Pacific Giant Salamander

Appearance

The coastal giant salamander can reach up to 34 cm in total length, making it the largest terrestrial salamander in North America. The coastal giant salamander has stout limbs with four toes on the front feet and five toes on the back feet. The species tail is around 40 percent of the total length of the salamander and is laterally compressed. The head, back, and sides have a marbled or reticulate pattern of dark blotches on a light brown or brassy-colored background. The head is broad with a shovel-like snout and a fold of skin across the throat called the gular fold. The eyes are medium in size and have a brass-flecked iris and a large black pupil. This species is one of the few salamanders capable of vocalizing.

Status

Pacific giant salamanders are protected from being killed or collected under the Wildlife Act in British Columbia.

Habitat

Aquatic stages are found in clear, cool or cold, well-oxygenated streams, and sometimes also in mountain lakes and ponds. Metamorphosed adults occur in humid forests , near mountain streams, or rocky shores of mountain lakes.

Food

Adult coastal giant salamanders, like most of the genus ''Dicamptodon'', are opportunistic feeders feeding on anything they can fit in their mouth. This may include, but is not limited to; slugs, insects, worms and other invertebrates as well as small vertebrates such as small rodents, snakes, and other giant salamanders. In the larval stage, coastal giant salamanders will feed on small macroinvertebrates such as insect larvae as well as small fish and mollusks. If the opportunity arrises, both adult and larval coastal salamanders have been recorded to have consumed other individuals of the same species.

Evolution

A female coastal giant salamander will lay her eggs in moderate to slow flowing mountain streams under rocks and crevasses, hatching in early to mid spring. The coastal giant salamander, being a member of the genus ''Dicamptodon'', exhibits two distinctive phases within its life; an aquatic larval stage with filamentous gills and an elongated tail with a caudal fin , and a terrestrial adult form losing their caudal fin and filamentous gills, and instead developing robust legs and a pair of internal lungs.