Berry Cave Salamander (Gyrinophilus gulolineatus)

Atlas of Amphibians in Tennessee - Austin Peay State University
AmphibiaWeb - University of California
Caudata Culture
Tennessee Amphibians & Reptiles - Matthew Niemiller
Wikipedia
Red List of Threatened Species - IUCN
ARKive - Environmental Agency, Abu Dhabi

[NOTE: The Austin Peay atlas was published before this species was recognized, so the link above will take you to the entry for the Tennessee Cave Salamander, of which this species was formerly considered a part. On that page is a link for new county records, which will take you to a page that talks about the split.]

Along with the Tennessee Cave Salamander (G. palleucus), this critter is the state amphibian of Tennessee. The Berry Cave Salamander is an East Tennessee specialty, with populations officially known from caves in Knox, Roane, McMinn, and Meigs counties. Generally, these guys are paedomorphic, which means that they keep their larval form all throughout their life. This would be like a tadpole that never turned into a frog but simply grew big and reproduced as a tadpole. However, you can see from the photo to the right that they do occasionally transform into an "adult" body shape.

Unquestionably the strangest herp-related experience I've ever had involved a Berry Cave Salamander. Quite honestly, if someone else told me this story had happened to them, I wouldn't believe it. But it is what it is. I had just moved to Anderson County from Denver and knew basically nothing about the local amphibians. We had a torrential downpour one night, and the next day a kid from down the street brought me a dead untransformed Berry Cave Salamander that he said he found in the road during the rain the night before. (I don't remember if it was alive when he found it.) I thought it was kind of neat, but, not knowing any better, I figured such occurrences must be commonplace in this new land I had moved to. So they threw the specimen away and that was the end of it.

Photos by Matthew Niemiller

Eastern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans)

Atlas of Amphibians in Tennessee - Austin Peay State University
Wikipedia
University of Michigan Museum of Zoology
The Frogs & Toads of Georgia - Walter Knapp
AmphibiaWeb - University of California
Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, United States Geological Survey
Tennessee Amphibians & Reptiles - Matthew Niemiller

[UPDATE: The first species I ever put on this blog was the Northern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans). Well, wouldn't you know it... there's been a taxonomic change. It has recently been split into two species, and the one that ranges across most of Tennessee is the Eastern Cricket Frog, which retains the name Acris crepitans. I'll post about the other species later, so stay tuned! But for now, I'm re-posting the original account because it applies to the new species just as well.]

The Eastern Cricket Frog is widespread across Tennessee, though I have yet to see one in East TN. They're as common as dirt around streams in the Greater Nashville area, especially along the Cumberland River Bicentennial Trail in Cheatham County. They come in two very distinct color forms. One is all brown, and the other has a bright neon green stripe down the back that almost looks like it was made with a highlighter. Their call is really cool; it sounds like someone knocking two small rocks together. (It doesn't sound like a cricket at all, so I'm not sure where the name came from.)

Photos by Matthew Niemiller (top) & James Beck (bottom)

Brown-backed Salamander (Eurycea aquatica)

Atlas of Amphibians in Tennessee - Austin Peay State University
AmphibiaWeb - University of California
Wikipedia
Caudata Culture
Encyclopedia of Life
Global Species - Bruce Myers
Tennessee Amphibians & Reptiles - Matthew Niemiller

The Brown-backed Salamander is another example of fun with taxonomy. The Society for the Study of Amphibians & Reptiles includes it on its most recent checklist, and this has been mostly accepted, but some people still consider it to be a variant of the Southern Two-lined Salamander (Eurycea cirrigera). The key difference between the two species is that the Brown-backed Salamander specifically occurs around springs, whereas the Southern Two-lined Salamander is found in all manner of flowing creeks.

These guys just barely reach from Georgia into southeastern Tennessee, in Bradley County. There's also an old record from the 1960s in Davidson County, where salamanders were found that appeared to be this species. Nobody really knows what they were for sure, and that population has probably gone extinct since.

