Tarahumara Salamander

The Tarahumara salamander is a freshwater mole salamander endemic to Mexico, found across the Sierra Madre Occidental in the northwest of the country in temperate forest, montane grassland, streams, marshes, and ponds between 1,675 and 3,100 meters elevation. Adults reach about 80 millimeters from snout to vent with a 73 millimeter tail, females longer bodied and shorter tailed than males, and coloring that runs from uniform brownish black as newly hatched larvae to yellow and black mottling in older larvae and large yellow spots or streaks on a dark background as terrestrial adults, some of which stay plain. Some populations are paedomorphic, remaining aquatic with functional gills rather than completing metamorphosis, and the species can thrive even in cattle ponds on ranches. It is assessed as least concern with an apparently stable, widely distributed population, though it faces habitat destruction, invasive predatory fish, and expanding agriculture, and Mexico gives it special legal protection.