Videos of salamanders eating in the rain

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mfb
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Videos of salamanders eating in the rain

Post by mfb »

We had a big rainstorm come through northeast Ohio on Saturday night, so I headed to the woods to see what was happening. Lots of amphibian activity, including wood frog juveniles, an American toad, spring peepers, a two lined salamander, and a newt. But the most obvious amphibian out in the rain was a few dozen redback salamanders. I have been trying to make more animal behavior videos recently, so I took some clips of what the salamanders were up to.

This first video shows a redback salamander about half a meter off the ground in a small tree. I shot its tongue at two bugs, getting the first but not the second. The tongue was pretty fast so I added a slow-motion version of the clip at the end of the video:



Here is another one showing a red eft crawling around the base of a big old tree, shooting its tongue at a bunch of different things. The eft was a lot more active than my friend the redback salamander.



And here is a still photo of another redback salamander climbing the trunk of a big tree.

ImageRedback Salamander climbing a tree on a rainy night by Mike Benard, on Flickr
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Kelly Mc
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Re: Videos of salamanders eating in the rain

Post by Kelly Mc »

Excellent! I hope you make more I will save them all.

Slow motion like magnification is a powerful knowledge tool. Thank you for sharing these!

The tree climbing also great captured moment.
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SurfinHerp
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Re: Videos of salamanders eating in the rain

Post by SurfinHerp »

Very nice videos Mike!

I've tried recording videos of salamanders at night in the rain, but whenever I turn on the light, they just freeze.
Do you have any tricks for getting them to act naturally when the lights come on??

Jeff
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Jeroen Speybroeck
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Re: Videos of salamanders eating in the rain

Post by Jeroen Speybroeck »

Excellent!
SurfinHerp wrote:Do you have any tricks for getting them to act naturally when the lights come on??
That's a good one (although mine usually soon take off, after the freezin act)! Maybe weak light is the key...? We all tend to go for the better and the brighter headlamps, which are of course not very agreeable to the eye of a nocturnal creature. Interested to learn what Mike has to say about this!
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Bryan Hamilton
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Re: Videos of salamanders eating in the rain

Post by Bryan Hamilton »

That is some cool footage! Thanks for sharing.

I've been doing a lot of work with bats lately. They really hate the light and squint and close their eyes. Maybe it is an intensity issue?
semasko
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Re: Videos of salamanders eating in the rain

Post by semasko »

I've noticed when shining in cracks for Greens, that a regular flashlight (incandescent?) does not scare them away nearly as quick as LED which they seem to be very sensitive towards.
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mfb
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Re: Videos of salamanders eating in the rain

Post by mfb »

Thanks everyone, glad you enjoyed!

Kelly, I am planning to make more. Here is one of my favorites from May 2016. Next year I would like to make a couple videos on frog lifecycles from mating season through metamorphosis.



I agree about the slow motion. I just started using it with my videos, and found it to be so useful. I love Stephen Deban's slow-motion high frame videos of herps eating, like this salamander:



Jeff, Jeroen, Bryan and semasko, I think it was a combination of low light and great salamander conditions that made the redback behave so boldly. It was pouring rain and the redbacks were really active all through the woods. We have also been in a minor drought. So they may have been primed to just go out and eat all they could.

Years ago I saw similar bold behavior from some Aneides lugubris following each other around a tree trunk in a heavy rain while a friend and I watched with headlamps and flashlights on. But on less rainy nights the Aneides were much more shy.

I used a dimmable LED light (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... Video.html) set on a low light setting. My ISO was pretty high. At some points my LED headlamp was on at a low level. But overall, the lighting on the salamander was pretty dim. I did have to be patient, and perhaps during that time the redback was getting used to the low light (sounds like Jeroen has had the same experience). I sat under an umbrella with my camera on a tripod and watched this redback for 10 - 15 minutes in the rain before I saw it eat. And several others I watched never had a bug come near them.

The newt was a little different. It just didn't seem to care that I was there.

If you all have videos, I'd love to see them.

Thanks again! Mike
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Jeroen Speybroeck
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Re: Videos of salamanders eating in the rain

Post by Jeroen Speybroeck »

Thanks for the explanation, Mike!

Because you asked, I'll throw in this lo-fi clip from a while ago. I think I just lack patience, skill, and all other characteristics of a succesfull filmmaker...

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mfb
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Re: Videos of salamanders eating in the rain

Post by mfb »

Jeroen, very nice! Salamandra are high on my list of herps I'd love to see in the wild someday.
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Jeroen Speybroeck
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Re: Videos of salamanders eating in the rain

Post by Jeroen Speybroeck »

mfb wrote:Jeroen, very nice! Salamandra are high on my list of herps I'd love to see in the wild someday.
Counted about 250 last night. ;) :D
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