California Slender Salamander (Redwood Regional Park Test Guide VL)

California Slender Salamander

Batrachoseps attenuatus

Summary ⁷

The California slender salamander (Batrachoseps attenuatus) is a lungless salamander that is found primarily in coastal mountain areas of Northern California, United States as well as in a limited part of the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, California, in patches of the northern Central Valley of California, and in extreme southwestern Oregon. What makes this amphibian notable is that this species resides primarily in a limited range within California as one of a handful qua

Description ⁸

Like most of the slender salamanders (genus Batrachoseps), B. attenuatus is elongated and slender, with small, very short limbs and a long tail (1.5-2 times its snout-vent length). Each foot has 4 digits. Dark brown to blackish. Dorsal stripe of brick-red, brown, tan, buff, or yellow often present. Dark color on belly usually forms a fine, unbroken network. Underside of tail often lighter than belly and appears tinged with yellow from underlying fat deposits. Fine white speckling on ventral surfaces, including midline of tail. (Stebbins 1985; Petranka 1998).

As recently as 1954 all populations of Batrachoseps in California were assigned to this species, but on the basis of work by Brame and Murray (1968) and especially Yanev (1980), the range of the species has become increasingly restricted to northern California and the northern Sierra Nevada.