The red-cheeked salamander (''Plethodon jordani''), also known as the Jordan's salamander, Jordan's redcheek salamander, or Appalachian woodland salamander, is a species of

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 ...

to the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

in the eastern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Description

The red-cheeked salamander is a uniform steely grey colour with conspicuous red, orange or yellow patches on the side of the head. The imitator salamander (''Desmognathus imitator'') is thought to be a mimic and is very similar in appearance but has a pale line joining jaw to eye and more robust hind legs.

Distribution and habitat

The red-cheeked salamander is found in mountainous areas of the south eastern United States. The main populations are along the border between North Carolina and Tennessee but separate populations occurs in

Rabun County, Georgia Rabun County () is the north-easternmost county in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 16,883, up from 16,276 in 2010. The county seat is Clayton. With an average annual rainfall of over , Rabun County has the ...

. The altitude range is 210 to 1950 metres (700 to 6400 ft) but few specimens are found below . Almost the whole altitude range occurs within the boundaries of the

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an American national park in the southeastern United States, with parts in North Carolina and Tennessee. The park straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, whi ...

. The red-cheeked salamander is a terrestrial species and is found in both hardwood and coniferous forests, particularly in

red spruce ''Picea rubens'', commonly known as red spruce, is a species of spruce native to eastern North America, ranging from eastern Quebec and Nova Scotia, west to the Adirondack Mountains and south through New England along the Appalachians to western ...

and

Fraser fir The Fraser fir (''Abies fraseri'') is a species of fir native to the Appalachian Mountains of the Southeastern United States. ''Abies fraseri'' is closely related to ''Abies balsamea'' (balsam fir), of which it has occasionally been treated a ...

woodland. It is plentiful in areas with a ground cover of moss and leaf litter among large boulders.

Biology

The red-cheeked salamander conceals itself during the day under rocks and in or under rotten logs. It has extensive shallow burrows through which it can move about. At night and during rain it emerges onto the surface to forage. Each salamander has a small home range which is about for a male and for a female. When displaced by a distance of or more, most salamanders managed to return to their home. The red-cheeked salamander feeds on small invertebrates including

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always). Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete wor ...

snail A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastro ...

springtail Springtails (Collembola) form the largest of the three lineages of modern hexapods that are no longer considered insects (the other two are the Protura and Diplura). Although the three orders are sometimes grouped together in a class called Ento ...

spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s and insect larvae. Creatures that

prey Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill the ...

on the red-cheeked salamander include birds, the

common garter snake The common garter snake (''Thamnophis sirtalis'') is a species of thamnophis snake, in the natricine subfamily, which is indigenous to North America and found widely across the continent. Most common garter snakes have a pattern of yellow strip ...

(''Thamnophis sirtalis''), the

blackbelly salamander The blackbelly salamander (''Desmognathus quadramaculatus'') is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to the United States. Its natural habitats are rivers, intermittent rivers, and freshwater springs. It is threaten ...

(''Desmognathus quadramaculatus'') and the

spring salamander The spring salamander (''Gyrinophilus porphyriticus'') is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae (lungless salamanders). It is found in Canada and the United States. The genus, ''Gyrinophilus'', means "tadpole lover" and refers to t ...

(''Gyrinophilus porphyriticus''). When attacked, it turns its tail towards the predator and emits a sticky, noxious mucus. It may bite the head of a snake or twine its tail round its head. Another defensive strategy is the autotomisation of its tail, which may leave the predator a tasty morsel while the salamander flees. Little is known of the breeding habits of the red-cheeked salamander but they are likely to be similar to those of other members of the genus ''

Plethodon ''Plethodon'' is a genus of salamanders in the family Plethodontidae. They are also known as woodland salamanders or, more rarely, slimy salamanders. All members of the genus are endemic to North America (Canada and USA). They have no aquatic lar ...

'' with a clutch of eggs being brooded by the female and each egg developing directly into a juvenile without an intervening larval stage.

Status

The red-cheeked salamander is listed as being "

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

" in the

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...

. The population of the species appears to be stable but the area of its range is less than . Balancing this, it is common in many locations, tolerates forestry disturbance and lives completely within the confines of the national park. The main threats may be

acid rain Acid rain is rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it has elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). Most water, including drinking water, has a neutral pH that exists between 6.5 and 8.5, but acid ...

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

and the damage to forests caused by the

balsam woolly adelgid Balsam woolly adelgids (''Adelges piceae'') are small wingless insects that infest and kill firs, especially balsam fir and Fraser fir. They are an invasive species from Europe introduced to the United States around 1900. Because this species ...

(''Adelges piceae'').

References

{{Commons, Plethodon jordani Plethodon Endemic amphibians of the United States Natural history of the Great Smoky Mountains Amphibians described in 1901 Taxa named by Willis Blatchley Taxonomy articles created by Polbot