The Wintu Shasta salamander (''Hydromantes wintu'') is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All ten ...

in the family

Plethodontidae Plethodontidae, or lungless salamanders, are a family of salamanders. Most species are native to the Western Hemisphere, from British Columbia to Brazil, although a few species are found in Sardinia, Europe south of the Alps, and South Korea. In ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Shasta County Shasta County (), officially the County of Shasta, is a county in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its population is 182,155 as of the 2020 census, up from 177,223 from the 2010 census. The county seat is Redding. Shasta ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Taxonomy

It was previously thought to be a population of the Shasta salamander (''H. shastae'') and is not physically distinguishable, but a 2018 phylogenetic study found it to be a genetically distinct species. It is named in honor of the

Winnemem Wintu The Winnemem Wintu ("middle river people" or "middle water people") are a band of the Native American Wintu tribe originally located along the lower McCloud River, above Shasta Dam near Redding, California. History The Winnemem are one of what ...

people who originally inhabited the area until being displaced by early European settlers, and had many of their cultural sites inundated by

Shasta Lake Shasta Lake, also popularly known as Lake Shasta, is a reservoir in Shasta County, California, United States. It began to store water in 1944 due to the impounding of the Sacramento River by Shasta Dam, the ninth tallest dam in the United State ...

Distribution

It is found in a very small area on the

McCloud River The McCloud River is a longU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed March 10, 2011 river that flows east of and parallel to the upper Sacramento River, in Siskiyou County and Sh ...

arm on the north shore of

, near the vicinity of the former Shasta Iron Mine.

Habitat

Its distribution was likely fragmented by the creation of the lake and the construction of the

Shasta Dam Shasta Dam (called Kennett Dam before its construction) is a concrete arch-gravity dam across the Sacramento River in Northern California in the United States. At high, it is the eighth-tallest dam in the United States. Located at the north e ...

. Proposals to raise the water levels of the lake would likely flood more habitats and further threaten it. However, in 2021 the

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with oth ...

found the species to not warrant

Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA or "The Act"; 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) is the primary law in the United States for protecting imperiled species. Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of ec ...

protections.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q63161449 Amphibians of the United States Hydromantes Endemic fauna of California Amphibians described in 2018 Fauna without expected TNC conservation status