endemic species. among "largest (terrestrial) salamanders on planet" (only four species in genus Dicamptodon, only in PNW/Norcal; the other three live on the coast).
isolated, small/limited distribution range. a "rainforest creature" away from the Pacific coast, iconic emblem of relatively not-well-known and rare terrestrial biome/ecoregion ("inland temperate rainforest").
shares habitat/range with other dramatic creatures (grizzly bear, black bear, gray wolf, wolverine, fisher, lynx, puma, mountain caribou, moose, elk, inland tailed frog, Chinook salmon, lots of snails and slugs and ferns and cedar and hemlock).
superlative larvae (aquatic larvae swim around in cold, clear, steep, small, fast-flowing mountain streams, rather than typical still-water ponds/pools like many other salamanders; many larvae are neotenic, reaching reproductive maturity while retaining gills/paddle-tail, achieving massive sizes, swimming around in the little stream like a dragon).
that thread shows a (large, maybe neotenic, maybe close-to-transforming) larva, but you should see the terrestrial adults. (larvae can be dense in some streams but adults can be hard to see. i've met ecologists who'd never seen a terrestrial adult. much of their distribution range is designated roadless area, so the streams can be hard to access. the streams can be partially subterranean, and the adults could be underground, hiding under layers of moss mats and cedar debris and tangled sticks and logs and stones and mud, so i go out at night when it's raining.)
they're so pretty. glistening gold, amber, brown, sometimes purple-ish.
typical larva compared to a 32-centimeter-long neotenic adult with larval morphology:
this is one i found crawling in this big cavern space beneath this massive log-jam of dozens of huge cedar logs, but then (incredibly) found again weeks later in the same spot (not the only time i've seen this happen, but stuck firmly in my sentimental memory because of the cave-crawling and there was a thunderstorm):
this is the longest one i'd ever seen (the heaviest/largest i'd seen was gravid and living only one hundred meters away in the same little stream, and she was one of those who i encountered more than once):
amandla
titsay
prguitarman
vaporwave
romaincrisis
theartofmadeline
