de-Lance. It wasn’t there a minute earlier. Then one night I was stooped down looking at a frog on the trail (I’m about to begin believing that frogs are bad luck!), stood up and there was an 18 inch long Fer-de-Lance staring me straight in the eye. It was coiled 5 feet up in a leafy shrub. Another time I walked down to the shower stepping carefully on the cement pads and looking carefully between them. Nothing. Five minutes later I retraced my steps and in the grass between the pads were a neonate Fer-de-Lance and a couple of pads later an adult was half on and half off a pad. Then there was the incident at the frog puddle. We—all of us-- had walked from tambo to river along this cleared trail numerous times for a week or so. Zero snakes of any kind. Finally we had a rain hard and long enough to fill a depression in the trail. While it was raining small leptodactylid frogs began gathering at puddle edges. And within 15 minutes there were a half dozen Fer-de-Lances gathered to prey on the frogs. I wonder how closely we had been walking to those snakes without ever seeing them.

The above, of course, are excerpts from Preserva Madre Selva on the Rio Orosa in Amazonian Peru. And what exactly is this abundant snake?

The Fer-de-Lance, Bothrops atrox, is a very venomous pit viper. It has a ground color that may vary from olive through various browns and grays to almost yellow. The pattern is equally variable, sometimes being prominent dark banding and on other example the markings may be faint rectangular dorsal blotches or triangles. There is a diagonal facial stripe from the back of the eye to just beyond the angle of the jaw. It is a snake that you should get to know immediately. It is a dangerous snake that as Devon and I have often said is everywhere and nowhere. Caution is the keyword here. And never stroll, even for a few feet, at night without your flashlight. To do so is inviting disaster.

But c’mon down. You’ll love the herps.