Carnegie Museum of Natural History

One of the Four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh

forests

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Salamander Forests in Pa.

red eft salamander

by Patrick McShea

Within a Hall of Botany diorama depicting old growth Pennsylvania forest, a ferocious predator lurks amid dried oak, maple, and beech leaves. No snail, worm, or ground-dwelling insect is safe in the damp realm where this bright amphibian prowls.

The three-inch-long salamander is a red eft, the name given the land-dwelling middle life stage of the otherwise aquatic red-spotted newt. The creature’s solitary presence in the exhibit accurately reflects what you might hope
to see during a visit to a real old growth glen. At such a place, however, plenty of the eft’s near and distant salamander kin would almost certainly be lurking just out of sight.

salamander forest display

Pennsylvania supports 22 species of salamanders, the majority of which spend at least part of their lives foraging in habitat where trees, deep shade, damp leaf litter, loose soil, rotting logs, and mossy rocks occur. If the results of a 2014 University of Missouri study of salamander abundance in Ozark forests can be extrapolated to our region, the total biomass of salamanders inhabiting many wooded tracts rivals that of white-tailed deer.

Because these salamanders eat invertebrates that eat leaf litter, the abundance of the tiny predators helps forests to be places where a portion of the carbon pulled from the atmosphere by trees is stored in leaf litter.

Patrick McShea works in the Education and Visitor Experience department of Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences of working at the museum.

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Discoverers Expedition Vilcabamba: The First Helicopter Flight

The town of Pichari at the shore of the Apurimac River. (Photo Maira Duarte).
The town of Pichari at the shore of the Apurimac River. (Photo Maira Duarte).
Right before our flight, the team poses with the General in command of the Special Commando of VRAEM. (Photo Maira Duarte).
Right before our flight, the team poses with the General in command of the Special Commando of VRAEM. (Photo Maira Duarte).
Unloading the helicopter after a failed attempt to land into the heart of Vilcabamba. (Photo Maira Duarte).
Unloading the helicopter after a failed attempt to land into the heart of Vilcabamba. (Photo Maira Duarte).
The whole team and two accompanying officers of the special forces inside the helicopter in our way to Vilcabamba. (Photo Maira Duarte).
The whole team and two accompanying officers of the special forces inside the helicopter in our way to Vilcabamba. (Photo Maira Duarte).
A view of the Pichari river valley and the clouds beyond which lies the area where we want to land. (Photo Maira Duarte).
A view of the Pichari river valley and the clouds beyond which lies the area where we want to land. (Photo Maira Duarte).
Waterfalls drain the wet cloud forests of Vilcabamba (Photo Maira Duarte).
Waterfalls drain the wet cloud forests of Vilcabamba (Photo Maira Duarte).
Vilcabamba forests from above. (Photo Maira Duarte).
Vilcabamba forests from above. (Photo Maira Duarte).
The Apurimac valley meandering between the Andes and Vilcabamba. (Photo Juan C. Chaparro).
The Apurimac valley meandering between the Andes and Vilcabamba. (Photo Juan C. Chaparro).

On Monday February 22, the expedition team flew from Pichari to the highest area of Vilcabamba on a military helicopter provided by the Special Commando of VRAEM. Although the weather conditions prevented us from landing, we enjoyed a majestic landscape of untouched forests, sharp ridges, waterfalls, and the huge Amazon rivers.

José Padial and his team of researchers are traveling in the remote Vilcabamba mountains of Peru in the pursuit of biodiversity research. He blogs and sends photos as often as possible capturing his expedition along the way.