Fire salamander

Salamandra salamandra · The fire salamander is a common black-and-yellow salamander species found across the forests of southern and central Europe.

Also called Common Fire Salamander.

Fire salamander
Photo: Petar Milošević, CC BY-SA 4.0
Fire salamander
Photo: Reinhold Möller, CC BY-SA 4.0
Fire salamander
Photo: Thomas Fuhrmann, CC BY-SA 4.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumChordata
ClassAmphibia
OrderUrodela
FamilySalamandridae
GenusSalamandra
SpeciesSalamandra salamandra

Where it lives

Damp deciduous woods across central and southern Europe.

Fun facts

  • Some fire salamanders live incredibly long lives, with one specimen surviving over 50 years in a German museum.
  • Its skin toxin, samandarin, can trigger violent muscle spasms and raised blood pressure in any vertebrate that bites it.
  • In most subspecies, females carry fertilized eggs inside their bodies and release live larvae into water just as they hatch.
  • It snags small prey like insects and worms using its teeth or the sticky back half of its tongue.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).