A Guide to the Amphibians
and Reptiles of California

California Slender Salamander - Batrachoseps attenuatus

(Eschscholtz, 1833)

Click on a picture for a larger view

Description • Taxonomy • Species Description • Scientific Name • Alt. Names • Similar Herps • References • Conservation Status

Red: Range in California

Range Map of all Slender Salamanders in California

Click on the map for a topographical view

Map with California County Names

Northwest Page

Adult, Del Norte County

Adult, Humboldt County

Adult, Del Norte County

Adult, Santa Clara County

Adult, Del Norte County

Adult, Santa Clara County

Adult, Humboldt County

Adult, Del Norte County

Adult, Humboldt County

Adult Solano County

Adult, Butte County

Adult, Solano County

Adult, Santa Clara County

Adult, Contra Costa County.
When uncovered, slender salamanders are often found resting in this coiled defensive position.

Adult, Humboldt County

Adult, Mendocino County

Adult, Sonoma County

Adult, Solano County

Adult, Alameda County

Adult, Humboldt County

Adult, Contra Costa County,
coiled in defense

Adult, Sonoma County

Adult, Contra Costa County

Adult, Napa County

Adult, Bodega Bay, Sonoma County

Adult underside, Santa Cruz County

Adult, Marin County

Adult, Napa County

Adult underside, Napa County

Adult, underside, Santa Clara County

Adult, Santa Cruz County
© Lou Silva

Adults, Santa Cruz County
© Lou Silva

Adult from, Del Norte County
© Alan Barron

Adult from Whaler Island, Del Norte County © Alan Barron

Adult Del Norte County © Alan Barron

Slender Salmanders (genus Batrachoseps) have only 4 toes on their hind feet. All other California salamanders have 5 toes on their hind feet.

Juveniles

Tiny juvenile, Sonoma County

Underside of juvenile,
Del Norte County © Alan Barron

Abberant California Slender Salamanders

Albino adult California Slender Salamander, Alameda County. © Damon Tighe
(The dark areas under the skin above the eyes is not caused by melanin, the dark pigment.)

Unusually dark, possibly melanistic, adult, Del Norte County © Alan Barron

Bottom/Left: Albino salamander
Top/Right: Normally-pigmented salamander
Both from Alameda County. © Damon Tighe

This salamander of unknown age (missing most of its tail) was found in Santa Clara County. It appears to lack all pigment, making it either albino or leucistic (the eye color is not known.) © Evan Mehta

Adult, San Francisco County, with a forked tail. The extra fork probably grew from a break in the tail that did not cause the original tail to detach. © Zach Lim

Comparisons With a Few Sympatric Salamander Species

Hell Hollow Slender Salamander comparison

California Slender Salamander and ensatina

Left: B. attenuatus
Right: B. gavilanensis - Gabilan Mountains Slender Salamander

In Southern Santa Cruz County, the ranges of these species overlap. They are very similar, but you can see here that B. gavilanensis has proportionally larger fingers and toes.

Left: B. attenuatus
Right: B. diabolicus - Hell Hollow Slender Salamander

In the central Sierra Nevada, the range of these species overlaps. They are very similar, but B. diabolicus has proportionally larger legs and toes. (The salamanders shown here are not of equal size. If they were, the difference would be more obvious.)

Top: Oregon Ensatina
Bottom: B. attenuatus

Both salamanders were found found under a piece of bark in Mendocino County.

Top: B. attenuatus
Bottom: Dicamptodon ensatus - California Giant Salamander.

These are the smallest genus of salamander found in California (Batrachoseps) and the largest (Dicamptodon).

Predation

A Pacific Ring-necked Snake eating a California Slender Salamander in Marin County © Andre Giraldi

Habitat

Habitat, Contra Costa County

Habitat, Alameda County

Typical oak woodland habitat,
Contra Costa County

Urban backyard habitat,
Alameda County

Habitat, Butte County

Habitat, Glenn County

Habitat, redwood forest,
Del Norte County

Habitat, Mendocino County

Habitat, Bodega Bay, Sonoma County

Habitat, Contra Costa County

Redwood forest habitat,
Humboldt County

Habitat, Marin County

Habitat, Santa Cruz County

Habitat, Alameda County

Habitat, Marin County

Habitat, Mendocino County

Habitat, Napa County

California slender salamanders are often common in urban backyards that offer cover and moisture, such as this one in Vallejo, Solano County

A careful look underneath the fallen branches and bark of the dead tree shown above on a wet winter afternoon turned up 16 salamanders of 4 species - one Arboreal Salamander, two Coast Range Newts, one Yellow-eyed Ensatina, and 12 California Slender Salamanders, proving that wood debris on a forest floor is an important microhabitat for salamanders. Along with fallen debris, tree bark, tree cavities, root holes, and splits in trees are also useful habitat for many kinds of wildlife, including birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles, but dead trees and their debris are often removed indiscriminately without consideration for wildlife.

The Cavity Conservation Initiative is a group whose goal is to educate land managers and the public about the value of dead trees.

