Home»Gallery»Portola Valley Ranch, Windy Hill, Etc.»5/27/2019: California Slender Salamander in our Compost

Curled up in a wet pile of grass, looking like a worm. It crawled peacefully over my hand, but I am sure it was happy to get back to the moist outdoors. This is the only slender salamander in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties and on the coast to the north. Slender Salmanders (genus Batrachoseps) have only 4 toes on their hind feet. All other California salamanders have 5 toes on their hind feet. In 2001, it was reported that, on behalf of the National Park Service, Professor David Wake and his graduate students found that the California slender salamander, the most common salamander in California, was in fact twenty separate species spread out along the coast from Oregon to Mexico. Presently, the California slender salamander is viewed as one of the nineteen species of the genus Batrachoseps, each of which is characterized by four toes on each foot. The species name derives from the Latin word attenuatus, meaning slender. This creature is so small it does not need lungs. At our home in Portola Valley Ranch, the morning of 5/27/2019. Light drizzle.