Long-toed Salamander

The long-toed salamander is a mole salamander native to the Pacific Northwest of North America, with a range extending from coastal British Columbia and Alaska east into parts of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. It is identified by a irregular yellow, greenish, or tan dorsal stripe running from head to tail against dark brown to black skin, and by the notably elongated fourth toe on its hind feet that gives the species its name. It spends most of the year underground or under logs, emerging mainly to breed in ponds, lakes, and slow-moving streams, including seasonally ice-covered waters at high elevation in the Rocky Mountains where it is among the first amphibians active after snowmelt. Larvae in some high-altitude, fishless lakes can grow unusually large and occasionally retain gills into adulthood, a paedomorphic strategy documented in a handful of isolated populations.