Ringed Salamander

The ringed salamander is a mole salamander native to hardwood and mixed hardwood pine forest in and around the Ozark Plateau and Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. It has a slender body with a small head and long tail, colored dark gray to dark brown with white to yellowish bands and light spots; newly transformed juveniles start out black backed with white bellies before developing the banding within about two months. It shelters under leaves, rotting logs, and abandoned burrows, and is a strong digger, breeding in small, fishless, semi permanent ponds. The IUCN lists it as least concern, though it is uncommon because of its restricted range, with an estimated global population of about 100,000, and it is further pressured by habitat fragmentation and clear cut timber harvest.