(Ambystoma laterale)
had brought home a couple of salamanders. He described them as small and being covered in blue dots
and that they had found them under a rock, this was very interesting since I hadn't heard of any reports of
salamanders in the Amherstburg area before this. I was quite surprised to hear his account and would
have dismissed it if there were anything else that could be mistaken for a salamander...but there isn't. The
boys didn't remember exactly where they had found them but we went for a ride anyways in case they
recognised the spot. The amount of suitable habitat is very limited in this area so I had a good idea where I
was going to begin my hunt. I called my friend Tom Preney and we set out. It was late Summer, there was
no standing water left and the mosquitoes were unimaginably bad. After being assaulted for a couple of
hours by the mosquitoes we were ready to call it day. We would flip a few logs on the way out and maybe
try again another day. It was one of those on-the-way-out logs that we found our target, a gorgeous adult
A. laterale. We photographed it flipped a few more logs (and found a few more salamanders) and got out
of there before we succumbed to the mosquitoes (yes they were that bad). After going back and finding
several more on several different occasions it seems that they are relatively stable and all were in good
health.
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