The gregarious slender salamander (''Batrachoseps gregarius'') 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 ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s are

California interior chaparral and woodlands The California interior chaparral and woodlands ecoregion covers in an elliptical ring around the California Central Valley. It occurs on hills and mountains ranging from to . It is part of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biom ...

and temperate

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

s in the lower foothills of the western

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

and the eastern Central Valley in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States.

Description

The gregarious slender salamander is a small, slender species with a narrow head, short limbs, small hands and feet and a long tail that tapers near the tip. It has a brown dorsal band of colour, blackish back and sides dotted with white specks grading to a pale grey ventral region. The dorsal band starts at a golden-brown to tan region on the neck and extends along the spine as far as the tail. It varies in colour in different individuals from light brown, with dark flecks and bright highlights, to a much darker colour. The maximum snout-to-vent length of an adult is less than .

Distribution and habitat

The gregarious slender salamander 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 western slopes of the southern and central

in California, United States. It occurs at altitudes of up to 1,800 m (6,000 ft) but in the southern parts of its range seldom occurs above 900 m (3,000 ft). Its range includes

riparian zone A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a ripari ...

s in the Central Valley and it is common in southern

Tulare County Tulare County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 473,117. The county seat is Visalia. The county is named for Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lake ...

and northern

Kern County Kern County is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield, California, Bakersfield. Kern County compris ...

in the drainages of the White River and its tributary, the Arrastre Creek. The habitat is quite variable over different parts of the range but is mainly relatively open oak woodland with

interior live oak ''Quercus wislizeni'', known by the common name interior live oak, is an evergreen oak, highly variable and often shrubby, found in western North America. Description It is a large shrub or tree growing to tall, although where it is common in ...

(''Quercus wislizeni''),

blue oak ''Quercus douglasii'', known as blue oak, is a species of oak endemic to California, common in the Coast Ranges and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. It is California's most drought-tolerant deciduous oak, and is a dominant species in the b ...

(''Quercus douglasii'') and foothill pine (''Pinus sabiniana''), or sometimes

mixed coniferous forest Mixed conifer forest is a vegetation type dominated by a mixture of broadleaf trees and conifers.Sierra Nevada Wildflowers, Karen Wiese, 2nd ed, 2013, p 13–14 It is generally located in mountains, below the upper montane vegetation type. Sierr ...

with

ponderosa pine ''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine, is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is t ...

(''Pinus ponderosa''), incense cedar (''Calocedrus''),

white fir ''Abies concolor'', the white fir, concolor fir, or Colorado fir, is a coniferous tree in the pine family Pinaceae. This tree is native to the mountains of western North America, including the Sierra Nevada and southern Rocky Mountains, and int ...

(''Abies concolor'') and

California black oak ''Quercus kelloggii'', the California black oak or Kellogg oak, is an oak in the red oak section (genus ''Quercus'', section ''Lobatae'', series ''Agrifoliae'') native to western North America. Description ''Quercus kelloggii'' grows from one ...

(''Quercus kelloggii''). In the north of its range, it is plentiful in coniferous forest with

sugar pine ''Pinus lambertiana'' (commonly known as the sugar pine or sugar cone pine) is the tallest and most massive pine tree and has the longest Conifer cone, cones of any conifer. It is native to coastal and inland mountain areas along the Pacific coa ...

(''Pinus lambertiana'') and

giant sequoia ''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' (also known as the giant sequoia, giant redwood, Sierra redwood or Wellingtonia) is a species of coniferous tree, classified in the family Cupressaceae in the subfamily Sequoioideae. Giant sequoia specimens are the la ...

s (''Sequoiadendron giganteum'') and near the

Kern River The Kern River is an Endangered, Wild and Scenic river in the U.S. state of California, approximately long. It drains an area of the southern Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between ...

, in the south of its range, it is found in dry grassland with scattered boulders.

Reproduction

Reproduction is seasonal in this species. In the southern part of its range and at lower elevations, egg laying usually takes place soon after the start of the rainy season, but at higher elevations it takes place later. The female deposits a clutch of eggs in a well-hidden location, under bark, under a fallen log or a rock, or in leaf-litter in a moist place, often near a seep or stream. Usually, the eggs are laid in communal nests. Such nests have been found with over 300 eggs which are estimated to have been deposited there by more than 18 females. Larger females tend to produce larger clutches, and the mean clutch size of females from the northern part of the range is 15.3 while that for the southern part is 7.3. Once laid, the eggs are not guarded by the mother, although male adults and young salamanders may continue to take refuge nearby. The eggs develop directly into miniature versions of the adult without there being an intervening larval stage. In the laboratory they take 65 to 73 days to hatch and they may take a similar length of time in the wild.

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

lists the gregarious slender salamander as being of "

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

". It occurs in a range of habitat types and the population seems to be stable. No particular threats have been identified for this species apart from the destruction of its habitat.

References

{{Authority control Slender salamanders

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 ...

Fauna of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Fauna of the California chaparral and woodlands Kern River Natural history of Tulare County, California Amphibians described in 1998 Least concern biota of the United States Taxonomy articles created by Polbot