Favoritos de sandy_b

Another observation, iNat 148304242, was made 2 hours after this one and a few hundred feet away.

As presently circumscribed, the genus Taricha has 4 species: 3 of those species are endemic to CA (T. rivularis, T. sierrae and T. torosa); while the remaining one (T. granulosa) ranges from Alaska through British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon to California...and east into Idaho & Montana.

The deep "tomato-red" underside & feet here are suggestive of Taricha rivularis. However, the other species can sometimes exhibit similar coloration...as shown in images on the Taricha ID page from the CaliforniaHerps web site. Apparently 3 of the 4 species are present in this local area of the Santa Cruz Mountains (excluding T. sierrae , which is only found in the Sierra Nevada) . The CaliforniaHerps Taricha ID page stresses that T. rivularis is distinguished by its entirely-dark eyes (as opposed to eyes partly-yellow in T. torosa and T. granulosa). Further interesting info and many helpful photos appear on the T. rivularis species page at CaliforniaHerps.

Note that the fairly-wide black band across the vent on the underside (see 5th photo, behind hind legs) indicates a male...and is another diagnostic character confirming the species ID of T. rivularis.

This Santa Cruz Mountains population of T. rivularis was relatively-recently discovered (in 2009) and is only known from a relatively-small area in Santa Clara County...where it's mysteriously disjunct from the main population of T. rivularis in Sonoma, Mendocino, and Humboldt Counties. The story of the discovery...and the many questions it engendered...is briefly touched on in this "Bay Nature" article, and voluminously recounted & explored in the excellent multi-part blog "Mystery of the Red-Bellied Newt", as well as the related-blog "Homegrown Tomatoes". And the population is also the main focus of the paper below:

S. B. Reilly, D. M. Portik, M. Koo, D. Wake (2014). "Discovery of a New, Disjunct Population of a Narrowly Distributed Salamander (Taricha rivularis) in California Presents Conservation Challenges". Journal of Herpetology, 48(3), 371-379

____ Some Further References ____

Twitty, Victor (1966). "Of Scientists and Salamanders". Published by W.H. Freeman & Co. , San Francisco. 178 pp. [Classic book by one of the most historically-significant scholars of Taricha...can be freely-accessed via the "Internet Archive" web site at this link, after creating a (free) account. Chapter 5 has an informative discussion of the California species of Taricha.]

Twitty, Victor C. (1935). Two New Species of Triturus from California. Copeia Vol. 1935(2): 73-80. [Can be freely-accessed via the JSTOR at this link, after creating a (free) account.]

Davis, W.C., & Twitty, V.C. (1964). Courtship Behavior and Reproductive Isolation in the Species of Taricha (Amphibia, Caudata). Copeia, Vol. 1964(4): 601-610. [Can be freely-accessed via the JSTOR at this link, after creating a (free) account.]

Licht, P., & Brown, A.G. (1967). Behavioral Thermoregulation and Its Role in the Ecolgy of the Red‐Bellied Newt, Taricha Rivularis. Ecology, 48, 598-611. [Can be freely-accessed via the JSTOR at this link, after creating a (free) account.]

Twitty, V.C., Grant, D., & Anderson, O. (1966). Course and timing of the homing migration in the newt Taricha rivularis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 56 3, 864-71 . [PDF here]

Packer, W.C. (1963). Observations on the Breeding Migration of Taricha rivularis. Copeia, Vol. 1963(2): 378-382. [Can be freely-accessed via the JSTOR at this link, after creating a (free) account.]

From last year, 4/12/22, at the edge of a NE-facing meadow about 0.5 mile from the top of Courdet Trail. 3/26/23 still small plants not yet budding. This is a very interesting corner along the trail BTW.