Wildlife Diversity Program Quarterly Report for January–March 2026
Hunting Tigers (Salamanders That Is!) by Aubrey Heupel Greene, Wildlife Diversity Biologist, Herpetologist
E very winter finds the Sandhills herpetology staff mean- dering around in ephemeral wetlands in search of State Threatened Eastern tiger salamander egg masses. This year has been no different but with drought conditions, few wet- lands were holding water – and some were completely fro- zen! Insufficient warm evening rain events meant few sala- manders (or other winter-breeding amphibians) decided to make the risky trek to breeding wetlands. Egg mass num- bers were very low compared to past years, and we only found masses at five wetlands. Most breeding occurred in early January 2026, maybe even December 2025. Thank- fully, Eastern tiger salamander populations can withstand a year without breeding success because they are so long- lived (up to 20 years). Other species, however, have much shorter lifespans (2-3 years) so recurring or multi-year drought events can decimate populations. One wetland held little to no water for much of the winter but rains in February increased water levels enough for tigers to breed. Unfortunately, this wetland is also home to HUGE numbers of broken-striped newts which can be voracious eaters of tiger salamander eggs. In fact, as we were counting the few masses laid, newts were devouring the eggs – we observed up to 10 newts on one mass! Knowing these eggs would not survive the newts, we collected them and brought them to our partners at the NC Zoo for headstarting. They are working to optimize a headstarting protocol for this spe- cies to assist declining populations in the future. Another wetland is essentially a borrow pit with frequent impacts from illegal off-road vehicle activity. The water is often compared to the color and transparency of chocolate milk – not exactly conducive for seeing egg masses under the surface! Regardless, we search it a few times each season just in case. We did so this year with no luck but returned to conduct a dipnet survey in March 2026 only to be surprised by several salamander larvae of varying sizes! Their color was abnormally light due to the wetland water and substrate (a common observation in wetlands with little to no vegeta- tion), but they were indeed Eastern tiger salamander larvae!
AUBREY HEUPEL GREENE/NCWRC
An ephemeral wetland in the Sandhills is completely frozen after a snow- storm in early February.
AUBREY HEUPEL GREENE/NCWRC
AUBREY HEUPEL GREENE/NCWRC
Left: A recently laid Eastern tiger salamander egg mass found in an ephemeral wetland in the Sandhills. Right: A broken-striped newt hides below an Eastern tiger salamander egg mass it was eating.
Larval Eastern tiger salamanders found while dipnetting an ephemeral wetland in the Sandhills.
MARISSA CALVERT/NCWRC
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