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A rare species of salamander is found only in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park.
On a cool, rainy spring evening, on one of the three highest mountaintops in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park, a hiker just might be lucky enough to spot one of the park’s rare, namesake amphibians when it comes out to forage for food.
“Most people think of salamanders and they think of creeks. But in this case, it’s a terrestrial salamander that spends a lot of its time underground in rocky slopes,” says James Schaberl, the park’s chief of natural and cultural resources, of the aptly named Shenandoah salamander. “It’s not going to be on the surface all the time.”
The endangered, 3-inch-long striped critter lives in roughly 6,000 acres in only one known place in the world: the park. A close cousin of the red-backed salamander, which is commonly found throughout the state, the indigenous Shenandoah species is believed to have been more widespread thousands of years ago, with a range that included the Shenandoah Valley and other parts of Appalachia. So what happened?
“The people who’ve done the analysis on the animal and its history indicate that it was [impacted] by a larger climate change,” says Schaberl, noting that the lungless creature prefers moist soil draped in a thick layer of clouds. “A long time ago, the valley was colder, wetter and more suitable for this species. But as things changed, the animal retreated to places that are more environmentally suitable. So it’s pretty much at the last place it could go—these higher elevations. There are many species like this in the Appalachians, where you have these endemic, high-elevation terrestrial salamanders perched at these mountaintops.
“It’s certainly nothing we’ve done,” Schaberl adds, referring to the reason the salamander chose the Shenandoah National Park, and specifically the north-facing Hawksbill Mountain, The Pinnacles, and Stony Man Mountain, as home. “It’s just the land form itself,” he says. “Within a certain radius of here, about 20, maybe 30 miles, we have the highest range of mountain peaks in the central district of the park. And that’s where it ended up. We just assume that this is its place to be.”
