It’s finally spring here in Ohio - remember we told you about one of the signs of spring last week... and with the daffodils we also see something else in the buckeye state. For this week's know Ohio, we join the salamander on its springtime journey.
One of the signs of spring's arrival might surprise you, and that's the arrival of the salamander migration. A salamander is an amphibian that looks like a cross between a lizard and a frog. They have moist, smooth skin like frogs and long tails like lizards. And all four legs on a salamander are so short that its belly drags on the ground!
Salamander migration is kind of similar to when birds make their journey back from the south. Salamanders spend most of their life underground, so the mass migration is truly a phenomenon.
In Ohio, mole salamanders come out of their hiding spots in wooded areas and travel to vernal pools to breed... that's just a temporary pool of water. At the end of March and beginning of spring, the salamanders make their journey, but sometimes roads might block their path.
This habitat separation is dangerous for the salamander, since they don't have the convenience of walk signals and traffic lights. In Brecksville, Ohio, a portion of a road there is even closed to protect the hundreds and sometimes thousands of salamanders. Similarly, a portion of Summit MetroPark in Akron closes for the migration to protect the salamanders.
The creatures typically only spend two weeks above ground, so it's a rare spectacle for Ohioans to watch! But don't try and take one of these guys home as a pet...there are park officials and volunteers near the vernal pools in Ohio keeping an eye out to protect the species.