Photos by Pierson Hill (top) & R.D. Bartlett (bottom)

Cumberland Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus abditus)

Atlas of Amphibians in Tennessee - Austin Peay State University
AmphibiaWeb - University of California
Tennessee Amphibians & Reptiles - Matthew Niemiller
Caudata Culture
Amphibian Research & Monitoring Initiative - US Geological Survey
Herpetological Education & Research Project - North American Field Herping Association
Encyclopedia of Life

The Cumberland Dusky Salamander is our first example of really confusing salamander taxonomy. At one time, most of the round-tailed dusky salamanders in Tennessee were considered to be the Mountain Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus ochrophaeus). That species has since been chopped up into five species, all of which occur in Tennessee. The Cumberland Dusky Salamander is one of those five. It's known to live in Morgan, Cumberland, & Rhea counties, with a disjunct population on the west side of the Sequatchie Valley in Grundy County.

There is a population of round-tailed dusky salamanders in Coffee County that's been determined to be a new species. At the moment, based on its range, it would key out as the Cumberland Dusky Salamander, so that's why I'm mentioning it in this post. Unfortunately it hasn't been seen in a couple decades, so it may have actually gone extinct before anyone had a chance to determine exactly what it was.

Photos by Matthew Niemiller

Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis)

Atlas of Amphibians in Tennessee - Austin Peay State University
Wikipedia
Joyce Sun & Theodora Pinou - Western Connecticut State University
University of Michigan Museum of Zoology
AmphibiaWeb - University of California
Hellbenders.org - Jeff Humphries
Tennessee Amphibians & Reptiles - Matthew Niemiller

And you thought the amphiuma was scary-looking. Hellbenders, for all their hideousness, are completely harmless. Unfortunately a lot of fishermen don't know this and will sacrifice their tackle rather than handle one that they've accidentally caught.

Hellbenders have historically occurred all across Tennessee east of the Tennessee River, but they seem to be declining rapidly from a lot of areas. The best place to find them at this point is in some of the streams in the Smokies, although I have yet to see one in the wild. If you want to get a good look at one, your best bet is the Nashville Zoo.

The Hellbender is closely related to the Japanese Giant Salamander, which is the largest salamander in the world. Our little guys don't get that big, but, as American salamanders go, I think they're still pretty impressive :-)

Photos by Todd Pierson (top) & Matthew Niemiller (bottom)

Green Salamander (Aneides aeneus)

Atlas of Amphibians in Tennessee - Austin Peay State University
AmphibiaWeb - University of California
Virginia Dept. of Game & Inland Fisheries
NatureServe
Wikipedia
Center for Biodiversity Studies - Western Kentucky University
Tennessee Amphibians & Reptiles - Matthew Niemiller

Time to get crackin' on salamanders! If you read this blog regularly, you'll notice that there will be a lot of salamanders. This isn't because salamanders are exceptionally awesome (even though they are). It's just because there are so darn many of them in this state.

Anyway, the Green Salamander is predominantly a Cumberland Plateau species, though they are known from a cedar glade in Wilson County. (I'm not sure specifically which glade it is, but it looks like it's in the Cedars of Lebanon area.) I've never seen one in the wild, probably because I've never done any legitimate salamandering in the Cumberlands.

Photos by Todd Pierson (top) & Matthew Niemiller (bottom)

Three-toed Amphiuma (Amphiuma tridactylum)

Atlas of Amphibians in Tennessee - Austin Peay State University
Wikipedia
AmphibiaWeb - University of California
NatureServe
eNature
University of Michigan Museum of Zoology
Tennessee Amphibians & Reptiles - Matthew Niemiller

The Three-toed Amphiuma is a very unique salamander that lives in West TN and looks more like an eel than anything else. In fact, if you look at the top link, you'll notice that the family is referred to as "conger eels". From what I've read, that was originally supposed to be "Congo eel" (like the country in Africa), but of course we're in the South, so it had to be properly redneck-ized. And thus "conger" was born.

Anyway, I have no personal experience with these critters, but I've heard they're quite ferocious. Sandy Echternacht (herpetology professor at UT) said that he or a colleague used to have one and they would "allow" people to feed it fish just so they could watch the unsuspecting victim get bitten. Fun times :-)

Photos by Matthew Niemiller (top) and E.R. Degginger (bottom)