Amphibians
Spring Salamander
Gyrinophilus porphyriticus · also called purple salamander
Turn over a flat rock in a cold Appalachian spring run and you might uncover a big, salmon-pink salamander that seems too large and too brightly coloured to be hiding in a mountain brook. This is the spring salamander, a skin-breathing predator that eats the other salamanders in the stream.
Overview
Gyrinophilus porphyriticus lives in and beside cold, clean, fast headwater streams and springs through the Appalachian region. Adults reach 12 to 23 cm and are salmon-pink to reddish with a cloudy dark mottling and a pale line from eye to nostril.
No lungs
It belongs to the lungless salamander family and has no lungs at all, breathing entirely through its moist skin and mouth lining. That ties it absolutely to cool, damp, oxygen-rich water and forest floor.
Stream predator
It hunts worms and insect larvae but also eats other salamanders — dusky, two-lined, red, and smaller spring salamanders — so cannibalism is routine. The aquatic larva spends three to five years or more in the stream before transforming, and some cave populations never fully do.
Status
Least Concern but slowly declining, disappearing from streams that are silted, acidified, or warmed. Its cave-dwelling relatives are far rarer.
Spring Salamander: common questions
Why is it called a spring salamander?
The spring in the name refers to a spring of water, not the season. This salamander is strongly associated with springs, spring runs, and cold seepage areas at the heads of forested streams, the places where groundwater emerges clean and cool. It is also found along small fast brooks, but the reliable, temperature-stable water of a spring is prime habitat. The alternative name purple salamander comes from the species name porphyriticus, which refers to the colour of porphyry, a reddish-purple rock, describing the animal's cloudy salmon-and-grey tones.
How does an animal with no lungs get enough oxygen?
It relies on its skin. The lungless salamanders, which include most of the salamander species in the Appalachians, lost their lungs far back in their evolution and now exchange gases directly across the moist, thin, well-supplied skin and the lining of the mouth and throat. This works well as long as the skin stays wet and the surrounding air or water holds plenty of oxygen, which is why these salamanders are confined to humid forest floors and cool running streams and are among the first animals to vanish when a stream warms, slows, or fills with silt. A large, active predator like the spring salamander is pushing the limits of what skin-breathing can support, which is part of why it needs such cold, fast water.
Is the spring salamander dangerous to other salamanders?
Within a headwater stream, yes, it is a top predator. The spring salamander is one of the largest salamanders in its habitat, and studies of stream communities show it eats a substantial number of other salamanders, particularly the smaller dusky and two-lined salamanders that share the same brooks, as well as juvenile spring salamanders. Its presence measurably changes where and how the smaller species forage, pushing them to stay closer to cover. It is not a threat to people or to fish populations, and it is itself eaten by trout, snakes, and shrews.
Can you keep a spring salamander as a pet?
It is a poor choice and, in many states, collecting one is restricted or prohibited. Spring salamanders need constantly cold, clean, highly oxygenated water and cool air, conditions that are difficult and expensive to maintain in a home enclosure, and they do badly at ordinary room temperature. They are also easily stressed, secretive, and slow to feed in captivity. Like all native amphibians they can carry and spread diseases if moved between sites or released. They are best appreciated in place, by carefully turning a streamside rock and replacing it exactly as it was.