In the forests of northwestern California, there lives a species of salamander called the “wandering” salamander. These tan, mottled salamanders have a special ability: they can control their falls by gliding like a skydiver.
These wandering salamanders climb up redwoods as high as 88 meters and live in the ferns that grow there. While most salamanders live in streams or bogs, wandering salamanders can spend their whole lives in the trees. They are able to leap out of the ferns and maintain the spread-out posture of a skydiver to glide and slow their fall.
This ability has many benefits in the wild. They can catch an accidental fall, save energy that would be used in climbing, escape predators, and easily find a new fern patch to live in.
Biologist Christian Brown and his colleagues recently published a research paper in May 2022 studying how these salamanders glide. Since they do not have wings or skin membranes for gliding, the salamanders stretch out their limbs and tail and constantly adjust their torso as they fall. They also jump from the trees at an angle, not straight down. This allows them to slow their descent speed by at least 10 percent, which is enough to avoid injury.
The gliding of wandering salamanders isn’t as conspicuous as other animals known for their gliding, such as flying snakes. This makes scientists wonder if there are other animals with similar gliding habits and how much more there is to uncover in the world of tree canopies.
Sources:
Buehler, J. (2022, May 23). ‘Wandering’ salamanders glide like skydivers from the world’s tallest trees. Science News. Retrieved May 27, 2022, from https://www.sciencenews.org/article/wandering-salamanders-glide-trees
Wandering Salamander. California Herps. (n.d.). Retrieved May 27, 2022, from http://www.californiaherps.com/salamanders/pages/a.vagrans.html
Written by: Vivien Chen
May 28, 2022
