NPR: Slideshow: Hunting the Pit Bull of Salamanders

Slideshow: Hunting the Pit Bull of Salamanders

Still here: A Northern Dusky salamander in Manhattan

Sarah Goodyear

For 60 years, naturalists believed the Northern Dusky salamander had disappeared from Manhattan. The amphibian species is common in the Eastern United States, but people just assumed it couldn't hack it here. The last known citing was by Carl Gans, who wrote about it for a 1945 article in the journal Copeia.

A couple of years ago, a New York City Parks Department ecologist who had seen the Gans article decided to go look for herself. Ellen Pehek says she and a colleague spent a day in August picking their way down a rocky bluff before finding a muddy spot in the woods. They turned over a rock and found a mother Northern Dusky and her hatchlings.

This spring, an old friend took my family on a hunt for Northern Duskies. Erik Baard is launching a website, Nature Calendar, for city dwellers who love nature. I may not be as committed as Erik to time outdoors, but I did fall in love with the humble Northern Dusky. Ecologists call it the pit bull of salamanders for its stout body and strong jaws. I like to think of it as the little salamander that could.

Laura Conaway

10:18 AM ET | 04-22-2008 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

Although the story was interesting, I protest the male hosts opening comments. I choose not to fight the battle for the hot dog but I find the insinuation that the water the hot dog was cooked in is in some way inferier because it came from "disgusting" N.Y. City tap water vs bottle water is s1/4onciously feeding your audience into what the bottle water industry wants them to believe. I am going to assume you have not read all the studies that indicate NY City water quality standards to be much higher than average. I am also going to assume you have not read anything citing the landfill influx due to water bottles, the oil and energy used to create that bottled water, and the differance in quality standards between the FDA (which monitors bottled water)and the EPA (which monitors municiple water). I could go on and on, but I do have something better to do.
A tap water advocate.

Sent by Chris Davison | 6:34 PM ET | 04-23-2008

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