SPD CD cover...the neglected running order
click on the pic to see

the late Jay Moriarty wiping out at Mavs...
he was seventeen at the time...
"The Crucifixion of Jesus Jay"

The Black-bellied Slender Salamander

For the last 15 years we have had salamanders appear in our pool after a rainstorm. I always wondered what kind they were. With the lack of rain over the last couple of years, I had begun to worry that these seemingly anomalous, urbanized denizens had finally given up the ghost. After all, we live on a hill, in a city, surrounded by traffic, and bordered not so distantly by a freeway. An island of salamanders in essence. Were these some unknown variety? Unlikely of course. So I set out to do my best in identifying these critters. The Black-bellied Slender Salamander seems the closest (based on identified habitat and geographic population distribution). I did note that while this species had been identified within 3 miles of our place, none had been placed within the span of our set of hills. Truly an island of salamanders.

Just for the hell of it a couple of facts about salamanders: They are (obviously) amphibians. There are 3 orders of amphibians: Anura (frogs and Toads), Caudata (newts and salamanders), and the weird and rare Gymnophiona (which I imagine as Southeast Asian lovers of Satie's Gymnopedies...doing various ballet positions in a rather Disney Fantasia-esque amphibial way). As of yesterday, 6,275 species of amphibians had been identified. 88% of those are frogs and toads. 9% of them are newts and salamanders. And 3% are the aforementioned lovers of Eric Satie, caecilians (the Gymnophiona order). Why do they appear in the rain? As anyone who ever hunted for tadpoles knows, rain is the right time to be with the one you love (in amphibian Barry White terms).

Now I imagine my salamanders waiting it out, lovesick and a bit hungry, underground while the Southern Californian drought wages on over years. The rain begins...the lovers awake...and head for water to do there thing. Unfortunately, the body of water they head for is our chlorinated pool. So I rescue them, shuttle them gently off to our fern beds (seems right in a misguided fantasy of salamander-land way). Then I wish them well...singing in Italian as if they were lovers in a Venetian gondola. Sweet dreams.

They a very small...maybe 2 inches in length at most...very different from the ones I would see on winter hikes in the San Gabriel Mountains. Those salamanders would cluster in large numbers under the falls of the Santa Anita river...flashing orange through the rippling reflection of the water surface. Our salamanders are petite, dark brown to almost black, with a hint of lichen orange across their back...mottled not striped...or are they? They are so small and I fear for them so much that my observations always melt away like a dream due to my rush to repatriate them to some loamy safety. Many years ago, I rescued a largish salamander (2 inches plus) from the pool. It was not doing well...too much chlorine was my thought. Here I made a fundamental error. One of which I never came to repeat...I took the limp little guy in and placed it in a terrarium with a bit of water in a jar lid...named it Sid after Sid Vicious...tried to figure out the best way to nurse "him" back to health...only to discover that "he" had died by the next morning. I played god and murdered the poor guy.

Never again!

So this post is dedicated to Sid R.I.P.
Salamanders rule!
They single handedly brought the wonder of this place into view once again.
Thanks you Caudata you!

Jamie at the Tele-prom