Juvenile and Adult

  • Dark spots and stripes often creating a net-like pattern; may become relatively uniform in colour and spotted with age
  • Broad and flat head, with small eyes
  • Background colour: yellow-brown, grey, olive-green to black

Total length: up to 25 cm

Call

  • Does not broadcast a breeding call

Eggs

  • Laid singly or in small clusters of few to several eggs

Larva in middle of development

  • Three conspicuous feathery external gills on either side of the head
  • Longest gill stalk approaches or longer than head length
  • Dull yellow to olive green to dark brown, with a paler belly

Range

  • Widely distributed in the southern and east-central portions of the province in a variety of habitats with soils suitable for burrowing
  • Occurs along the front range of the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Alberta

 

Subspecies

  • Blotched Tiger Salamander (Ambystoma mavortium melanostictum)
  • Gray Tiger Salamander (Ambystoma mavortium diaboli)

There are two recognized subspecies of the Western Tiger Salamander in Alberta. The Blotched Tiger Salamander is found across southern and east-central Alberta, while the Gray Tiger Salamander may have a small and restricted (unconfirmed) distribution in east-central Alberta near the Saskatchewan border. Without a genetic analysis, it is difficult to tell the two subspecies apart.

 

Learn more about the (Western) Tiger Salamander


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