Red-backed salamander
Plethodon cinereus
Summary 7
The red back (or redback or red-backed) salamander (Plethodon cinereus) is a small, hardy woodland salamander. It inhabits wooded slopes in eastern North America, west to Missouri, south to North Carolina, and north from southern Quebec and the Maritime Provinces in Canada to Minnesota. It is also known as the eastern red-backed salamander or the northern red back salamander to distinguish it from the southern red back salamander (Plethodon serratus).
Distribution and habitat 8
Plethodon cinereus ranges from the Canadian Maritime provinces and southern Quebec, west to northeastern Minnesota, and south to northern and eastern North Carolina. There is an additional isolated colony in southern North Carolina (Conant and Collins 1998). Three-fourths of this range was under the last continental ice sheet 21,000 years ago, indicating that P. cinereus has the ability to rapidly disperse and has done so in recent biological history (Highton 1995). It has been estimated that the northern range of P. cinereus is expanding at a rate of 80 m per year (Cabe et al. 2007). The erythristic color phase of the species reaches its highest frequencies (20-25%) in northeastern Ohio, the Berkshire and Litchfield Hills, and the Bay of Fundy region (Tilley et al. 1982). Hybridization can occur with congener P. electromorphus, which is found in southwestern Pennsylvania, Ohio, southeastern Indiana, northern Kentucky, and northwestern West Virginia.
Individuals of P. cinereus can be found beneath old logs, bark, moss, leaf mold, and stones in evergreen, mixed, and deciduous forests (Bishop 1943). P. cinereus prefers a moist environment and becomes more abundant and more active upon introduction of seeps (Grover 1998; Grover and Wilbur 2002). It also prefers a higher cover object density, which increases abundance and average body mass by making foraging more effective (Grover 1998).
Conservation status 9
Red-backed salamanders are common throughout most their range. In the future, however, they could be effected by high levels of acid in the soil caused by human-induced factors like acid rain.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
State of Michigan List: no special status
Sources and Credits
- (c) Ian Marsman, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/26747023@N00/11860984
- (c) 2010 Todd Pierson, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=340979&one=T
- (c) Brian Gratwicke, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3191/2502898721_3bc358d12f_o.jpg
- (c) Jason Weckstein, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3020/2911245398_bfb3560bec_b.jpg
- (c) Jason Weckstein, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3155/2911234718_59eea06f43_b.jpg
- (c) 2010 Todd Pierson, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=340972&one=T
- Adapted by Marie Studer from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plethodon_cinereus
- (c) AmphibiaWeb © 2000-2011 The Regents of the University of California, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://eol.org/data_objects/23854737
- (c) The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/25066495
