- I'm Coyote Peterson.
- And I'm Pup Peterson.
- And today we're in the forest of Southeast Ohio,
looking for salamanders.
Wow, that's a big one.
Alright, grab him! Oh!
(fast-paced exciting instrumental music)
The warm days of late summer are the perfect time to
head into the forest with your family to look for animals,
and on this adventure,
Pup Peterson and I are heading into the wilds
of Wayne National Forest to search out one
of the friendliest little amphibians you could ever
hope to encounter.
The salamander.
Ohio is home to around 20 different salamander species,
and if you head out into any forest creek bed,
there's a good chance you will find some.
Just a simple tupperware container like that
is perfect for collecting salamanders.
You wanna care it?
- Yep!
- Okay, let's head out there and see how many
different salamander species we can come across today.
Come on.
The forest was alive with creatures,
from brilliantly colored millipedes and a friendly
green frog to one cranky crayfish.
This guy has got me with both pincers,
right on the inside edge of my finger.
Gah! Ooh, jeez, oh!
Hold on, I'll put him back in the water.
Ah, I think he just broke skin.
Okay, okay, you go back, you go back into the water.
I've been bitten, stung, and chomped by many creatures,
but this crayfish was the real deal.
- [Pup] Can I see?
- Yeah, look at that.
- Oh, jeez!
- He got me good, didn't he?
When searching for animals in the forest,
you just need to know where to look.
And when it comes to salamanders,
it's all about flipping rocks.
From big rocks, to small rocks,
pretty much any rock has the potential
of being the hiding spot of a salamander.
Now you always wanna put the rocks very gently
right back where they came from,
and do you know why that is?
- Why?
- Because that's where the salamanders live,
and in case they're out hunting right now,
we want them to come back to their homes
and have their homes be intact, right?
- Yeah.
- So we wanna be real careful not to step on the flat rocks,
and always put the rocks right back where they came from.
Alright, let's check these ones.
Once you get started, all it takes is a little patience,
and a whole lot of searching.
Whatever you do, don't give up,
and you're guaranteed to have some luck.
I've got a good feeling about this one, ready?
- [Pup] Yeah.
- Oh, there's one. - [Pup] There's one!
- Got him!
That's like 15 salamanders at this point, isn't it?
- [Pup] Yeah.
- Keep going.
My motto is, leave no stone unturned or log unrolled,
because you never know what you
are going to come across next.
- Okay, let's look under this log here.
- [Coyote] Alright hold on, go slow, go slow.
Alright, go ahead and roll this back very gently.
Oh, right there, do you see it?
- [Pup] Yeah!
- [Coyote] Do you know what that is?
- [Pup] A Red Eft.
- [Coyote] Grab it.
- [Pup] Got him.
- Oh nice!
Nice, that's our first Red Eft of the day!
Whoa, great catch!
Now where did you find this newt?
- [Pup] Under a log.
- [Coyote] That's right, and it was much drier under there
than it is in the creek bed, right?
- [Pup] Yeah.
- [Coyote] And that's because if you notice,
the newt has very dry skin, doesn't it?
- [Pup] Yeah.
- [Coyote] He's very cute, too.
- [Pup] Yeah.
- Now the salamanders require much more moisture
to survive than the newts do.
That's why you'll often find the newts near the creek
but not actually in the creek.
Should we hang out with him for a minute?
- [Pup] Yeah.
- [Coyote] Yeah, let's get him up close
with our other salamanders.
With one container full of salamanders,
and the other with some adorable little newts,
it was time to get up close with our catch.
Wow, what an awesome adventure.
I would say that we definitely cleaned up on catching
salamanders today because we have an entire container
filled with those slimy little buggers.
Alright, let's open this up and take a look.
Holy cow, look at all those salamanders!
Now, we caught two different species today.
Most of them are Two Lined Salamanders,
and then we've caught one nice big Dusky Salamander.
He's kinda cute and chunky, isn't he?
Now what do you notice about the Two Lined Salamanders?
What color are they?
- [Pup] They're black and yellow.
- [Coyote] And what do you notice about the black?
What do we have running down the length of the body?
- [Pup] Two black stripes.
- That's right, now that is the way to easily identify
the Two Lined Salamander,
is that it has two distinct black stripes
that run down the length of the body.
Now Pup, put your finger in there and just do this.
What does that feel like in there?
- [Pup] Slime.
- Because Salamanders are extremely slimy.
And what do we know about most amphibians?
They need to keep their bodies what?
- Wet.
- That's right, because these salamanders are out here
living in creeks underneath rocks,
they're constantly staying in the water,
which keeps their bodies moist.
So let's show everybody at home how we actually
caught these salamanders,
because it was pretty tough to get on camera
because you gotta really get your hands
down there in the muck.
Let me try to get one of these little slippery guys
in my hand, alright,
now show everybody at home,
the method that you use to catch a salamander.
- [Pup] So what I did was I put one hand in front like this,
and then another hand like this,
and I kind of like scooped the salamander
up into my hand.
- [Coyote] Boom, that's how you get 'em!
- [Pup] Yeah.
- And that's how you get it.
Now what you wanna do is have a gentle
yet firm hold on the salamander.
You wanna make sure that your hands are moist
so that you don't actually suck any of the moisture
out of their skin and into your hands.
So, in total we caught 20 salamanders today,
but that's not the only thing we caught out there, is it?
What do you got in that container over there?
- Red Efts.
- Awesome, let's open up this container and look
at another one of the salamander species that we have
here in Southeastern Ohio.
- The baby one's so cute!
- [Coyote] Now what do you see on the body of the Red Eft?
What do you see there?
- [Pup] There are actually spots.
- [Coyote] That's right, it's got very spotty skin.
Now as these Red Efts get bigger and older,
the red color actually begins to disappear
and they turn brown just like the one you have in your hand.
Red Spotted Newts have three distinct life stages.
Larva or tadpole,
eft stage like you see here,
and aquatic adult.
And that's what makes them different from other
salamanders species is that they spend most
of their lives in a drier environment,
while salamanders are sticking to the creek beds.
Pup, how cool was that today?
Being out in the creeks of Southeastern Ohio,
one of our favorite spots to come look for salamanders.
But I wanna know about the creatures that live
right in your backyard.
Tell me about them in the comment section below,
and you never know, on the next Backyard Adventure,
I might be out there with you.
I'm Coyote Peterson.
- And I'm Pup Peterson.
- Be brave, stay wild!
We'll see ya on the next adventure.
Taking Pup into the creeks to look for salamanders
was a great end to our summer.
These adorable little amphibians are the perfect creatures
to get your kids up close with.
Just make sure you always release them back into the wild.