I thought it would be good to post some photos of the first wild salamander I have ever seen, found in a reserve on the outskirts of Vancouver on the west coast of Canada.  I am over in Canada with my girlfriend at the moment on uni exchange.  On our way over we spent two weeks in and around Vancouver and t was very interesting to see the difference between northern and southern hemisphere fauna. 

We saw two different colour forms of the Western Red-backed Salamnder (Plethodon vehiculum) at the Lynn Canyon Park, pictured below.  Taking these photos was extremely difficult with my current camera lens and has inspired me to invest in a dedicated macro lens! 

Being interested in herps, one of the first things you notice walking through the forested areas (almost all disturbed / modified) is the lack of lizards such as skinks that dominate in so many parts of Australia.  It was interesting to find these little terrestrial salamanders, the size of a large garden skink, and see the external similarities in morphology to skinks (apart from the whole amphibian thing!).  They appear to occupy similar niches to some of the rainforest skinks.  Very interesting to see the morphological convergence.

Enjoy!

Angus

Red colour form:

Orange colour form:

Wow Angus, I'm envious! Sorry but did you say they are common? but how numerous as in individuals in any given area? Are they more active at certain times?

You did well with the pics, not that I want to deter you from the macro investment.

Cheers

Joe

I gather they are very common - we saw an info sign on one of the walks that said they have the highest density of any vertebrate in the forest we were in.  Aparrently they have a very small home range of 1 - 2m and aren't territorial.  They are nocturnal, I found these ones just by lifting up some mossy logs.

After arriving in halfax and having a look in a local park I found another one that looked extremely similar, but it must be a different species since I am on the other side of the continent now!  I'll get a photo once the new lens arrives.

Wow, thanks Angus very interesting.