What Am I?

See if you can guess another animal that I saw on my Big Run hike a few weeks ago. (Here is a link to my other mystery animal from that hike.)

I have a backbone, like you, making me a vertebrate.

I live on land and breath air just like you do. But I don't have lungs. Instead, I breath through my skin.

I have legs, like you do. But I have four legs, not two. And unlike you, I am poikilothermic, or cold blooded. So I can't regulate my temperature myself.

I am perhaps the most common vertebrate in the forest. But people rarely see me because I am always hiding under something so my skin stays moist. Otherwise, I would suffocate. I need it to be cool and moist where I live.

I reproduce by laying eggs. But unlike most of my closely related species, I lay eggs on land, not in water.

I eat very small invertebrates, as I am a small animal myself - just a few inches long.

I have congressional districting techniques named after me - well, kind of!

Have you figured it out yet?

Scroll down.....



I am a terrestrial salamander.

(I think this is a red-backed salamander, just the "lead" phase)