Short Videos

A few quick looks at several California Slender Salamanders sitting still, coiled up, and quickly wriggling away.

On a late winter day in Northern California when the ground is green and wet it seems like there's a California Slender Salamander under everything you turn over.

Description

Size

Adults are 1 1/4 - 1 7/8 inches long (3.2 - 4.7 cm) from snout to vent, 3 - 5 1/2 inches ( 7.5 - 14 cm) in total length.

Appearance

A small slim salamander with 18 -21 costal grooves.
Short limbs, a long slender body with a narrow head and a long tail, and conspicuous costal and caudal grooves give this species the worm-like appearance typical of most Slender Salamanders.
There are four toes on the front and hind feet, which is also typical of Slender Salamanders.
(Other California salamanders have five toes on the hind feet.)

Color and Pattern

Variable in color; generally black or dark above, with red, brown, yellow, or tan coloring forming a dorsal stripe, sometimes with a herringbone pattern.
The venter is dark, with fine white speckles.

Life History and Behavior

A member of family Plethodontidae, the Plethodontid or Lungless Salamanders.

Plethodontid salamanders do not breathe through lungs. They conduct respiration through their skin and the tissues lining their mouth. This requires them to live in damp environments on land and to move about on the ground only during times of high humidity. (Plethodontid salamanders native to California do not inhabit streams or bodies of water but they are capable of surviving for a short time if they fall into water.)

Plethodontid salamanders are also distinguished by their naso-labial grooves, which are vertical slits between the nostrils and upper lip that are lined with glands associated with chemoreception.

All Plethodontid Salamanders native to California lay eggs in moist places on land.
The young develop in the egg and hatch directly into a tiny terrestrial salamander with the same body form as an adult.
(They do not hatch in the water and begin their lives as tiny swimming larvae breathing through gills like some other types of salamanders.)

Activity

Active on rainy or wet nights when temperatures are moderate, beginning with the first fall rains until the spring or summer dry period.
In coastal forests which remain moist most of the year, activity may continue all year long.
Retreats underground when the soil dries or when air temperature gets below freezing.
Individuals tend to remain in a small area most of their lives, rarely moving beyond two meters distance.

Longevity

Longevity has been estimated at 8 - 10 years.

Defense

Slender salamanders use several defense tactics, including:
- Coiling and remaining still, relying on cryptic coloring to avoid detection.
- Uncoiling quickly and springing away repeatedly bouncing over the ground, then remaining still again to avoid detection.
- Detaching the tail, which wriggles on the ground to distract a predator from the salamander long enough for it to escape.
(After its tail is detached or severed, the salamander will grow a new tail.)

Diet and Feeding

Diet consists of a variety of invertebrates, including springtails, small beetles, snails, mites, spiders, and isopods.

A sit-and-wait predator, catching prey with a projectile tongue.

Reproduction

Reproduction is terrestrial.
Adults reach sexual maturity from an estimated 2 - 4 years.
Courtship probably occurs underground, but when it occurs is not known.

Eggs

Eggs are laid in October and November, shortly after the beginning of the fall rains.
Sierra Nevada populations may lay eggs in December and January.
Clutch sizes of 4 - 13 eggs have been recorded.
Females deposit eggs in moist areas under objects such as rocks and logs or underground.
Several females may lay eggs in the same location creating a communal nest, but they apparently do not remain with the eggs.
However, adult salamanders have been found at egg deposition sites.

Young

Young develop completely in the egg and hatch fully formed. Incubation time in a laboratory ranged from 72 - 86 days.
In the wild, hatchlings have been observed in late December, January, and February.

Habitat

Found in a variety of habitats: chaparral, woodland, grassland, forests, urban yards, vacant lots, marshes, and beach driftwood.
Generally found in moist locations, under logs, rocks, bark, leaf litter, stumps, debris. Can be very abundant in an area.

Geographical Range

Endemic to California and extreme southwest Oregon.
Occurs from central California south of the Bay Area in San Benito County, north along the coast and coast ranges into Oregon and in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains from Butte County to Calaveras County. Isolated populations occur in scattered areas in the northern Central Valley and in Shasta County.

(Several specimens in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology in Berkekely that were collected in Tuolumne County in1972 and identified as B. attenuatus were revised to B. diabolicus in 2002.)

Notes on Taxonomy

Here's a Diagram of the Batrachoseps Complex showing the relationships between species.

Alternate and Previous Names (Synonyms)

Batrachoseps attenuatus - California Slender Salamander (Stebbins 1954, 1966, 1985, 2003, 2012)
Batrachoseps attenuatus attenuatus - Worm-salamander (Bishop 1943)
Batrachoseps attenuatus - Slender Salamander (Storer 1925)
Batrachoseps attenuatus - Slender Salamander (Grinnell and Camp 1917)
Batrachoseps nigriventris (Cope 1869)
Batrachoseps attenuatus (Cooper 1868)
Batrachoseps attenuata (Baird 1850)
Salamandrina attenuata (Eschscholtz 1833)

In 2007, Martinez-Solano, Jockusch, and Wake (2007. Molecular Ecology 16: 4335–4355) suggested that Batrachoseps attenuatus contains at least five cryptic species.

