Salamander species discovered in new habitat in Riverview

A new scientific study reveals how a town in the Greater Moncton area became home to a surprisingly rare discovery.

Scientists at Mount Allison University recently found a previously unknown population of four-toed salamanders in Riverview in 2023.

This species, which is usually found in a type of swamp in Fundy National Park, is showing that it may be more resilient than previously thought.

Josh Christiansen, a researcher at Mount Allison and lead author of the publication about the discovery, said the salamanders are small, about seven centimeters, and rusty brown in color.

“But the thing that’s really striking is on their abdomen. They actually have a salt and pepper pattern that is unique to each individual salamander,” Christiansen said in an interview with CBC Radio’s Shift.

This species is considered a habitat specialist. “They need kind of ideal conditions to allow them to breathe,” Christiansen said, “because they breathe through the tissues of their skin and mouth.”

“And so that means they have to live in conditions that are humid and not too hot or too cold, otherwise they can’t do gas exchange and oxygen exchange across those membranes,” he said.

They usually live in forests where there is a lot of soil, such as leaf litter and fallen logs.

“And it allows them to have these little micro-habitats under these covered objects that create an ideal environment for them to live in,” Christiansen said.

They also require swamps with sphagnum moss.

“So what that means is they don’t like open water, especially open water with fish in it because the fish will eat their babies,” he said.

‘Absolutely amazed’

In North America, the species has a wide range, but, because of the specialized habitat they require, Fundy National Park in New Brunswick was the only place where they were documented, Christiansen said.

“When we found these guys in Riverview, we weren’t looking for them. We were actually looking for a different kind of species,” he said.

After posting a photo, Christiansen said other scientists contacted them and were “absolutely amazed” by the discovery.

He said, “And so it turned into a really fantastic and exciting little story, where we all went together one day into the woods to investigate the site and we found something else.”

urban housing

Because of the unknown nature of how well this newly discovered population is doing, Christiansen said he and other scientists are not publicly disclosing the exact location of the discovery.

But he described the location as close to urban development and roads.

“But because this place is a swamp, these little guys have created this little piece of forest for themselves,” Christiansen said.

He said he hopes to find more places where the species can occur, but safety is also important.

“I would love for the places where we find salamanders to have more protection for these little guys to make sure that the swamp is not disturbed or the forest is no longer disturbed compared to an urban area, right?”