April 2, 2004

Purdue scientists add new species to list of Indiana's fauna

The find of a breeding population of mole salamanders raises questions about how well the diversity of Indiana's wildlife - especially small, secretive species - is documented.

"This is an exciting find," said Rod Williams, vertebrate curator with the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources and one of the biologists who discovered the salamander population. "Nobody knew this species lived in Indiana, and it would be interesting to see if it is the only population in the whole state."

Williams and his colleague, Brian MacGowan, Extension wildlife specialist, found the mole salamanders last week in a Posey County swamp.

"This was a purely accidental finding," MacGowan said. "We were actually trapping for a different amphibian, and we caught this little guy in one of our traps. We were pretty happy to find out what we had. With vertebrate species, finding a breeding population of a new species doesn't just happen every day."

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources is considering designating the mole salamander as either a species of special concern or a state endangered species.

Mole salamanders are common in swamps and wetlands in the southern United States. They also live in extreme southern Illinois, western Kentucky and Missouri. The population in Posey County is one of the northernmost reportings for this species.

The researchers said it will be difficult to determine whether this population recently migrated to Indiana from Illinois, Kentucky or both, or if it has been living here for many years undetected.

"We know that a breeding population exists in the swamp we sampled, but it leads to many questions that we simply cannot answer," MacGowan said. "Where did they come from? How long have they been there? Where else are they located in Indiana?"

Williams said, "It's going to take some rather laborious surveys to answer these questions."

Despite questions about its origins, finding a breeding population of salamanders is good news, MacGowan said.

"Salamanders are particularly sensitive to pollutants, and for this reason, can be considered a good indicator of environmental quality," he said. "Many species respire through their skin and have a reliance on water, at least during their larval stages."

MacGowan said amphibians - the group of animals to which salamanders, frogs and toads belong - have declined across most of the Midwest for many years, making it important to better document existing populations of salamanders and their relatives.

"From an ecological standpoint, we have to start asking ourselves where we might find even more cryptic species like salamanders," MacGowan said. "We are continually learning about these species, and this finding supports the notion that we need to start looking more closely for other species as well.

"The range and location of populations is one of the basic pieces of information you need to know about a species."

Part of the reason why this species was unreported in Indiana may simply be that salamanders are notoriously difficult to find. They spend most of the year underground, where they feed on beetles, centipedes, slugs and other invertebrates, and emerge only in the spring to breed and lay eggs in temporary ponds.

"You don't see them out a lot," Williams said. "They don't call, so you can't identify them by sound like you can with frogs and toads, or even birds, and that makes it difficult to develop a protocol to even determine presence or absence."

Like MacGowan, Williams said this finding suggests there's a need for more widespread wildlife surveying throughout the state, but points out that there is not much financial support for such studies.

"It's hard to get money to do broad-scale surveys, especially on species that aren't cute and fuzzy and spend most of their time hidden under rocks and logs or in burrows," Williams said.

Nevertheless, he has good reason to suggest biologists continue surveying the state for new species. According to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, biologists discovered a new species of frog in Evansville, Ind., just last year.

Williams is not that surprised to have found the species within the swamp.

"This wetland is just different enough in its habitat that it holds some really unique species," he said. "It definitely has the potential to hold even more."

The population of mole salamanders was found in a bald cypress swamp, a unique habitat in the state of Indiana, the researchers said. Bald cypress swamps, named for the bald cypress tree, a relative of the redwood and sequoia, are typical in low-lying regions of the southeastern United States.

"When you're there among huge bald cypress trees growing in standing water, you almost think you're back in time, or down in the deep south," MacGowan said. "You wouldn't think you were in Indiana when you're standing in that swamp."

Writer: Jennifer Cutraro, (765) 496-2050, jcutraro@purdue.edu

Sources: Rod Williams, (765) 494-3568, rodw@fnr.purdue.edu

Brian MacGowan, (765) 647-3538, macgowan@purdue.edu

Ag Communications: (765) 494-2722; Beth Forbes, bforbes@aes.purdue.edu
Agriculture News Page

Related Web site:
Purdue Department of Forestry and Natural Resources Extension page

PHOTO CAPTION:
Purdue University wildlife biologists recently discovered a population of breeding mole salamanders, a species previously undocumented in the state, in southwestern Indiana. This adult male is displaying a defensive posture typical of the species. (Purdue University photo/Rod Williams)

A publication-quality photograph is available at http://ftp.purdue.edu/pub/uns/+2004/macgowan-salamander.jpg