By Jason Riggio, Wild South Intern

Green salamanders are one of the most unique salamander species in the eastern United States. They represent the only member of the “climbing family” of salamanders (genus Aneides) east of the Rocky Mountains.

This salamander is distributed from southwestern Pennsylvania south to central Alabama along the Appalachian Plateau with an additional disjunct population found in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, Georgia, and South Carolina. In North Carolina, the green salamander has two distinctly separate populations, one in the Blue Ridge escarpment area of Macon, Jackson, Transylvania, and Henderson counties, and another in the Hickorynut Gorge area of Rutherford and Henderson counties.

Across their range, these salamanders occupy one of the narrowest niches of any salamander species, residing almost solely in small, moist (although not wet), clean (containing neither sediment nor moss), horizontal crevices in rock outcrops. They are also infrequently found residing and/or foraging in trees. Adult green salamanders typically measure from 8 to 14 cm long and are specifically adapted to their rocky homes. They are easily identified by the greenish lichen colored patches on their flattened black body. Within North Carolina, green salamanders usually occur in moist mixed deciduous forests between 290m and 1340m in elevation.

Extinction Pressure

From the early 1970s to the late 1980s, green salamander populations in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains experienced a decline so severe that some scientists feared that it might have been wholly extirpated from the region. Then, during the early 1990s hope was restored in North Carolina as populations rebounded and were found in new locations. Unfortunately, between 1996 and 1997 researchers again noted population declines and green salamander numbers have since remained low – an alarming 98% net decrease since 1970. Although the direct causes of the population decline are unknown, some suggested reasons include acid precipitation, habitat loss and fragmentation, climate change (including recent severe droughts), over-collection for the pet trade, destructive logging practices, and the near extinction of the American chestnut (a tree largely correlated with green salamander presence in the past).

Conservation Status

The severe decline in green salamander populations in the early 1970s prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to review the status of the species for Endangered Species Act protection in 1987. They ruled that although populations were declining in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains, the species as a whole seemed relatively stable and denied the application for endangered status. Instead, the USFWS designated the disjunct population as a “Species of Concern.”

In 1990, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission designated the state’s green salamander population as endangered at the local level, offering them protection from collection within the state. The South Carolina Wildlife and Marine Resources Department considers green salamanders a “Species of Concern” while the Georgia Department of Natural Resources has listed them as “Rare.” Neither of these state designations (nor the federal designation) offers the species any legal protection.

Here at Wild South, we are working with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission to monitor these local populations in addition to surveying new sites for potential populations. This information will be crucial in determining where this species should be protected and how the surrounding lands should be managed. Wild South has also played a pivotal role in funding research on the green salamander’s secretive arboreal lives, helping prove the species’ use of trees for both foraging habitat and cover.