California Tiger Salamander - Ambystoma californiense

Neotenic California Tiger Salamanders have not been reported, due to the species' use of vernal pool habitats which do not allow larvae to grow into sexually mature paedomorphic adults. Where paedomorphic tiger salamanders have been found in California, they have been determined to be hybrids with eastern tiger salamanders. (Lannoo, 2005)

Robert Stebbins and others have reported that California Tiger Salamander larvae do not remain in natal ponds that do not completely dry out through the following winter, but evidence of larvae overwintering in Contra Costa County was presented in 2004. (Jeff A. Alvarez. Herpetological Review 35(4), 2004.)

Endemic to California.

My range map shows current, not historic distribution of California Tiger Salamanders. It is based mostly on information in a 2010 report (The State of California Natural Resources Agency Department of Fish and Game Report to the Fish and Game Commission) which uses data from the 2009 California Department of Fish and Game California Natural Diversity Data Base, which itself uses distribution data from a complete range-wide A. californiense survey made by by Shaffer et al. 1993.

The historic range of this species is not well known because it has been fragmented, but they were probably distributed throughout most of the Central Valley where there was suitable vernal pool and grassland habitat, from Tulare County north to at least Yolo County, and in the south coast ranges from San Luis Obispo County north to Monterey Bay and north, east of the Bay Area. Currently, most populations in the Central Valley have been extirpated, and the remainder are found in the surrounding foothills. Isolated populations now occur in the Sacramento Valley at Gray Lodge National Wildlife Refuge and near Dunnigan.

Sonoma County and Santa Barbara County Populations

California Tiger Salamanders in Sonoma County near Santa Rosa and in Santa Barbara County have been isolated from the rest of the species long enough that they may constitute unique species.

This species is protected by California State and Federal laws. The Federal Endangered Species Act divides the species into three distinct population segments, or DPS, two of which it lists as Endangered, and one as Threatened. These are the listings from State and Federally Listed Endangered and Threatened Animals of California list published by the CDFW in October 2021:

The Central California DPS

"The 2004 federal Threatened status originally applied to the species throughout its range; subsequent legal action resulted in reclassification of other DPSs to Endangered; the central California DPS remained listed as Threatened."

The Santa Barbara DPS and Sonoma County DPSs

"In 2004 the California tiger salamander was federally listed as Threatened statewide. The Santa Barbara County and Sonoma County Distinct Vertebrate Population Segments (DPS), formerly listed as Endangered, were reclassified to Threatened. On 20050819 U.S. District court vacated the down-listing of the Sonoma and Santa Barbara populations from Endangered to Threatened. Therefore, the Sonoma & Santa Barbara populations were once again listed as Endangered."


Estimated to have disappeared from more than 50 percent of its historic range. Many populations have been extirpated due to loss of or fragmentation of suitable habitat through urbanization and agriculture, and road mortality of adults during the breeding season as they migrate to and from breeding ponds across busy roadss. Eradication of California Ground Squirrels due to concerns about their effect on cattle grazing and agriculture may also threaten populations of this salamander because of its reliance on ground squirrel burrows. Predation by non-native Bullfrogs also appears to be a threat.



Hybridization with non-native Tiger Salamanders also threatens the continuity of this species. Fitzpatrick and Shaffer, 2007, found that when California Tiger Salamanders hybridize with non-native Tiger Salamanders, more of the hybrid offspring survived in the wild than did the young of the non-native Tiger Salamanders or the native California Tiger Salamanders. Ryan, Johnson, and Fitzpatrick, 2009, found that tiger salamander hybridization might even pose a threat to other threatened pond-breeding species.


In a (no longer illustrated) post on the public Field Herp Forum website on 7/20/2010, herpetologist Sam Sweet describes the problem California Tiger Salamanders face from introduced non-native tiger salamanders, and his group's efforts to eradicate the non-natives:

"California tiger salamanders are in trouble on several fronts, perhaps the most unfortunate being the widespread introduction of non-native tiger salamanders (Ambystoma mavortium ssp.) by bait dealers. Populations of A. mavortium are well-established in many places in central California, and are eliminating A. californiense by competition and predation as larvae, and by hybridization. The nonnative genotypes have the advantage in semipermanent ponds, and in places such as the Salinas Valley where they have been in contact with California tiger salamanders for several decades nearly all populations have been converted to hybrid swarms with dominant nonnative influence." ...

"We have caught this process at an earlier stage in the Santa Barbara County isolate, with nonnatives established near the edge of the range of the native species. For several years now a number of local biologists have been working to remove these animals. It’s a long process, and neither state Fish and Game nor the federal Fish and Wildlife Service has the personnel or resources to do the job in-house." ...

"These are big fellas compared to Ambystoma californiense. Ambystoma mavortium larvae don’t even think about metamorphosing until they are 8 or 9 inches long, and at least some animals will become sexually mature without metamorphosing. Those neotenes can exceed 12”, and are resident year-round, making short work of any other amphibian larvae." ...

"Like other Ambystoma the adults disperse widely after metamorphosis, and between breeding seasons, and thus they are able to hopscotch across a landscape fairly quickly. We once hoped that A. mavortium would stick to its native breeding schedule and migrate during summer rains, but they are a lot more adaptable than that, and now breed basically year-round. Having these things around simply adds to the problems the native species already faces from habitat loss, and it’s not a pretty situation."