Great screenname by the way...I’d guess you’d be the largest amphibian on FR until the Chinese Giant shows up. :)
I used marbled salamanders in my ecology research in college (harmless research—just fed ‘em and weighed ‘em). Loved those little critters. I’ve spent many an afternoon traipsing through the woods of Pennsylvania looking for two-lined and red-backed salamanders.
I’m on board with this project. Salamanders are truly wonderful creatures and among my favorites of all of God’s creation.
Yes, and even though they are limp and slimy, any one of them has more courage and will to survive than all the Republicans in the Senate put together. I tried to keep a few newts as pets once, and they are surprisingly feisty. They would rear up out of the water and grab pieces of hard-boiled egg dangling over them.
I just rescued a Redback from an untenable situation this evening.
It had gone down into our root cellar [*very* old log house] and there is utterly nothing down there for it to eat.
I moved it up to the leaf-laden dirt dugout that goes down to the cellar where lots of tasty bugs live.
[and obviously, they rank very highly on my list, too]...:)