In December 2013, Richard Highton, in Detecting cryptic species in phylogeographic studies/ Speciation in the California Slender Salamander, Batrachoseps attenuatus(2013 "2014." Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 71: 127–141) - from a study based on DNA sequence variation, suggested that Batrachoseps attenuatus is actually composed of 5 major species complexes, Northern, Eastern, Bodega Bay, Southern (North), Southern (South), which contain at least 39 cryptic species.

I have made a very rough map approximating the ranges of these 5 clades which you can see below.

Yellow = Northern Clade
Purple = Eastern Clade
Blue = Bodega Clade
Bright Green = Southern Clade - North
Orange = Southern Clade - South

Conservation Issues (Conservation Status)

Still present over most of their historical range except in the Central Valley where their habitat of narrow strips of riparian oak woodlands are being replaced with drainage ditches.

Taxonomy
Family	Plethodontidae	Lungless Salamanders	Gray, 1850
Genus	Batrachoseps	Slender Salamanders	Bonaparte, 1841
Species	attenuatus	California Slender Salamander	(Eschscholtz, 1833)
Original Description
Eschscholtz, 1833 - Zool. Atlas, Pt. 5, p. 1, pl. 21, figs. 1-14 from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
Meaning of the Scientific Name
Batrachoseps: Greek - amphibian, frog lizard - describes lizard-like appearance. attenuatus: Latin - slender, narrow. from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
Alternate Names
None
Similar Neighboring Salamanders
Batrachoseps diabolicus Batrachoseps gregarius Batrachoseps gavilanensis
More Information and References
California Department of Fish and Wildlife AmphibiaWeb Stebbins, Robert C., and McGinnis, Samuel M. Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of California: Revised Edition (California Natural History Guides) University of California Press, 2012. Stebbins, Robert C. California Amphibians and Reptiles. The University of California Press, 1972. Flaxington, William C. Amphibians and Reptiles of California: Field Observations, Distribution, and Natural History. Fieldnotes Press, Anaheim, California, 2021. Samuel M. McGinnis and Robert C. Stebbins. Peterson Field Guide to Western Reptiles & Amphibians. 4th Edition. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2018. Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003. Behler, John L., and F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. Powell, Robert., Joseph T. Collins, and Errol D. Hooper Jr. A Key to Amphibians and Reptiles of the Continental United States and Canada. The University Press of Kansas, 1998. Bartlett, R. D. & Patricia P. Bartlett. Guide and Reference to the Amphibians of Western North America (North of Mexico) and Hawaii. University Press of Florida, 2009. Bishop, Sherman C. Handbook of Salamanders. Cornell University Press, 1943. Lannoo, Michael (Editor). Amphibian Declines: The Conservation Status of United States Species. University of California Press, June 2005. Petranka, James W. Salamanders of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Institution, 1998. Corkran, Charlotte & Chris Thoms. Amphibians of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Lone Pine Publishing, 1996. Jones, Lawrence L. C. , William P. Leonard, Deanna H. Olson, editors. Amphibians of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle Audubon Society, 2005. Leonard et. al. Amphibians of Washington and Oregon. Seattle Audubon Society, 1993. Nussbaum, R. A., E. D. Brodie Jr., and R. M. Storm. Amphibians and Reptiles of the Pacific Northwest. Moscow, Idaho: University Press of Idaho, 1983. Joseph Grinnell and Charles Lewis Camp. A Distributional List of the Amphibians and Reptiles of California. University of California Publications in Zoology Vol. 17, No. 10, pp. 127-208. July 11, 1917.

Conservation Status
The following conservation status listings for this animal are taken from the April 2024 State of California Special Animals List and the April 2024 Federally Listed Endangered and Threatened Animals of California list (unless indicated otherwise below.) Both lists are produced by multiple agencies every year, and sometimes more than once per year, so the conservation status listing information found below might not be from the most recent lists. To make sure you are seeing the most recent listings, go to this California Department of Fish and Wildlife web page where you can search for and download both lists: https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/CNDDB/Plants-and-Animals. A detailed explanation of the meaning of the status listing symbols can be found at the beginning of the two lists. For quick reference, I have included them on my Special Status Information page. If no status is listed here, the animal is not included on either list. This most likely indicates that there are no serious conservation concerns for the animal. To find out more about an animal's status you can also go to the NatureServe and IUCN websites to check their rankings. Check the current California Department of Fish and Wildlife sport fishing regulations to find out if this animal can be legally pursued and handled or collected with possession of a current fishing license. You can also look at the summary of the sport fishing regulations as they apply only to reptiles and amphibians that has been made for this website. This salamander is not included on the Special Animals List, meaning there are no significant conservation concerns for it in California according to the California Department of Fish and Game.
Organization	Status Listing	Notes
NatureServe Global Ranking
NatureServe State Ranking
U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA)	None
California Endangered Species Act (CESA)	None
California Department of Fish and Wildlife	None
Bureau of Land Management	None
USDA Forest Service	None
IUCN

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