More than 200 species of Salamanders have been banned from entering the US.
"Some are brightly colored and secrete irritating substances."
The government is worried that foreign salamanders
could infect American salamanders with a devastating
disease. Brian: “You might be thinking Salamanders?
What’s the point? But they’re a huge part of our ecosystem.”
Brian: “I’m Brian Resnick, I'm a science reporter at Vox.”
We don’t think of salamanders as an iconic American animal—but they are.
Brian: “I spoke to Matt Gray a professor at the University of Tennessee of wildlife ecology
and he was telling me that if you take all the bears, the racoons, the birds in the Great Smoky Mountains and
you put them on a scale and then you put on the other side of the scale the salamanders
in the forest, the salamanders outweigh everything else.”
About 50% of all salamander species in the world come from North America
So, what’s going wrong? Well, there’s this fungus -
Brian: “Batri - Btricchal - okay I have no idea how to pronounce it." Batrichocitrium
There’s this fungus called Bsal, which is
believed to have originated in Asia. It spreads in water and erodes the salamander’s
skin, which they use for breathing and excreting toxins. For many species of salamanders, when
they get this fungus they die. So, how could a fungus like Bsal travel all
the way across the world to the US? Asian salamanders are colorful, so they’re imported
for pet shops and zoos. They have developed an immunity to Bsal but they’re still able
to carry it to regions like the US where salamanders have no immunity and are the most vulnerable.
A few years ago biologists in the Netherlands discovered the fungus in a prevalent species
of fire salamanders there.
Brian: "Their populations got reduced by 90%, or more than 90%
The fungus is also related to the ones that have been killing frogs around the world. So, understandably,
scientists are doing everything they can to stop it from coming to the U.S.
The sheer density and diversity of salamanders make them a vital link in forest food chains.
They’re a source of food for Mammals like raccoons and foxes, for birds, fish and reptiles
as well.
Brian: “They eat anything that’s smaller than them. So they eat tons of insects, tons of little bugs."
And here’s something to think about, Salamanders help prevent carbon from entering the atmosphere.
Brian: “When leaves fall down into the forest there’s all these insects, worms, or larvae that
eat the fallen leaves and in doing so they kind of shred them up and release CO2 into the atmosphere.”
Salamanders prey on these bugs and in doing so, the help keep carbon locked in leaves.
Brian: “There are so many salamanders it’s hard to imagine what ecosystems would look
like without them.”