More High Altitude Tiger Salamander Larvae

Tiger Salamander larva hovers just below the water surface. Looking for all the world like a space-walking astronaut.

I recently (July 11, 2021) took a trip up onto the San Juan National Forest to check on some more of my higher elevation Tiger Salamander tanks.  As expected, most were dry -  but this one at around 8500’ still had a lot of water in it.

A mid-July, 2021 photo of the Tiger Salamander tank on the San Juan National Forest. Note the water level in the tank. Last year at this time, the water level was several feet deeper.

The water level is much lower than it usually is at this time of year, but I’m guessing that the tank still has about 4 or 5 feet deep at its middle.

And I saw a ton of Tiger Salamander larvae in the water.

Two Tiger Salamander larvae at the edge of the weeds on the tank’s margin.

Most of the larvae were perhaps four or five inches long.  I often would see a cluster of four or five of the larvae in proximity of each other.

Group of Tiger Salamander larvae. I did not see them obviously interact with each other, but they seemed to maintain a couple of body-lengths of open space between themselves.

An interesting thing, though. Even though the larvae were often near each other, there seemed to be a minimum distance that they would try to maintain between themselves. When one larva would drift within a couple of body lengths of another, the second larva would casually drift away to maintain the distance.

This was a hot day, and I was very tempted to wade out into the tank. I told myself that it would be so that I could get better photos. But really, it would have been because the water looked so cool. I’m pretty sure that if I waded out, the Salamanders would have swum away.

And for the rest of the day I’d have smelt even more like stagnant water than usual.