The red-cheeked salamander (''Plethodon jordani''), also known as the Jordan's salamander, Jordan's redcheek salamander, or Appalachian woodland salamander, is a species of

salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All t ...

in the family

Plethodontidae Plethodontidae, or lungless salamanders, are a family of salamanders. With over 500 species, lungless salamanders are by far the largest family of salamanders in terms of their diversity. Most species are native to the Western Hemisphere, from B ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range, and its surrounding terrain ...

in the

southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also known as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical List of regions in the United States, region of the United States located in the eastern portion of the Southern United States and t ...

Description

The red-cheeked

is a uniform steely grey colour with conspicuous red, orange or yellow patches on the side of the head. The imitator salamander (''Desmognathus imitator'') is thought to be a

mimic In evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object, often an organism of another species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. In the simples ...

and is very similar in appearance but has a pale line joining jaw to eye and more robust hind legs.

Distribution and habitat

The red-cheeked salamander is found in mountainous areas of the southeastern United States. The main populations are along the border between North Carolina and Tennessee, but separate populations occur in

Rabun County, Georgia Rabun County () is the northeasternmost county in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 16,883, up from 16,276 in 2010. The county seat is Clayton. With an average annual rainfall of over , Rabun County has the ...

. The altitude range is 210 to 1950 metres (700 to 6400 ft), but a few specimens are found below . Almost the whole altitude range occurs within the boundaries of the

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in the southeastern United States, southeast, with parts in North Carolina and Tennessee. The park straddles the ridgeline o ...

. The red-cheeked salamander is a terrestrial species and is found in both hardwood and coniferous forests, particularly in the

Southern Appalachian spruce–fir forest The southern Appalachian spruce–fir forest is an ecoregion of the temperate coniferous forests biome, a type of Montane ecosystems, montane Conifer, coniferous forest that grows in the highest elevations in the southern Appalachian Mountains o ...

. It is plentiful in areas with a ground cover of moss and leaf litter among large boulders.

Biology

The red-cheeked salamander conceals itself during the day under rocks and in or under rotten logs. It has extensive shallow burrows through which it can move about. At night and during rain it emerges to the surface to forage. A salamander has a small home range which is about for a male and for a female. When displaced by a distance of or more, most salamanders managed to return to their home. The red-cheeked salamander feeds on small invertebrates including

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateria, bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limb (anatomy), limbs, and usually no eyes. Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine ...

snail A snail is a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gas ...

springtail Springtails (class Collembola) form the largest of the three lineages of modern Hexapoda, hexapods that are no longer considered insects. Although the three lineages are sometimes grouped together in a class called Entognatha because they have in ...

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

s and insect larvae. Creatures that prey on the red-cheeked salamander include birds, the common garter snake (''Thamnophis sirtalis''), the

blackbelly salamander The blackbelly salamander (''Desmognathus quadramaculatus'') is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to the United States. Its natural habitats are rivers, intermittent rivers, and freshwater springs. It is threat ...

(''Desmognathus quadramaculatus'') and the spring salamander (''Gyrinophilus porphyriticus''). When attacked, it turns its tail towards the predator and emits a sticky, noxious mucus. It may bite the head of a snake or twine its tail round its head. Another defensive strategy is the autotomisation of its tail, which may leave the predator a tasty morsel while the salamander flees. Little is known of the breeding habits of the red-cheeked salamander, but they are likely to be similar to those of other members of the genus ''

Plethodon ''Plethodon'' is a genus of salamanders in the family Plethodontidae. They are commonly known as woodland salamanders. All members of the genus are endemic to North America (Canada and the United States). They have no aquatic larval stage. In som ...

'' with a clutch of eggs being brooded by the female and each egg developing directly into a juvenile without an intervening larval stage.

Status

The red-cheeked salamander is listed as being "

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to Endangered species, endangerment in the ne ...

" in the

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological spe ...

. The population of the species appears to be stable, but the area of its range is less than . Balancing this, it is common in many locations, tolerates forestry disturbance and lives completely within the confines of the national park. The main threats may be

acid rain Acid rain is rain or any other form of Precipitation (meteorology), precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it has elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). Most water, including drinking water, has a neutral pH that exists b ...

, climate change and the damage to forests caused by the

balsam woolly adelgid The balsam woolly adelgid (''Adelges piceae'') is small wingless insect that infests and kills firs. In their native Europe they are a minor parasite on silver fir and Sicilian fir, but they have become a threat especially to balsam fir and ...

(''Adelges piceae'').

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1432171 Plethodon Endemic amphibians of the United States Natural history of the Great Smoky Mountains Amphibians described in 1901 Taxa named by Willis Blatchley Taxonomy articles created by Polbot